With the weather warming and safety measures in place, it’s so exciting to see our neighborhood fully opening back up. Greenpoint Terminal Market is back in action for its second year, bringing local art, goods and flavors to the East River waterfront on weekends.
Currently, the market features the works of Mikayla Sherfy, founder and creator of the Greenpoint business, “A Perfect Mouse.”
Mikayla Sherfy is a painter and illustrator who specializes in creating artwork of real buildings she finds during her walks around Brooklyn. Sherfy is of the mindset that art can be found everywhere you look, even in the seemingly mundane or familiar, and she loves to capture it using ink, watercolor, and coffee. (Coffee? I know! More on that later.)
Sherfy grew up in Missouri and has been living in Brooklyn for the past four years, specifically now in Greenpoint for a little over a year. A multi-talented artist, Sherfy is also an actor and performer. She began exploring her fine art talent because of one particular coffee shop.
While working at a coffee booth at a festival (pre-pandemic), Sherfy befriended a co-worker who turned out to be the owner of the Ridgewood coffee shop, Cafe Moca. After Sherfy pitched her idea of making art for the shop, a special collaboration was underway. Sherfy got to work using leftover coffee grounds to paint over some of her illustrations, and before long, the shop walls were sprinkled with her work.
While her art initially came second to her performance career, once the pandemic hit and theatres everywhere closed their doors, Sherfy had more time to explore her artistry on paper.
During her walks around Greenpoint, Sherfy said she would often orient herself using buildings and landmarks to help navigate her way around. Combined with her mindset that art is everywhere, it wasn’t long before she decided to draw the buildings she encountered. At this point, she’s even resurrected entire blocks based on old photographs for commissioned pieces.
In addition to her beautiful line work, Sherfy has lovely attention to detail that makes each piece feel so unique. All things considered, it comes as no surprise that Sherfy is also the daughter of a writer and the granddaughter of a professional painter. Surrounded by extensive countryside scenery back home in Missouri, Sherfy said that her grandmother would often walk through the forest and touch the trees to properly capture the feeling of nature in her oil and acrylic landscape paintings. Artistry clearly runs deep in her veins.
So why “A Perfect Mouse”? Well – Sherfy has a perfect pet mouse who serves as her inspiration. Check out her Instagram, @aperfectmouse, to see examples of her art along with photos of Franklin, her small, fuzzy friend.
Sherfy intends to be at the Greenpoint Terminal Market every Saturday that she is available. If you can’t catch her work in person, visit her website to order prints or commission a painting.
