KATHLEEN SCHNEIDER
Artist Statement
The passage of time is the overriding theme of my current work. Three years in a life – a measure of time. Three years in the studio, three years of the physical body moving through time on earth, three years of hearing news posturing global environmental, social, and political gloom. What small thing can I as an artist do when being an innocent bystander to the intractable, systemic, and seemingly insurmountable problems of the world is no longer acceptable? My answer is to strive to make work that provokes thought and provides pleasure while giving voice to an aspect of the social and political climate in my proximity.
I live in a state with a border - Vermont. I live in a stunning natural environment – Vermont. Disparate phenomenon that I‘ve conjoined to act as impetus for making art at this time: borders and birds – immigration and migration. Two phrases stuck in my head over time – No Borders, No Fences, No Walls (from a Robbie Robertson song) and Bird Over America (a recurring image from observing migratory birds while walking along the shore of Lake Champlain) served to focus my attention on a limited number of formal concerns – line, color, movement, levity, and tactility. These phrases were made tangible in two artworks composed of three-dimensional text that act as chorus and anchors for a group of textile-based abstract sculptures.
In all work made during this time I have limited the visual forms, materials and my process for manipulating them to coincide with the incremental nature of days passing. Geometric linear structures – rectangles, ellipses, diamonds – are made by accumulating lines into imperfectly gridded surfaces that accrue textile and color through repetition of manual labor. All works are made employing a simple and distinctive fabrication process - knotting half-hitched strips of wool felt over semi-rigid lengths of wire.
Past Solo Exhibitions: Bird Over America, 2018
Past/PRESENT, 2015 Recent Work, 2012 Petals and Wings, 2010
Toil And Spin: New Sculpture, 1998
Past Group Exhibitions: Eleven x Seventeen, 2019
Women On The Line, 2017
Who Cares?, 2017
National Members Exhibition, 2016
Wish you were here, 2015
A.I.R. ReFreshed, 2015
Unframed, 2015
Wet Paint, 2014
National Members Exhibition, 1995 National Members Exhibition, 1997