WHAT WOULD CHER DO? A Conversation with Shari Elf
Shari Elf
A self-described roadside attraction who makes good and sturdy art from trash, owns a museum devoted to crochet, and built a whole world outside the one the rest of us are handed.
In 2011 I somehow came across a What Would Cher Do? t-shirt and had to know who made it. That led me to Shari Elf, and to the interview you are about to read. Then years passed and I forgot all about her. Until one afternoon, wandering Joshua Tree with a friend, I stumbled into a complex called Art Queen and was transported into a wonderland, a roadside world of recycled folk art and a museum devoted entirely to crochet. Halfway through the best day either of us had had in ages, it hit me. This was the artist I had featured a decade earlier. I had never seen anything like it. What stayed with me was the proof of the thing: that if you really want to, you can build your own world and step out of the system the rest of us are told to live inside, and put your passions, your imagination, and your values first. That is Shari Elf. Here, at last, is the interview.
The Artist
Shari is a folk artist, clothing designer, musician, singer-songwriter, performer, and seamstress. She was born in Edmonds, Washington, moved to Maui at ten, and earned a BFA from Pacific Lutheran University, which, she says, did not damage her creativity too much. Since 1994 she has made her living from her good and sturdy art from trash, first at the flea markets of Los Angeles, now mostly through her website. She was a presenter at the 2003 TED Conference and the 2010 gift artist at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. There is music too: a 2001 debut record, I'm Forcing Goodness Upon You, and a band called the Kittens, named for the feral cat, Inky, who keeps her company while she works from her cabin in Morongo Valley.
The World Famous Crochet Museum
She owns the World Famous Crochet Museum, although, in a detail that tells you everything, she does not crochet. The curator, she insists, is a crocheted alligator named Bunny. Her little store and studio sit beside it inside Art Queen, the complex owned by artist Randy Polumbo, which also holds galleries, apartments, performance stages, and the fabulous Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum. The gallery shows a new artist every month. People now come to Joshua Tree specifically to see the museum, which she greets with a mixture of pride and wariness about what tourism does to a town.
Another Way to Do Life
Underneath the kitsch is something serious. Shari describes herself as being of service and living her purpose. In Los Angeles she went through phase after phase of people trying to build her music, art, and fashion into something for their own agenda, and she is quietly glad none of it worked. Her museum and store, she says, are a working example of another way to do life, one that does not follow the script the mainstream feeds us. What she loves most about Joshua Tree is its stillness, the clear air, the Milky Way most summer nights, and the chance, if you are not careful, of finding a coyote asleep under your bed.
I am right sized and following my bliss, with complete contentment.Shari Elf
In Conversation
Greatest inspirations or influences?
Leonard Cohen, kids and their art, nature, my cat Inky. I am inspired by a lot of things. I just keep my ears, eyes, and mind open and get inspired wherever I am. I get inspired at the local beauty school, where I go for a shampoo and blowdry every week. I get inspired by the locals in Yucca Valley when I am at Vons or Stater Brothers and want to take their pictures.
Most interesting response to your work so far?
Maybe it was Cher liking my What Would Cher Do? t-shirt, which Ron Zimmerman wore over to her house. Or, in 2001, just after my CD I'm Forcing Goodness Upon You came out, an email from a man who said he had lost his job and his girlfriend and was thinking of ending his life. He heard my CD, and said it gave him a new outlook. He got a new job, a new girlfriend, and that made me happy, even if he made all of it up.
Upcoming projects?
I am happy to be a featured artist in this year's High Desert Test Sites, the project started by Andrea Zittel, the world-renowned artist who lives in Joshua Tree. I am also planning a gospel revival, with a Southern Baptist church choir, to be held at the crochet museum. I once made my boyfriend stop so we could go into a tent revival in a small town in Missouri. I wanted to hear the music, because the people singing really have something to say.
Favorite websites, blogs, or publications?
I subscribe to a few fashion magazines for inspiration, W and Vogue I think, because I want to get back into designing clothes beyond the t-shirts. I make clothes for myself from recycled pieces I find at thrift stores, and often get compliments. I also love rawfamily.com, the Punk Kittens and Independent Woman animations at rathergood.com, and the gloriously named Museum of Bad Art.
Fashion icons, in your opinion?
Cher, of course. I do not follow mainstream news much, I do not have a TV, but I like people willing to take a fashion risk. I like to look at old ladies for inspiration, especially if they are wearing a hand-crocheted sweater.
Anything else you would like to share?
I once had a boyfriend who told me, you are weird, Shari Elf, and you need to just own it, and then other people will too. That has led to the most success for me, when I not only own that I am weird but really celebrate it. I am grateful to be different. It is easy to fit in and be like everyone else. It takes more courage to be yourself.
It is easy to fit in and be like everyone else. It takes more courage to be yourself.Shari Elf
About Antakly Projects
Antakly Projects has been in conversation with artists and creatives from around the world since 2003.
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