Sharon Sandberg of Illinois received her B.F.A. from Grand Valley State University and her M.F.A. in Painting from the University of Michigan. She has also done post-degree work at the Université d'Aix-Marseilles in France. Sandberg taught at Grand Valley State University until 1996 when she transferred to teach at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids. On her work, she writes: "For me, still life is a marriage of metaphor, arrangement and observation. Factors of choice, such as placement, point of view and lighting seem to “plasticize†this particular genre allowing the painter an enormous amount of freedom for abstract manipulation. In my paintings I strive for serene and lucid solutions to arrangement and color. I look for, and attempt to establish, relationships between very ordinary, often utilitarian objects, objects that have beautiful and functional shape, old objects, which seem to have a past. I am fond of objects and qualities such as: an antiquated wooden ironing board... vessels and containers... tools... the geometry of fruit... kimono and trees... patina... and empty space..."