How long have you been creating?

Always, I have always been fascinated by color and line. Wonder at the world around us, the color, the life, the beauty beckoned me to try to start a dialogue with that beauty. To express the emotion that the beauty inspired in me. This is the passion, the voice, the thing that drives my work. When I was very young, I can vividly remember feeling there was magic inherent in a new box of 64 Crayola Crayons. I still feel this way each day when I enter the studio. I believe this feeling of wonder, and having fun and enjoying what you do is very important in any artist’s work. Also as a young teenager, I painted briefly in the studio both at Parson’s School of Design and The School of Visual Arts in New York. Before that even, I painted in the studio from life at The Art Students League of New York, with Joseph Stapelton. I returned to the League as an adult, painting first in the studio of Andrew Lukach, for about a year. Then I painted briefly with Frank O’Cain, and I have painted for the longest stretch of time with American painter and Surreal Abstract Expressionist William Scharf, who was Mark Rothko’s studio assistant. With William Scharf, I began to delve even deeper into the exploration of pure color, for the pure joy of it.

The League is a very interesting place to be, and I have since become a member. There is a website at http://www.theartstudentsleague.org. For quite a long creative period, I submerged my entire being into that tradition-rich idiosyncratic atmosphere of NYC creativity. If the halls could speak, they would tell of those who came before. Part of the charm there is painting in studios that have remained essentially unchanged for the last 125 years, where people like Georgia O'Keeffe, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Alexander Calder, Hans Hofmann, Paul Manship, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Louise Nevelson, Romare Bearden, Roy Lichtenstein have been instructors and students. I was also privileged to have Heinz Wipfler, the abstract expressionist, as a studio buddy and partner in one of this summer’s exhibitions of my work. This year, I feel I have reached a crossroads as an artist. I decided to maintain a professional studio where I could work daily. The studio started in my mind as a small working studio, where I could paint undisturbed all day. By lucky accident the space also evolved into an ongoing Summer exhibition opportunity! My studio became a featured stop on the “Third Thursday Gallery Walk” sponsored by the various cultural organizations of Saranac Lake, New York. Important to my work, I feel E-bay has been very inspiring for me. My collectors and fellow artists have done a lot to keep me inspired and to keep me creating and trying to achieve more. 2002 was a great year for my creative path as just this last September, I was asked to participate in an art exhibition, which was shown at Chicago’s womanMade Gallery (http://www.womanmade.org). This show was juried by Carrie Secrist (of Secrist Galleries, Chicago) and Christie Hefner (of Playboy Enterprises, Inc.). The show was called “The Political Woman,” and my work “Encore (What Time It Is)” was shown. Participating in this show was a great experience. Another important aspect of my process has been being an active member of EBSQ and EBSQ+ and participating in the shows and on the message boards. I was honored to win Juror’s Choice in two EBSQ+ shows, “Into Unconsciousness” and “Fractured Fairytales” and am proud to be counted among this vibrant group of artists. It has been a fantastic experience to be part of this supportive and vibrant artist’s community.

What other artists or movements inform your work/aesthetics/sensibilities?

Matisse was the first artist who knocked my socks off. I grew up in the NYC area, and had an opportunity to see a lot of very cool paintings from a very early age, and I think I took this for granted, but it did awaken my “eye” early on, I think. I saw what could be achieved, what was possible, and the impact of the actual work, being able to get up close to the painting and see the brushstrokes, to see all of that up close and personal, well now looking back I think that was really part of what turned me into a painter. Matisse was first, in his use of color and his fascinating compositions, so full of life and love and color. My mother Anne Palmer Schneider (alohaart on ebay and also a member of EBSQ and EBSQ+) is also a professional painter and was known even as a teenager for her work as part of the Psychedelic Movement in the 1960’s. Her artwork has evolved since the 60’s, and I find her work and her technical knowledge inspiring and a touchstone for my own creative inspiration. When I have a question about anything, I ask her first and she teaches me so much. My Uncle Louis Rittmaster has been an important inspiration for my creativity, as he is a sophisticated connoisseur of art and theatre. In the past few years, we have developed an artistic dialogue, which has helped me gain artistic confidence. Heinz Wipfler, the abstract expressionist and I also maintain an artistic dialogue, and I was lucky enough to paint with him in William Scharf’s s studio at the League. Other artists who inform my work are De Kooning for whose work I feel a special affinity, Picasso, whose work was much about seeing truth in a different way, Monet for his little pieces of pure color placed on the canvas so each square inch of a giant mural is a perfect abstract painting, Van Gogh for the wild energy of the dispossessed and for the color and texture there, and Rothko for the surreal use of color to communicate to us. I was lucky enough to paint in the studio at the Art Student’s League of New York with painters like Andrew Lukach, Frank O’Cain, and William Scharf, the Surreal Abstract Expressionist. I learned to follow my own path and I learned to paint from the heart, putting my emotion on the canvas. If it’s real, it’s all good. I think it comes down to that.

How would you describe your work?

I would say my work is evolving still, as I continually examine and reexamine the past creations, and incorporate them and try to continually achieve something meaningful in the studio. My work is a product of my own emotional content, and what started as a narrative has become the story of my life, continually moving forward, and continually evolving, changing, yet remaining true to my inner voice.

What are you motivations for creating?

It is what I do, who I am, why I am here I think, I could not imagine a world in which I did not create. It is how I express myself when all around me is very dark, and how I celebrate when I am on top of the world. When I am at the beach, I write and draw in the sand; when I am on the phone, I doodle on whatever might be sitting by the phone.

What do you find visually stimulating right now?

Shapes, color, light and darkness, sparkly things, capturing the light, that is the thing I am chasing right now, capturing the light.

You're a full-time and self-supporting artist--any tips on how to stay focused and dedicated to creating?

Being an artist is the hardest job in the world, and at the same time, perhaps the most rewarding if you have that sense of wonder. You give up a lot. It’s a sacrifice. But the work itself is it’s own reward, I feel that way. If you have the call to create, I would say believe in what you have to say, paint from the heart, and just keep going. Keep painting every day, let the work itself be your reward.

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and our collectors to know about you and/or your work?

I want to say thank you to EBSQ for being there and it has really helped me to be counted as a member of this group, any working artist should consider joining for the camaraderie, professional perks such as a fantastic website where you can showcase your art and your work, and for the vibrancy of the virtual community expressed, i.e., through the message boards and the online shows. I would like to extend a very special thank you to my collectors for making it a special creative year for me and for appreciating my work.