From Carolina Coast Online - June 9, 2020
http://topsailvoice.com/articles/2010/06/09/tideland_news/news/doc4c0fa3da13d64341216832.txt
From the High Point Enterprise - May 25, 2020
http://www.hpe.com/view/full_story/7626544/article-Seafood-scene--High-Point-native-s-painting-selected-for-state-festival-poster?instance=main_article
From Tidewater Gallery - May 2010
http://tidewatergalleryswansboro.blogspot.com/
From The Charlotte Observer, May 12, 2010
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/12/1422000/concord-self-taught-artist-recognized.html
From Arts Alive, May-June 2010
From News Times Online, April 28, 2010
http://www.carteretnewstimes.com/articles/2010/04/28/news-times/doc4bd5a7290f368652974757.txt
From the News-Times, April 23, 2010
April 15, 2010
WITN Interview with Sharon Kearns
http://www.witn.com/video
April 19, 2010
Press Release
Contact: Stephanie McIntyre
Executive Director
NC Seafood Festival Unveils New Poster and Introduces Artist
Pine Knoll Shores, NC—the 24th AnnualNorth Carolina Seafood Festival presented by U.S. Cellular, unveiled the original artwork for this years Festival at  the North Carolina Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. Artist Sharon Kearns is this year’s artist of the artwork selected by the Board of Director’s called “Today’s Catch”. Sharon Kearns, an artist from Concord, North Carolina, has spent summers on the Crystal Coast since she was a child. Her inspiration for “Today’s Catch” came from family trips to local fish markets to buy the evening’s feast.
Kearns’s body of work ranges in subjects and reflects her love of coastal areas, small towns, historic buildings, and sprawling landscapes. Her original paintings, illustrations, and limited edition prints can be found in galleries, as well as corporate and private collections along the East Coast. Kearns’s strong composition skills, infused with both imagination and realism, transports viewers to remote and overlooked places like an abandoned hunt club on the North Carolina coast or a beach path well worn by children’s bare feet.
Ironically, although she has always had a creative flair and a desire to illustrate, Kearns holds no formal artistic training. She graduated from St. Mary’s College in 1981 with an associate of arts degree and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in business communications.
“The Board was intrigued with the use of colors and the fact that the painting represented the local fish houses and the types of local seafood available”, stated Stephanie McIntyre, Executive Director. Artist from all over the state sent in paintings for the prestigious claim of Seafood Festival Artist. Only 1,000 prints are created and sold county wide at various frame shops and at the Festival office in downtown Morehead City. “We are pleased to have Sharon as our artist for this 24th year” said Dr. Denny Lawrence, Chair of the 2010 NC Seafood Festival, “Along with the incredible colors in the painting, I was impressed with the fact that the painting was inspired by her memories of visiting the fish house as a child growing up and vacationing in the area”.
Prints can be purchased by calling 252-726-6273 or visiting our website at www.ncseafoodfestival.org or from various frame shops in Carteret County. They will also be sold on the waterfront at the North Carolina Seafood Festival on the waterfront in Morehead City October 1-3, 2010.
April 2006
Beating the odds
Sue Thomas, inspiration for TV series, will speak at MS fundraiser April 19
BY JIMMY TOMLIN
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Sue Thomas, a profoundly deaf woman whose life already has inspired a television show, now makes it her business to inspire audiences. “I try to inspire and instill hope,” says Thomas, who will be the featured speaker at the Sixth Annual High Point MS Luncheon next week. An author and motivational speaker – and the inspiration for the PAX Television show “Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye” – Thomas was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about five years ago. “There will be people in the audience who have walked with MS a lot longer than I have and can teach me a lot more than I could possibly teach them about MS, and I admit that to my audience,” Thomas, 55, said in an email interview. She does, however, have a message worth sharing – and it’s not just a message for her fellow MS patients.
“I share that with my deafness and the obstacles I have faced all of my life, I have a track record of beating the odds simply because I don’t give up,” she said. “I want to give the audience the hope that no matter what we are faced with, it is our job to live life to the hilt – to make the most of what we have and to use our energy on the positive things and not waste the energy on the negative.” Thomas, an Ohio native who lives there still, lost her hearing when she was 18 months old, and numerous surgeries and experimental treatments failed to restore it. A speech therapist taught her how to read lips and form words. That allowed her to enter public school, but she struggled because her teacher often faced the blackboard – thus ending communication – and children ridiculed her because of the way she talked. Thomas found her refuge at a local skating rink and, with encouragement from her parents and a determined coach, she became a freestyle skating champion. She also took piano lessons and became an accomplished pianist, despite her deafness. After receiving her undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science and international relations, Thomas landed a job with the FBI, training deaf people to classify fingerprints. When a videotaped investigation went awry because the camera’s sound mechanism failed, Thomas saved the day by reading the lips of the people in the videotape,
SUE THOMAS, 2C
PHOTO FURNISHED
Sue Thomas (left), who has multiple sclerosis, is portrayed by Deanne Bray (right) in ‘Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye.’
This Gicleé print on canvas of “Hatteras Haul-out” by Sharon Kearns will be among items raffled at the luncheon.
SUE THOMAS An inspiration for TV series, she motivates people to succeed
FROM PAGE 1C
and that led to steady work in undercover surveillance. “It was no problem for me to stand across a room in, say, an airport where a deal was going down, and take verbatim notes on what the suspects were saying,” Thomas says. Her FBI work is what led to “Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye,”
which debuted on PAX Television in 2002. The show stars deaf actress Deanne Bray in the title role. Thomas says seeing her life portrayed on TV is “totally sur real.” “People have made me out to be a celebrity, but I am surely not,” she says. “If you want to describe me, I am a character – a character who loves life and loves to laugh.” She also loves to share her
Christian faith, something she has done regularly since she went back to school, attending Columbia Graduate School of Bible and Missions in Columbia, S.C. “For 34 years, I had hated my deafness, and it was in seminary that I came face to face with that hatred,” Thomas recalls. “After going through some tough times, I realized that I had never totally laid down my life to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Then I went to the foot of the cross and surrendered my all.” Thomas’ most recent challenge has been her battle against MS. She suffers with blurry, sometimes double, vision. She can’t walk very far without using a walker or wheelchair. Fatigue often overwhelms her. But she battles on. “Despite seeing the decline and realizing that I am slowing down,” she says, “my spirit still longs to fly, and that is what keeps me going.”
jtomlin@hpe.com
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