John Foxe Sheets
John at Point Reyes National Seashore, California
I was raised on a sugar plantation in Hawaii and have lived in LA, New York, and Paris. Now at home in San Francisco, I work in both glass and photographic mediums. The best camera is the one you have with you, so I use whatever is available, from iPhones to large format film cameras. Regardless of the capture method, I enjoy printing in palladium on hand-coated paper. My works have been shown in galleries, exhibitions, corporate spaces, and public art installations.
“I like seeing the world upside-down and backwards, one slice at a time. And I like reassembling it in the darkroom, on hand-coated paper. I’m happiest about my work when it is difficult to create – there is more satisfaction when a good print results from a difficult process, even though the ‘hit rate’ is of course lower. Lots of misses, but the successes (usually) make up for it. Lot’s of people think I’m crazy.”
The e is silent
I’m often asked about my name. I’m named after John Foxe, a distant relative on my mother’s side who was the author of Actes and Monuments, popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Meanwhile my grandfather was Millard Sheets, a founder of the California School of Watercolor, though it is likely far more people know his Notre Dame University mural, The Word of Life, popularly known as Touchdown Jesus.