Art off the grid

Still Square

2012-01-16T12:04:00.001-06:00

portrait in rust

2012-01-04T15:52:00.001-06:00

Year End Review

2011-12-31T13:36:00.001-06:00

Greeting Card

2011-11-29T07:54:00.001-06:00

Haven't quite figured out what occasion this greeting card would be suitable for... any suggestions?

Outsider Artists? In the Burbs?!

2011-11-26T15:08:00.007-06:00

Harold Jeffries "People Are Smiling When
They Have Their Masks On," acrylic,
ballpoint pen, colored pencil, collage

Wayne Mazurek "New 2000 Camry LS Sedan,"
archival print on canvas

Luke Tauber "Clara's House - Market Square,
Leipzig circa 1830," watercolor, ink on paper

11.26.11 NOW SHOWING (until 12/17) at The Art Center in Highland Park, IL:

SHARE MY KINGDOM: Featuring work from Harold Jefferies, Wayne Mazurek, and Luke Tauber, three artists from Little City's Center for the Arts, a studio collective for artists with developmental disabilities, part of the larger Little City Foundation in Palatine, IL.

There were only brief biographies of the artists on hand the day I visited the gallery, but their work clearly expresses the artists' interests: Wayne Mazurek is a car afficionado, Luke Tauber works with images from the lives of composers like Bach and Handel and Harold Jeffries work is peopled by visions of humanity with philosophical titles like "People Are Smiling When They Have Their Masks On."

Most of the pieces are done with marker, colored pencils, watercolor, ink and graphite on paper and bring to mind work that falls into the category of "outsider" art. Work from each of the artists was digitally reproduced on large canvases - visually striking as part of an art exhibit, but it seemed to take a step away from the original work; maybe it just feels too far from the artists' handmade visions, and yes, I am assuming this was done by someone other than the artists.

Also at the Art Center: 12x12
This is a national juried exhibit of small works with some interesting pieces, including a lovely bronze foot (what else?) from Mary Seyfarth, that wonderful ceramic artist and sculptor who lives down the street from me and often has a parade of ceramic foot sculptures on the walk leading to her front door, which never fails to make me happy when I walk by...

Mary Seyfarth, "Moon Step," bronze and marble

Saturday's sketch

2011-11-26T12:51:00.000-06:00

Bookish girl

2011-11-16T08:06:00.000-06:00

Mapping it out...

2011-11-13T10:04:00.001-06:00

Reaching out to the masses

2011-11-12T08:44:00.001-06:00

No Comment

2011-11-08T15:42:00.000-06:00

me&willem

2011-11-01T11:05:00.000-05:00

Tuesday

2011-10-25T10:04:00.002-05:00

putting it back together

2011-10-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

Scenes from an Art Opening

2011-10-02T10:55:00.002-05:00

Group Show at David Gista's Gallery G in Glencoe, IL, Oct. 2, 2011

Birthday of the World

2011-09-28T22:33:00.000-05:00

Flourish

2011-09-25T21:35:00.000-05:00

unidentified growth

2011-09-21T21:23:00.002-05:00

Wednesday sketch

2011-09-21T12:04:00.000-05:00

2011-09-16T15:24:00.000-05:00

Trouble bouquet

2011-09-12T07:30:00.000-05:00

more graphic nonsense

2011-09-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

Google mind

2011-09-09T19:30:00.000-05:00

Pre-cipitation

2011-09-07T07:30:00.003-05:00

Mood Cloud

2011-09-06T05:30:00.000-05:00

Pinch

2011-09-04T10:26:00.002-05:00

Meeting Notes #24

2011-09-02T07:44:00.002-05:00

I feel your pain (Map of Vermont)

2011-09-01T06:08:00.000-05:00

Meeting Notes #23

2011-08-25T07:41:00.000-05:00

Meeting Notes #22

2011-08-22T22:53:00.000-05:00

Meeting Notes #21

2011-08-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

Meeting Notes #19

2011-08-19T12:16:00.000-05:00

Meeting Notes #18

2011-08-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted my meeting notes for awhile, so here goes:

face

2011-08-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

Sea Thing

2011-08-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

something green

2011-08-07T10:12:00.000-05:00

Friday

2011-08-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

red-faced

2011-08-02T12:01:00.000-05:00

July

2011-07-29T09:04:00.000-05:00

Wrathful Deity #7

2011-07-26T08:09:00.000-05:00

This one is actually on the custodial staff of the Wrathful Deity Pantheon; his job is to keep heads from exploding...

Wrathful Deity #6

2011-07-08T22:04:00.000-05:00

This Deity protects you from your inner monologue(s) when they get out of control. For the sake of my younger and more sensitive blog readers (you know who you are), I will not specify what exactly #6 does with those arrows in his hands...

commie goddess

2011-06-30T11:31:00.002-05:00

more propaganda

2011-06-22T17:25:00.000-05:00

Threesome

2011-06-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

Music across the water, with banjos

2011-06-15T12:46:00.000-05:00

palette cleanser

2011-06-07T11:33:00.000-05:00

(just a little something to refresh the eyes before the next course of the Wrathful Deities... )

Wrathful Deity #5

2011-06-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

This guy (or whatever) has the important mission of keeping you from giving away what you shouldn't be giving away.

Wrathful Deity #4

2011-05-26T22:59:00.001-05:00

The calling of this Wrathful Deity is to protect one from being revisited by the wicked self-loathing miseries of one's high school years. If you can't wait to go to your high school reunion you probably don't need this particular deity -- please pass it on to someone who does.

Wrathful Deity #2

2011-05-13T18:01:00.001-05:00

This is the goddess who chases away your self-hating thoughts about getting old. er.

I Love My Tractor #1

2011-05-07T15:27:00.001-05:00

22" w x 30" h (framed) acrylic and collage on paper
(I posted this before, but have made changes since so I am posting it again. So there.)
detail:

Produce More Stuff

2011-05-06T16:31:00.003-05:00

22" w x 30" h (framed) acrylic and collage on paper

The Women's Detachment

2011-05-05T09:12:00.001-05:00

22" w x 30" h (framed) acrylic and collage on paper
detail:

"Das Capital"

2011-05-04T08:54:00.001-05:00

22" w x 27" h (framed) acrylic, banknotes on paper, mounted on canvas
detail:

Heroes of the Working Class

2011-05-03T09:36:00.001-05:00

acrylic & collage on paper
22x30"
©Peggy Schutze Shearn

Wrathful Deity

2011-04-28T14:22:00.002-05:00

Decided to enlist the help of my own personal Wrathful Deity (portrayed above), a concept I recently encountered at the Rubin Museum of (Himalayan) Art. His job is to protect me from myself.

More about Wrathful Deities from the website Religion Facts

"An enigmatic aspect of Tibetan Buddhist iconography is the presence of ferocious, terrifying forms known as the wrathful deities. Though these hideous, hair-raising images seem contradictory to Buddhist ideals, they are not personifications of evil or demonic forces.

Rather, the wrathful deities are benevolent gods who symbolize the tremendous effort it takes to vanquish evil, the violence that is a fundamental reality of the cosmos and the human mind and protect the faithful by instilling terror in evil spirits.
Mahakala statue

In Sanskrit, the wrathful deities are known as dharmapalas, which means "defender of the dharma." In Tibetan, they are drag-gshed, meaning "cruel, wrathful hangman."

....Images of the wrathful deities are kept in the homes and temples of Tibetan Buddhists to protect them against evil influences and remind them to destroy passion and evil in themselves. In general Buddhist practice, sculptures and thangkas are intended as temporary dwellings for the spiritual beings into which Buddhism projects its analysis of the nature of the world. They are thus not just aesthetic objects but actual dwellings for the energies projected into them with the aid of mantras. The power of those energies Mahakala thangka can then be directed towards the Buddhist goal. The wrathful deities, though benevolent, are represented in visual arts as hideous and ferocious in order to instill terror in evil spirits which threaten the dharma.""

Park Slope, Brooklyn

2011-04-16T14:43:00.000-05:00

portrait of a painter

2011-03-17T15:42:00.002-05:00

blowing it

2011-03-16T08:12:00.001-05:00

oh yeah

2011-03-07T11:24:00.000-06:00

melody and lyrics

2011-03-01T11:24:00.000-06:00

The Machine

2011-02-27T22:49:00.002-06:00

too many tv's

2011-02-21T22:04:00.001-06:00

Ravine Beach

2011-02-18T13:15:00.001-06:00

36x20" acrylic painting

foggy conversation #57

2011-02-14T19:53:00.003-06:00

life

2011-02-13T10:57:00.000-06:00

what language is this?

2011-02-11T08:10:00.002-06:00

oops

2011-02-08T11:26:00.000-06:00

this one was too big for my scanner...

Monday's sketch

2011-02-06T22:03:00.002-06:00

mask

2011-02-04T09:15:00.000-06:00

just south of LA

2011-02-02T17:50:00.000-06:00

if only...

2011-01-26T08:14:00.000-06:00

Pablo had had me around to doodle on top of all his work....

sample #3

2011-01-25T10:14:00.002-06:00

apologies to the man

sampling...

2011-01-23T21:33:00.000-06:00

Lee Krasner

sampling Dubuffet

2011-01-22T18:02:00.000-06:00

If DJs can do it, why can't visual artists sample, too?

I Heart My Tractor

2011-01-20T17:16:00.004-06:00

doodle

2011-01-18T18:02:00.000-06:00

commentary, acorns

2011-01-16T11:57:00.000-06:00

daimon redux

2011-01-15T15:39:00.000-06:00

Actually, this is how I painted it. The original title is: My Wild Streak.
This works better, yes?

wild streak/daimon

2011-01-14T08:34:00.000-06:00

the hammer and the butterfly

2011-01-12T14:28:00.002-06:00

Mother Teresa, the dog

2011-01-10T09:57:00.000-06:00

1996-2011

Four

2011-01-10T09:46:00.000-06:00

first drawing of 2011

2011-01-01T09:24:00.002-06:00

ego

2010-12-30T09:55:00.000-06:00

acrylic on canvas 16x20

old ladies, Bourgeois or not

2010-12-27T19:27:00.000-06:00

apologies to RM

Christmas letter

2010-12-23T00:01:00.000-06:00

mandala

2010-12-17T09:27:00.001-06:00

you heard of the Loch Ness?

2010-12-14T10:08:00.000-06:00

This is the Happy Ness

Urban Scrawl

2010-12-13T11:24:00.001-06:00

You can hear my brother Jim Schutze, a political columnist for the independent paper the Dallas Observer, in this story that aired on NPR's Morning Edition this morning (12/13/10), here.

Why you would want to do that, I don't know, but it was fun to hear my brother's voice come on the radio this morning....

doodles

2010-12-11T14:01:00.002-06:00

what lurks in the mind...

2010-12-10T08:03:00.000-06:00

just Wednesday

2010-12-09T00:26:00.000-06:00

on omelettes and art

2010-12-07T10:43:00.000-06:00

Taking a workshop that combines mandala making, yoga and journaling. Last month the concept was destruction and creativity. We began by breaking plates...

Closed box showing front (top)

detail of opened box

detail (inside)

lipeyes

2010-12-03T21:44:00.001-06:00

it's grey outside

2010-11-30T19:58:00.000-06:00

eye flame

2010-11-30T08:45:00.002-06:00

fingerprint

2010-10-31T22:49:00.000-05:00

serotonin imbalance

2010-10-20T22:33:00.000-05:00

more leaves....

2010-10-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

found on the sidewalk

2010-10-07T10:15:00.000-05:00

more nature-y stuff

2010-10-04T20:28:00.000-05:00