Sheila Metcalf Tobin was raised with a southern flavor and an unwavering devotion to family. She started young tending the earth, harvesting and appreciating it's bounty and learned to deeply respect and love the tradition and culture of making by hand. The body of work that you see here began over 10 years ago when Sheila was enrolled in the MFA program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Following an idea, an image in her mind, Sheila made several drawings of fruit on small squares of plywood. Those small drawings and all that have followed have served to satisfy a need to represent the traditions of her family and commemorate the experiences that are the origins of her work.

Sheila lives and works in Berkeley, California with her husband and son. She and her husband collaborate on the design of the wooden forms, and he skillfully builds them in their backyard workshop/garden.