Meet Cherie Gerhardt . . .

by Tamara Walters

Pigs ears. I’m sure that’s what she said. I switch the phone to my other ear, and ask Cherie if she’s pulling my leg. She assures me this is true, naming the local butcher shop where she’d go to replenish her stock. Looking at Cherie’s sophisticated digital artwork, it is hard to believe that her early training as an artist involved using pigs’ ears as a canvas.

I’m talking to Cherie as she recovers from a bout with asthma that recently landed her in the hospital. Not yet having stumbled onto the Pig Ears Years story, I’ve been asking general questions about the ‘long and winding road’ that led to the birth of Mystic Moon Media.

Art has been a lifelong obsession for southeast Wisconsin native Cherie Gerhardt. Her earliest memories are of sitting in the hayloft in her family’s barn, sketching the horses. Throughout her youth, she followed her muse, creating exceptional pieces for her 4-H arts & crafts projects, entries to the Kenosha County Fair, and high school art classes. She lists the seeming endless array of media she explored along the way: oils, acrylics, pen and ink, colored pencils, watercolors, tattoos…

I do a mental double take. Tattoos?

Yes, the girl who dreamed of going off to college and joining the Disney team grew up to find that the fairytale ending was not feasible. Evaluating her options, she discovered the perfect way to get paid to do the creative work she loved. She became a tattoo artist.

I confess to a profound ignorance of the world of tattoo artistry. Cherie, with her typical enthusiasm for any art form, explains the journey.

Becoming a tattoo artist is not a simple process. Normally, there is a five-year internship, during which budding artists practice on anything with skin. Most often, they choose oranges or grapefruits. Cherie discovered that local butcher shops would often have leftover pig ears. The media was perfect, and the price was right. Oh, yeah. Gullible friends are a definite asset, too. “I did lots of tattoos on friends. And then I went back and fixed them all later. At least, most of them,” she adds with a laugh. Recognizing her exceptional talent, her employers allowed her to start working after only 18 months of training.

So how did Cherie make the transition from tattoos to owning a digital portrait business?

For years, Cherie enjoyed her work as a tattoo artist, but there came a point when she realized that she wanted to get back to more traditional media. She enrolled at Gateway Technical College and received her degree in Graphic Design while doing design work for a print shop. About this time, Cherie gave her sister a photo of her newborn daughter, digitally transformed a fairy. Enthralled, she showed it to everyone she knew. The response was always the same, “Can she do one for me?” As demand for her work grew, Cherie was able to quit her day job, and Mystic Moon Media was born.

Portraits are the mainstay of Mystic Moon, and a constant source of delight for Cherie, as well as for her clients.

Having begun her business by working from snapshots submitted by her clients, Cherie still does not make her subjects come to her studio for professional photos. This concession is especially helpful for clients who want portraits of young children or pets, who usually don’t sit well for traditional photography sessions. On her website, Cherie includes a list of pointers to help parents choose or create an optimal photo for the basis of their portrait.

What if it’s just not a great shot, from a portrait photographer’s standpoint?

Because of the amount of digital artistry involved, the photos do not have to be technically perfect to yield exceptional results. The first step is always to convert the photograph to sepia tones. This allows Cherie to correct any technical imperfections, such as heavy shadowing caused by poor lighting. She then hand-tints the photos so that they blend with her intricately created settings. These settings are most often scenes from the mystical worlds in Cherie’s imagination. She creates these worlds using a blend of digital art and photographic images from Cherie’s stockpile. Throw in a little expertly conjured PhotoShop magic and just a pinch of pixie dust, and the result is a Mystic Portrait.

Cherie also creates complex digital fine art pieces. Gregarious and engaging, Cherie is enthusiastic about sharing her techniques.

It begins with a sketch done using a Wacom Tablet. This tool is essentially a digital pen and pad, which sends the images she draws directly to the computer. From there, Cherie inserts her standard background, which took over 9 hours and a hundred PhotoShop layers to create. While she is proficient in an array of software packages, Cherie completes most of her works in PhotoShop, using the Wacom. She has included an illustrated detail of this process on her Mystic Moon Media website, as well as tips for aspiring digital artists and an amazing portfolio.

What is the inspiration for these incredible fantasy worlds?

The Renaissance Faire introduced Cherie to the world of the mythological and the fantastic. Hosting 1.5 million visitors, this local annual event is a mecca for those who love the worlds like those created by literary legend JRR Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings. When Cherie was younger, she would attend the event and soak up the magic in the atmosphere. Now, she has come full circle. Exhibiting at the Faire is one of her most important sources of commissions. Although the Faire doesn’t open until July, Cherie is already enthusiastically preparing for this year’s event.

With all her magical powers, can Cherie see into her own future?

Cherie laughs at the question. Life has taught her to follow where her talents lead her, but she is delighted to be where she is right now. A devoted mom, Cherie enjoys a career that allows her to devote herself to her family as well as to her muse.

As if on cue, Cherie’s real-life little fairy appears, looking for some mommy-time. As Cherie and I say goodbye, I envision mother and little daughter joining hands and floating off into one of Cherie’s otherworldly backgrounds. I smile to myself. Cherie didn’t end up becoming a Disney artist, but she created a fairy tale ending for herself, after all.

Cherie Gerhardt’s work can be viewed at http://www.MysticMoonMedia.com

Tamara Walters lives with her four teenage daughters in a cozy country home where she can never get a word in edgewise. Having given up trying to be heard, she instead spends her time writing and waiting in line for a turn with the hair dryer. An office manager by day, she spends her evenings driving the kids to and from their various commitments and trying to avoid cooking dinner. She feels certain she has other hobbies, but can’t remember what they are anymore.