Sonda Cheesebrough is a local artist and WVU graduate, with a BFA, emphasis in painting and an MA in Art. She taught Art in Monongalia County, most recently at North elementary School for 15 years.

Sonda is a storyteller, expressing her ideas by combining whimsy and color with the written word. A major influence on her art is essentially the children that she taught. Cheesebrough describes, “Children express positivity in the purest form on a daily basis. On the darkest of days, they pain rainbows usually without the rain. They draw suns up in the corner of their paper even though its against the “rules”.”

“It seems like suddenly on day, I found myself compelled to include all the colors of the rainbow in everything. It just seemed right, complete. it also brought me joy to see those colors glide off the end of my paintbrush.”

Reproductions of Sonda’s work are available in Downtown Morgantown at River Fair Trade and at Terra Cafe in Star City.