Sharon Meriash kicks off her black sandals and slides into a pair of waders, snapping the straps to a belt encircling her narrow waist.
She gingerly steps into a pond filled with water lilies, then pulls in her equipment – a sprawling-limbed tripod with one of her five cameras perched atop. Without so much as a ripple, she maneuvers herself and the camera a few inches from a half-opened flower, then snaps pictures.
There are no extra lights or props on the scene, only what Mother Nature provides. Meriash changes position for another view of the lily, lens within millimeters of petals.
She sees the world a little differently – a little closer – and always has.
Her signature photograph, titled “Flirtation,” looks more like an orange and purple sea anemone than what it is – an intimate look at the heart of a water lily.
“Shooting macro is my way of getting close to whatever created us. And I love when we print them really big (some as large as 50 by 60 inches) … that’s what sets me apart.”
She hopes her photographs, many mounted and sold at galleries, encourage people to observe everything around them, beginning with flowers.
A piece of that hope, she readily admits, comes from the fact that she is not the normal face of disability. Outwardly, she is a vivacious, 44-year-old who stops to chat with nearly everyone she encounters. She kayaks and bikes, and until recently, was an avid racewalker.
But the effects of a 1996 accident linger. A passenger in a car hit head-on by another driver, Meriash suffered severe brain trauma, she says, after an airbag failed to fully deploy.
For two years, she needed constant care, needed to re-learn simple tasks.
Meriash, who grew up in North Carolina and traveled around the country before settling in Denver 15 years ago, labored in the business world.
“The accident either shut down the corporate, consuming world of the brain, and, or … it nurtured that artistic part of the brain allowing it to bloom,” she says. “So I’m not managing 300 people, and I’m not getting yelled at because we only pulled in $3 million a month.
“But I am very passionate about what I do.”
During her lengthy recovery,
Meriash knew she would not be able to return to her former career. Her cognitive therapist suggested she start with volunteer work.
She was within walking distance of the Denver Botanic Gardens – convenient because she wasn’t allowed to drive – and, she says, she could pull weeds.
While talking with the volunteer coordinator, Meriash mentioned her love of photography, which began at age 6. She was introduced to the gardens’ director, who encouraged her to show her photographs.
Now her work is exhibited in several metro galleries and has a permanent place at Lakewood Visitor’s Center and the Malley Senior Center in Englewood.
Four, fiery red-orange poppies caught the eye of Richela Das, who bought the set. “It was called “Genesis” and that did it,” says the Denver woman. “It was right after my husband died, and he was a gardener. I liked the fact that it was an actual plant, a piece that was alive. That was the connection, through the flowers, with my husband.”
Since the purchase, Das and Meriash have become friends. “We hit it off. Her past experience and where she’s come from, the accident … we bonded. I see that same passion in her as I saw in my husband.”
Meriash also sells smaller items that feature her images: cutting boards, which are popular; tiles; notecards; coasters and boxes.
But the “biggest thing that ever happened in my life,” says Meriash, was being part of a 2004 international art exhibit through the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She’s also particularly proud of her participation in an exhibit a few months ago at Princeton University.
Her success hasn’t carried her far from her volunteer roots. Nearly every Wednesday, you will find Meriash in the underground orchid greenhouse at the Botanic Gardens, documenting each species as it blossoms.
Under the cool, artificial light of the room, where thousands of plants are pampered with frequent mists, she sets up a black velvet cloth and, as part of her volunteer work at the gardens, photographs portraits of the varied epiphytes.
The images are being used in the Botanic Gardens’ new information system, which will allow visitors to view the entire plant collection and also prepare a personal tour of flora on the grounds.
Meriash has been documenting the orchids – some rare, others that bloom only once – for more than two years. And she’s not done.
“I want people to look at flowers and know more and see more,” she says. “Just like how I want them to look beyond the outside of a person.”
…
On view
To see Sharon Meriash’s work or for more information:
Featured Gallery Artists
Through June 30
Kirk Norlin Digital Imaging
4428 Tennyson St.
Denver
303-477-1847
E-Motion
July 15-Sept. 9
Works inspired by music and motion.
Lakewood Cultural Center North Gallery
470 S. Allison Parkway (South Wadsworth Boulevard and West Alameda Avenue)
Lakewood
303-987-7877
Opening Reception: July 15th, 6-9 p.m.
For the Love of Orchids
Aug. 25-Sept. 23
Access Gallery
909 Santa Fe Drive
Denver
303-777-0797
Opening Reception: Sept. 2, 6-9 p.m.
Denver Botanic Garden’s gift shop carries smaller items, including tiles, cutting boards and cards.
1005 York St.
Denver
303-320-0417
HeartWoman Photography
heartwoman.com
