Her work is a form of delicate storytelling with ink and paint, seen through a Native American lens of color, which results in graphically clean paintings.  She is fascinated by both strong lines and composition and seeks to convey feelings of comfort and ease through her art.  Through her art, she tells a story of resilience, which draws strength through historic photographs and ledger art, to champion Native American women and children.  Eva Flying Earth, Sheridan’s Hunkpapa Lakota grandmother, is a central figure in many of her compositions.  She also draws inspiration from the Plains and Pueblo artists of the 20th century, particularly those who studied under Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School from the 1920s through the 1940s. 

Sheridan has earned multiple awards for her work including First Place in the 2-Dimensional Art category at the 2018 Heard Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix, Arizona, and First Place in the Paintings, Drawings, and Graphics category at the 2018 SWAI Santa Fe Indian Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, New Hampshire, and Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, hold Sheridan’s work in their collections.

The image is inspired from vintage photo stock, perhaps late 19th century. The image is of a Lakota woman in what would have been a studio set up with props for the subject to pose. The fascination of Native people, in a time when Native Americans were being treated less than, in society, is a heartbreaking juxtapose. The repression of that time, and the strength to continue with dignity and strength, is the driving force in this piece. The title “Brave Heart Woman” or Canté Ohitika Win, in the Lakota language, is a homage to that courage. The eagle feathers are a symbolic reference to the power and prayer so needed in an era of repression

--Sheridan MacKnight

A self-portrait, in a sense, expressing vulnerability as a spinning quadrant, surrounded by protection; eagle feather, hawks, sage and gentle, but strong deer, symbolizing health. This painting was created during lockdown, the word, Sanguine is defined as eager hopefulness, and is also a deep red pigment, a sacred color. I loved the connection to a time of uncertainty, but the hope of better days.

--Sheridan MacKnight

My influence came from a photo from Horace Poolaw, such a beautiful sense he had in capturing the spirit of a generation in the mid 20th century. My painting represents an earlier time, the 1920’s. The subject is my Grandmother, Eva, who lived in the era of deco design, a new world post WWI and a Native American culture that was vanishing quickly in the opulence of the time. Her Lakota name translated in English as, Flying Over the Earth and was shortened to Flying Earth in the 1930’s.

--Sheridan MacKnight

This work depicts Native American children in their Boarding School Uniforms.  Sheridan's grandmother, Eva Flying Eagle, was sent to Carlisle Indian School at a young age.  Colonel Richard Pratt established Carlisle in 1879 with  the goal of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American culture.  The school would serve as a model for dozens of other Indian Boarding Schools, which inflicted deep trauma on Native American communities and culture.  

--Sheridan MacKnight

Native Americans lived in the Dakotas long before homesteaders. For the Plains people, individual land ownership did not exist. This original antique map was created in a time when White settlers claimed 160 acreage each of free and clear land, every acre was considered up for grabs. My family was later allotted the same amount of land, per family member, on what is now, the Standing Rock Reservation.

I pay homage to our resistance, and the irony of the ideals of land ownership.

--Sheridan MacKnight