Sharon McConnell-Dickerson’s “Cast of Blues” lifecast exhibit has taken her all over the world: Cognac, France; Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, are just a few places where her lifelike sculptures of jazz and blues greats have been displayed.

McConnell-Dickerson, a Como, Mississippi, resident, this week added Meridian to her list.

While those who flock to the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience’s highly anticipated opening this week will view the sculptures McConnell-Dickerson has labored to create for 18 years, she has yet to fully see them herself.

At the age of 27, McConnell-Dickerson was diagnosed with Uveitis and learned she would eventually lose her eyesight. She underwent numerous procedures and a few surgeries, and when she was 34, she retired from her profession as a corporate flight attendant and chef due to a loss of vision. Her eyesight has deteriorated over the years.

Her guide dog, Avatar, a black Labrador retriever, traveled with her to Meridian for the exhibit’s construction.

“It’s really been up until this year that I can’t see anything other than just a little, in the right light — I can see that’s white,” she said of a white sheet of paper during an interview. “In contrast, I see in shades of gray, black and white. Because I had so much reference to sight, I can put it all together and piece things together. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong. I always say I have just enough to get me into trouble and out of trouble. I rely a lot on other people to get me out of trouble now.”

McConnell-Dickerson, a native of New England, will have the distinction of being the first artist to have her work showcased in the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience’s Fred and Sissie Wile Changing Exhibit Gallery when the $50-million structure opens its doors Friday.

Forty of McConnell-Dickerson’s 60 lifecast sculptures in her “Cast of Blues” collection line the first-floor gallery’s walls. The lifelike sculptures and their detailed expressions are gripping. Artists biographies and quick-response codes accompany each sculpture, giving visitors a true multimedia experience.

“You can see a film of me doing the process of lifecasting and some of the musicians and their response,” McConnell-Dickerson, 55, said. “There will be music — a playlist — that has every single musician on it playing.”

McConnell-Dickerson began to create “Cast of Blues” in 1999. The process, she said, takes hours and copious amounts of patience.

Pull Quote

“The plaster and any other medium capture it and you can really understand muscle-bone structure, skin texture — the whole thing is amazing. Things you can’t see with your eyes, you can feel with your hands in this cast.” 

– Sharon McConnell-Dickerson, 55-year-old visually impaired artist

“It’s a direct casting method where you apply specialized molding methods directly onto the skin of the subject,” she explained. “The specialized molding material that I use is called alginate or skin-safe silicone, and you create a shell over that with plaster bandage, so that when the materials cure, you can remove it from the face.”

Although McConnell-Dickerson began lifecasting in 1999, art has always been part of her life. As a corporate flight attendant, she crafted exquisite in-flight meals for the likes of President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other prominent figures.

“I cooked fresh food on board — I wasn’t like your average flight attendant,” she said. “I flew on just seriously luxurious planes with all kinds of people…I also worked for Donald and Ivana Trump when the kids were little. I made a lot of hot dogs for Donald, and diet coke. The kids liked KFC.”

McConnell-Dickerson stands just over 5-foot tall, and cropped black hair rests atop her dainty frame. She moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1996, to become a student of art and learn under lifecasting virtuosos Willa Shalit and Dean Ericson. Shalit boasts a lifecasting resume that includes sculpting a handful of U.S. presidents, Paul Newman, Muhammad Ali and others. McConnell-Dickerson absorbed Shalit’s and Ericson’s expertise like a sponge.

“I wanted the best — I want to learn from the best,” McConnell-Dickerson said. “I just looked up lifecasting and their names came up, and they happened to live in Santa Fe. They happened to have done a lifecasting project for the blind of celebrities that blind people could touch and know what their favorite actor looks like. So, I thought, ‘OK, they did this for the blind, and I am blind and I want to learn this method.’ So, they agreed to teach me. Years later, Dean would assist me and take care of me during travel, and do technical work.”

McConnell-Dickerson lived in Santa Fe for a decade before relocating to Mississippi in 2006, in part, to better understand the artists with whom she spent so much time with.

“I had been traveling down here for years to do this work,” she said. “Many of the musicians are originally from Mississippi and other parts, but either they moved to different parts of the country or were born in different parts, the majority are from here.”

Having completed 60 sculptures in “Cast of Blues,” McConnell-Dickerson doesn’t plan on stopping. She will add more figures to the exhibit.

While many of McConnell-Dickerson’s subjects are now deceased, their legacies continue to live on through her work. Although her condition has prevented her from capturing a vivid view of those with whom she has worked, lifecasting has provided McConnell-Dickerson with a perfect glimpse.

“The plaster and any other medium capture it and you can really understand muscle-bone structure, skin texture — the whole thing is amazing,” she said. “Things you can’t see with your eyes, you can feel with your hands in this cast.”