Exhibit Open. See Some of my New Work. The exploration continues.

If you had a chance to visit the new exhibit at the Main Line Art Center

Drawing on acrylic sheet lighted by LEDs

image

New Exhibit @BMPC (625 Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr - Ministries Center)

       After a very long hiatus, and still working on the update of my website and a few very exciting projects, I come back to present a exhibit of small works. 

       A BOOK OF POEMS

These small paintings - nine - were created based on the poetry of a young Spanish poet, Victor Martin Iglesias. I chose poems and verses from his second book published in 2014 and transformed words and their meanings into an artistic expression that reflects the struggles that young adults often experience. Yellow, in all its hues, symbolizes the sunshine of a young life, while the threads represent the struggles. The gauze cloth represents care applied to the imaginary wounds and their treatment with soft, ethereal tender comfort. The last two works in this series, “Selección de Poemas” (Selection of Poems) and a portrait of the poet,  represent a departure and the need to move on.

       INVISIBLE CITIES

 These three works , from my Invisible Cities series, are a small sample of my current work.   I digitally manipulate images and drawings and laser-print them on Plexiglas that I later color. Using LED lights, I try to bring the invisibility of certain parts of cities to the viewer’s attention.

EXHIBITION NOW OPEN THROUGH JAN 1, 2017

OPENING RECEPTION- SUNDAY,  DECEMBER 11 @5 pm ( right after the Christmas Concert)

New Exhibit at Venturef0rth. Opening reception Thursday May 28 @ 6 PM

Please Join me in this fun opening this coming Thursday This is a a show of my new media work - LED Drawings

@ Venturef0rth Philadelphia

Line and Color

Opening Reception:  Thursday, May 28 @ 6pm

Come and visit until June 26.

Ventureforth is located at

417 North 8th street, suite 201, Philadelphia, PA, 19123. (@ Willow Street. One block North of Callowhill Str. )

You are Invited ... New Exhibit @ Rowan University Gallery

Simulate/Permeate @ Rowan University

LED DRAWINGS The Squash Players

Rowan University Art Gallery

Westby Hall, 237 Mullica Hill Rd Glassboro, New Jersey

January 20 – March 7 Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Wednesday, February 11, 5 – 7pm

LED drawings

As a counterpoint to the intangible nature of the digital and video art on display at the gallery and throughout the University campus, Maria Schneider’s LED drawings are deeply rooted in their physicality. In fact, they harken back to the most basic art practice of drawing. Schneider begins with a pencil on paper drawing, which is then scanned and laser printed onto layers of polycarbonate and illuminated with LED light. The drawings evoke a common experience and a familiar medium, but are transformed by the technological process to become something new.

http://www.rowan.edu/artgallery/exhibitions/current.cfm

A group exhibition of artists working with technology that explore the role of materiality, experience, and authorship in art.

New Work on Exhibit at "Art Encounters"

The Gallery at Delaware County Community College presents:

"Art Encounters: A Local Art Centers Exhibition"

Listen to the one minute  audio file...

Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 10 from 3 - 7 p.m.

Refreshments will be served 

On View: September 10 - October 3, 2014 | Monday-Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Art Gallery | Room 2305 | Academic Building

901 Media Line Rd, Media, PA 19063

www.dccc.edu/campus-life/arts/about

[audio m4a="http://mariarschneider.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/New-Exhibit-DCCC.m4a"][/audio]

A year's effort will be on Exhibit

The email came over the spring break. I was thrilled. Eileen Tognini, the modern art curator, had selected two pieces of my new work to be exhibited at the Main Line Art Center Exhibition Galleries from May 9 to June 6. Eillen Tognini is one of the most forward thinking curators in the Philadelphia area (CFEVA Board of Artistic Advisors; Drexel University.). It has been over a year of hard work for me. An idea that came to mind at a visit to NextFab many months ago, finally came to fruition. My brain is in constant search mode. Ideas come to mind at rapid speed, and that is what happened that Philadelphia summer. The laser printer and the electronics' lab I saw at NextFab seemed really interesting to go unnoticed. A rush of ideas and possibilities came to mind. But making those ideas reality was not easy by any stretch of the imagination.

Using traditional drawing techniques, I take my pencil drawings and transform them by laser printing them on transparent polycarbonate sheets, lighting them with LEDs, making the images glow. The images acquire a different dimension. I draw images that are familiar to me and my daily life? That was the start. You see some of them here. At the same time, I have always been fascinated by layers, real and abstract, and how layers change everything and add complexity to any work of art and situation. A light projected on an image creates a shadow. The shadow grows and changes depending on our position and the position of the light. Our perception of things changes the same way.  I print different layers on the sheets and these different layers create a perception of depth. The LED lights make the image float in space. In addition, when a light is projected on the image, this outside light creates shadows of the image on the wall. The perception changes as the light or the viewer moves.  Our perception of things changes as we look at situations from different angles.

You may wonder what happened with the bulls, my mixed media works.... They are still part of my exploration and my regular work. Holding a brush in front of a traditional canvas is still a wonderful struggle for me. But more about that in the next post.

On view at The Main Line Ar Center (www.Mainlineart.org) May 9- June 6.

In my studio..those fleeting moments of creativity

I have been thinking about creativity and my art, and how I come to create one image or another, one painting, one sculpture. I work in my studio in the wee hours, as you may know. There is something about these magical hours for me. If I can stay awake, there are no distractions, no pressures, no time. I sit in my studio, sometimes reading, others just listening to music. My mind is quiet, a little aloof. I will be thinking about a painting, a sculpture, all day long - how to change it, how to add something, how to make it as I feel it should be and then a fury of thoughts will rush into my mind, thoughts held from the day, waiting in my subconscious, ready to come out. These creative moments happen mostly at night because it is when I let my mind wonder, out of the mental to- do list. Those are my moments of creation, those fleeting moments where there are no boundaries, no constrains. An idea runs through and you have to grab it! Then, the real work starts. These ideas have to be put into concrete pieces. Crafting the painting, the sculpture, making it work will consume many hours and days. Experimenting, changing, adding, subtracting is part of the art. It is a struggle and I welcome it. It thrills me. Paintings and sculptures will hang in my thoughts all day, at the supermarket, at the pick-up line for school, while driving. [That is maybe why I like driving so much, you can get lost in thought.] And then, go back to the studio.

I have been working in different themes: The Economic Crisis has been a central theme...Se acabó la fiesta (The Party is over), Just Go (Carpe Diem). These are the pieces I have been working on…two of them have been selected to be exhibited at Philadelphia City Hall. More on that in my next post..

New Exhibit at Muse Gallery in Philadelphia

Muse Gallery,  February 3 - 26, 2012

Form the prints of "In Memoriam" to "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", I have been experimenting, following the tradition of the tapestry weavers, working with cloth, threads,oil paints to  capture the tumultuous times of our world.

Opening this Friday at Muse Gallery, Colaborative 34 makes art the with art pieces.  Every artist presented four 12" by 12" canvases to create a collage that transcends each unique image.  The results are stunning.  Come and see for yourself.

Join us for the Artist Reception, Sunday February 12 .  2 to 5 pm.

Muse Gallery 52 North Second Street, Philadelphia, PA

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" - A Walk into Abstraction

Some years ago, while I was studying  at the Art Students League of New York, my work was mostly abstract.  Back in Philadelphia, my work became more figurative again, but I never lost the taste for abstraction.  As an artist, it is important, I believe, to move from the comfort zones - what one does well and people like- to other territories where one can grow in unexpected directions.  From experiments in printing this past Spring, ( see "In Rememberance 1 and 2" in previous posts), I became enthuse with a theme that has been in the back my mind...mixed with event of our times. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"  written by Milan Kundera is the point of departure of this work .  It explores the ethereal nature of our life and circumstances...

All the work is on oil and ink on canvas and incorporates mixed media elements such as cloth.

My sculpture "American Dream" will show at Art Prize 2011

Art Prize, a radically open art contest in which people vote for the art,  will start on September 20.  My sculpture American Dream will be standing across from the Grand Rapids Civic Theater close by the Civil War monument.  I will make the trip, a pilgrimage for me, to install it and present at a panel at the Civic Theater.    As I explained in the recording I did for Art Prize, this sculpture made out of wood boxes is the symbol of socioeconomic turmoil around us. Some of the boxes are full, some are empty. For me, and many artists before me, the American Flag is a very powerful symbol. It represents all Americans. All over the world, it symbolizes the American Dream. But what is the American Dream? The sculpture asks the viewer Tweet his/her #americandream.   I have been monitoring and collecting  these tweets since I posted the tag  a few months ago.  The tweets have become much more political in the last two moths.  The phrase is all over now.  The flag is just the icon. You can follow me on Twitter @MariaRschneider.

The Art Prize contest runs from September 20 through October 9 when the ten winners are announced. Register and vote if you are in Grand Rapids.

http://www.artprize.org/artists/public-profile/92628

In Memoriam ( Monotypes)

New Works on Paper (Rice Paper, China Ink and Oil paint)

New Works ( In Progress ??)

The summer was quite interesting beaucase I traveled a fair amount. Traveling is a passion for me. I like to go places and see new, unfamiliar things. I enjoy nature, but I am really drawn to cities - human creations. I still walk with my head up, like a tourist even in my own city. I was able to visit several museums to zoom in a few paintings or sculptures, and several galleries in Europe and the US. It felt like fresh air in my face. I was not able to paint on a regular basis but when I got to do it, it felt like a furious pace. It was like getting out all the ideas brewing in my mind. Here are a few. Some of the works are conceptual since the they were done with a topic in mind: Freedom/ Democracy/ Independence with Venezuela in the background...others.. I will talk about them some other time.

American Dream

I worked on American Dream for a while. It all started with an empty box. It is a conceptual work.... The viewer becomes the participant. He/she is asked to Tweet his/her reaction, his/her thought about the the question at hand. Being a Tweet - only 140 characters allowed - constrains the viewer - actor- to reply in a quick thought. Even if the viewer does not physically responds, he/she would still think about it. The tweets can be collected and read by all. Viewers become actors and the process continues even after the viewer is gone. I posted the #americandream last Friday in my tweet account and there has been hundreds of tweets since then. It is quite interesting. ( For those not familiar with Tweeter or tweets a hash tag is simply a way for people to post tweets that have a common topic.)

And yes, I am still painting, but it is fun to create in different mediums. Going outside of the confort zones, one is free to grow in ways that did not know existed.

New Works

This is not everybody's cup of tea! From the Running of the Bull Market.... To Bull in Green . And the Dia de Toros - Hombres de Guerra..

What have I been doing lately?

WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING LATELY ?   You can see ... finally, "The Gathering"  (Women of  Timbuktu)  appeared, the city hides in the background.   I mentioned in a previous post that the city of Timbuktu was at the height of its importance in the Islamic world during the 13th and 14th centuries  as a trading post between West Africa and Europe and as a center of scholarship. Many of the texts used by Islamic diplomats who traveled between Timbuktu and Mecca, teach conflict resolution and tolerance.  We do not know a great deal about this city and its time.  These paintings reflect a past time deleted by the desert sand, but still alive. I have also been working on bull images.  Oh yes, bulls!  I finished the one below

and now I am experimenting..searching......reading about Crete and the Minoan civilization, labyrinths....

Marching On

This 24" by 48" painting was challenging because there are not rhinos around and I do not know this animal well.  At the Philadelphia zoo, there is only one rhino that shares space with the zebra.  The rhino comes out in the afternoon, and the zebra in the morning.  One has to time it if really wants to see one or the other.  (Commissioned work)

Women of Timbuktu

Women of Timbuktu

(SOLD)

This painting reflects the idea of a lost kingdom. The women seem to disappear in the sand of the desert. The mud building, a  great gem of antiquity, gets erased, covered by the sand.  We do not know who these women are as their faces have been deleted by time.