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Jay Sharpe in his Glen Allen home; figurative artist Alex Bostic, a former VCU illustration professor, gave Sharpe this painting when Bostic moved away from Richmond.
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Sharpe’s wife, Tracy, who works in IT at VCU Health System, also has a creative side and painted a series of three abstract acrylic paintings (one of which is shown here) that hangs in an upstairs bathroom.
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“This is one of my all-time favorites,” says Sharpe of his oil painting “A Man in a Box,” which is part of a series he painted as an art student at VCU.
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In the living room, Richmond potter Carren Clarke-Mcadoo’s ceramic masks hang on the wall. “She does terrific pieces, and her stuff is really cool,” says Sharpe.
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Richmond sculptor and good friend Paul DiPasquale gave Sharpe a plaster sculpture for his birthday years ago.
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In an upstairs bedroom, Sharpe’s series of three ink illustrations of African faces hangs above the bed. Recently Sharpe recreated one of the drawings, adding color to the new version.
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Local sculptor and friend Tom Chenoweth forged the metal base of Sharpe’s dining room table, and Sharpe topped it with a salvaged Thalhimers’ warehouse door.
Inside jeweler Jay Sharpe’s two-story house in Glen Allen’s Mountain Glen neighborhood, artwork by friends, family and fellow artists fill the space — ceramic masks by potter Carren Clarke-Mcadoo, paintings by figurative artist Alex Bostic, a dining table created by sculptor Tom Chenoweth.
Sharpe’s walls also are adorned with paintings from his time at Virginia Commonwealth University and his post-college years. A vibrant abstract painting, “A Man in a Box,” hangs in the foyer. The piece, which he created during his art school days, is Sharpe’s reminder to continue to evolve as an artist.
“It’s about being boxed in and about creatively pushing the boundaries,” he says. “For me, even then it was about exploring other things. It’s a prominent thought that has come back. I need to push myself to the next level.”
Since closing his Carytown jewelry store in 2015, Sharpe is experimenting with other art forms. Recently, he painted a series of angels for his 7-year-old daughter Henlea’s room, and he has recreated old ink illustrations using color. “Media-wise, I did painting, pottery and jewelry in college,” says Sharpe, “and I need to do all of them to a degree to feel complete.”
Born and raised in Richmond, Sharpe grew up in the West End and then Eastern Henrico, where he attended Highland Springs High School. He attended Chowan University in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, before he was accepted into VCU’s art program, where he pursued his love for jewelry design.
Sharpe graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a focus on metalsmithing and fine jewelry. When he was a senior in college he rented his first studio at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. He intended to stay in the space for a year, but stayed at the art center for a decade, teaching classes for children and adults and launching his career as a prominent jeweler.
In 1999, Sharpe left VisArts to open his Carytown shop, which he ran for almost two decades. He closed his store when he realized it was time for a new chapter in his creative life. “Now it’s me doing my own pace of artistic work,” he says.
Sharpe has come full circle, and is again making jewelry at VisArts in a studio neighboring his original space. “The spirit of supporting artists is still here,” he says of the art center, where he also teaches classes. “They rally around it.”
When Sharpe leaves his studio and goes home, he changes gears. He grabs a paintbrush or pencil and creates a new piece of artwork. In his artistic journey, Sharpe is at a turning point — a moment of reinvention, experimenting with new forms of expression.
“I’ve always been a forward thinker,” he says of his new chapter. “I ask myself about my work artistically — did I push myself, and push the boundaries?”
