Artist Statement:
Approaching art history with a flair for abstract expressivity and a designer's confidence in choreographing fundamentals of color and shape, Schwartz wields a palette knife along with brushes to animate prismatic color stories in thickly applied oil paint. Her Crystal Auras series are opalescent mixed media paintings created with countless layers of acrylic saturated with mica, interference pigment, and natural minerals that glisten like geodes, and bounce light across their auric topographies. Her largest project, Ricordi d'Italia, merges her explorations of the mellifluous properties of color, light, and surface with direct inspiration drawn from travels to Italy. While these paintings still possess the ethereal presence of Crystal Auras, they demonstrate a more formally definitive, architectural sensibility, being derived from photographic source sketches highlighting geometric details culled from vistas and ruins. At the same time, operations of memory, deconstruction, and fantasy combine to render them in an abstract language, producing moody palimpsests and evocative scenic impressions. With Burst, Schwartz's newest collection, we see small, intimate sections of works from Ricordi d'Italia enlarged into wholly new paintings -- gestural compositions whose exotic rhythms are deeply influenced by her studies of Asian Sumi-e ink painting, which reveal their inner lives as she teases their essences forward from within their faceted depths.
Education:
Univ. of Oregon, Bach. of Science in Graphic Design
Gemological Ins of America graduate in jewelry Design and Gems.
Awards & Distinctions:
Liquitex artist of the month
First andSecond place Pacific Palisades Art Assoc.
Artsy Shark 1st place. Art for Healing
Professional/Teaching Experience:
25 years as a custom jewelry designer.
Sumi-e volunteer teacher grades kindergarten - 12.
Exhibitions:
2011 Xanadu Gallery.com
2011
Rheeway Gallery
Group Show
Los Angeles, Ca
2010
L.A. Art Exchange
Group Show
Santa Monica, Ca
2010 Charlie’s Ocean Front Gallery
Group Show
Marina del Rey, Ca
2010 Jeffrey Crussell, Santa Monica, Ca
Featured painting, Moon Glow in the book titled, Santa Monica
2010 Aleatoricart.com
Paintings featured in the book, Aleatoric Art
2010 Brentwood Art Center
Group Show
Santa Monica, Ca
2010 Orange County Center Contemporary Art and Jeffrey Crussell
Group Show, “Santa Monica- The Art of Summer”
Orange, Ca
2010 Santa Monica Airport Artwalk
Group Show
Santa Monica, Ca
2010 Phantom Gallery
Long Beach, Ca
2010 Lark Gallery Online
e-exhibition
Group Exhibition
‘Reaching Inside competition’
2009 Saint John’s Health Center
Community Art Gallery
Group Exhibition “Life is a Celebration”
Santa Monica, Ca
2009 Semi Precious
Retail store
Santa Monica, Ca
2009 Saint John’s Health Center
Community Art Gallery
Group Exhibition “Spirit of Place”
Santa Monica, CA
2009 Larkgallery Online
e-exhibition
“Art without borders”
Group Exhibition
2008 Le Nour
Retail store
Santa Monica, CA
2008 Art in our Community
Wachovia Bank
Pacific Palisades, CA
2008 Group Exhibition
2nd Street Framing
Los Angeles, CA
2008 Liquitex Artist of the Month
Liquitex Paint Company
Liquitex.com
June 2008
2008 Group Exhibition
Brentwood Art Center
Los Angeles, CA
2007 Group Show
Jury Competition
2nd Place “First Light”
Pacific Palisades Art Association
Pacific Palisades, CA
2007 Group Show
Brentwood Art Center
Los Angeles, CA
2007 Solo Exhibition
Decorative Sleep
Beverly Hills, CA
2007 Group Show
Jury Competition
Pacific Palisades Art Association
Pacific Palisades, CA
2006 Group Exhibition
2nd Street Framing
Los Angeles, CA
2006 Solo Exhibition
The Nest Egg
Pacific Palisades, CA
2005 Solo Exhibition
Pacific Palisades Library
Artistic Influences:
My latest series was inspired by my trips to Italy. Artistic influences are seeing what is around me both in nature and what man has created. When your eye is really trained to see not just what is on the surface but what is inside and hidden, opens up a whole new world. I love color and having been a Jewelry designer for 25 yrs has pumped up the colors I paint with because of all the gems I have used in my work.
Artist Tags:
abstract, contemporary, colorful, multi textured, modern, large
