Sheryl Oring

Sheryl Oring is an artist and writer whose work explores issues related to the First Amendment as well as language and memory. Her book “I Wish to Say (The Birthday Project)” featuring birthday greetings to President Bush and photographic portraits of the people who sent them, was published this spring by Quack!Media.

Oring initiated the “I Wish to Say” project in 2004 as a commissioned artwork for the First Amendment Project in Oakland, Calif. Peter Jennings named her “Person of the Week” on ABC’s World News Tonight for her work on the project during the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004.

Oring has worked as a reporter and editor at publications including the New York Times; the International Herald Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has received fellowships from the Creative Capital Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Puffin Foundation and the Robert Bosch Foundation; held a residency as part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program; and exhibited in museums, cultural centers, galleries and public spaces in the United States, Europe and India. Originally from Grand Forks, N.D., Oring now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

A collection of postcards to the next president and photos of the people who sent them will be exhibited at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum in Chicago this fall.

Oring maintains her own blog, I Wish to Say and website, and can be reached at “oring@iwishtosay.org.”