As a fifth generation Californian, Cheryl Barnett grew up enjoying the arts in San Francisco with her family (SF Symphony, ACT Theatre, SF Ballet). Her mother was a professional pianist who traveled to Europe often (almost every summer). She considers her mother’s love of music and travel as an influence that inspired her interest in art. A variety of university extension programs offered several opportunities to study art and music here and abroad. The great art collections of Paris: the Musee d’Orsay, the Musee Picasso, the Uffizzi in Florence, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, and many more, all made a lasting impression on young Barnett to dedicate her life to art. So excited by her travels, she studied German for 5 years prior to living in Vienna, Austria, the summer of 1976 to study art history. 

     Her college years were spent at UC Santa Cruz (BA), San Jose State University and CSU Fresno (MA), where she focused on bronze casting with international sculptors Jack Zajac, Nick Jonk and Fletcher Benton.

     While living in the San Francisco Bay Area, art became her entire focus. Working as a Patina Specialist for 3 years at ARTWORKS Foundry & Gallery in Berkeley, she became friends with some of the famous artists who came there to cast their works. Using these facilities, she continued producing a significant body of bronze sculptures while keeping a studio right next to the bronze foundry. Even after receiving a teaching contract at Merced College in 1988, she continued to maintain her art studio and foundry production in Berkeley. 

     In the mid-1980’s, Barnett’s work was noticed by the Meyerovich Gallery at ARTWORKS Foundry who invited her to exhibit alongside several significant artists in San Francisco (231 Grant Avenue); first with the famous Italian artist Mimmo Paladino, and then later with the British/LA painter David Hockney, while being paired in one room with the works of Pablo Picasso. In 1990, Eleonore Austerer invited Barnett to show in her beautiful new San Francisco Gallery (540 Sutter Street) and years later in her Palm Desert Gallery (73-660 El Paseo Drive). Their business relationship and friendship flourished for two decades. 

     Austerer often displayed Barnett’s sculptures next to famous 20th century modern master's prints or with contemporary painters. Austerer’s exacting quality and stylish flair was such a magnet (being from Vienna, Austria herself and later Spain), her stable of European artists often appealed to an international group of art buyers and Barnett’s works joined collections in Belgium, England, France, Switzerland, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China and here in the US. In 2004, Austerer featured a show titled “Studies of the Human Figure,” with prints and tapestry by the renowned British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986) paired with bronze sculptures by Cheryl Barnett. In her last two exhibits, buyers came back from Switzerland, Belgium and New York City to purchase a second and third Barnett for their collections. 

     Barnett’s exhibition record is extensive, but mostly regional. In 1998, Malcolm Rogers, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, selected "Parted II" by Barnett to award “The National Sculpture Prize” in Cambridge, MA (from 4500 entries). Over the years numerous juried group exhibitions were intermixed with several shows in a variety of corporate headquarters, along with five significant charity art auctions. During the height of the economy, Barnett was showing in four California Galleries: San Francisco, Palm Desert, Carmel and Bass Lake. 

     She continues to keep a live/work place in Merced, CA and in the SF Bay area. Eleonore Austerer passed in August 2009 and her husband Mark Williams continues to run their art business in Palm Desert and to represent Barnett’s work.