Sharon Leong

Sharon and Her Porthole Paintings…

Back in 2002, my sister Sharon became interested in portholes on cruiseships. She had the romantic notion that one can peep inside a porthole to view a slice of life(disregarding the fact that there are curtains for portholes to prevent such intrusion).

Once Sharon gets a hold of an idea, she uses her creative talent to exploit the endlesspossibilities of what people are up to on the other side of the porthole. She decided todo a series of porthole paintings with the common theme of “You’re not alone” to advertise the lack of privacy that a porthole can generate. So beware of what one does when assigned a room with portholes on a ship!

She completed 28 porthole paintings from 2002 until 2019 (she passed away on 6/2/2019.) Six paintings were undated, but I managed to find the years of three of thesefrom the CDs she left behind.

Her subjects came from her personal life and the celebrated denizens that gave (and give) San Francisco its unique charm. There were also a couple of actors that she fell heads over heels over, not so much as themselves, but who they portrayed in their television series.