ROSEMARIE SCHILLER
EDUCATION:
School of Social Work, Zurich, (Switzerland) / Atelier du Midi, St. Jean de Buèges, France / Education Créatrice, Arno Stern, Paris, (France) / Greenwich House, New York City, (USA) / Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, (Mexico) / The Art Student League of New York, New York City (USA)
ABOUT:
I have had the good fortune of living and experiencing a good part of my life on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. Over time, I also spent many months on the road, exploring different countries/cultures and environments, being touched by encounters with people of very different backgrounds and lives than my own.
My deep connection with the natural world – camping out for long stretches of time in the deserts of Mexico and the American South-West – has brought me the greatest joys and insights. I have experienced heights and limits of human survival in raw nature. And my eyes were opened to the facts of how things really are: we are the intruders, and we do have to become the caretakers of this planet.
For years now, New York City and the East End of Long Island have been my home base, where I find time and peace of mind to ‘digest’ and create my own visual expressions.
I use various materials, and each one is of great importance to me:
Working in CLAY - my all-time favorite – has been a lifeline for many years. FEET, FACES and DINO EGGS are results of many years of improvising in search of an authentic expression of my insights. The process of sawdust-smoking the clay pieces in a second firing was illuminating to me. It taught me the art of ‘letting go’ of ambitiously controlled results and embracing the natural way ‘things’ evolve and look. The FEET are all survivors who have gone through life (and fire) and are still going strong. It is about coming to terms with one’s own life as it develops and really is: in constant flux.
While explorations in clay do need a sedentary lifestyle, a notebook and drawing pads, pen and colors are easy companions when you travel a lot. Drawing and writing my stories have always been part of my life. As a young child I invented STORIES and began to write in little lined secret booklets about my own grievances and joys and what I saw out there. All this was of no interest to others. I was my only witness. To this day, writing is a constant in my life.
La Catedral by Augustin Barrios
KOH KAZAMA, guitar
Opening of “Walking the Walk”