The Artist

Sharon is an art lover and it infuses all she does.

Bishop T.D. Jakes nicknamed her “the Picasso of the Pen” and she agrees that her inspiration often comes from artists like Monet and Jean-Michel Basquiat, or even dancers like Judith Jamison.

Over the past three years, she has become interested in Ethiopian medieval art and religious icons like those on display at the Walters Museum in Baltimore.

Things have come full circle, though, as she has recently felt inspired by her writing to pick up the paintbrush.

Music also moves her. While writing The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Parts 1 and 2, she found herself particularly drawn to the works of composers like Ennio Morricone and Thomas Newman, and artists as diverse as Leontyne Price, Prince, Mahalia Jackson, Israel Houghton, and Keyshia Cole. Movie scores helped her design and build the architecture of the stories, while the work of individual artists or songs—like Lift Up Your Head by Dietrick Haddon—helped her develop themes and characters.