"The paintings in my ongoing figurative series arise organically from the paper, and appear through the subtle layers of paint that are applied and partially removed with a soft hand. They gradually appear as though they have just arrived. They are at once both guardians and messengers ..."
JULIE SCHUMER
BORN: 1954, Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION:
1975 Bachelor of Arts in English, magna cum laude, UCLA, Los Angeles
1978 Juris Doctor, Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, CA
Art Studies with California artists Robert Burridge, Mira White and Bob Winston, and with New Mexico artist Edward Gilliam.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
Selby Fleetwood Gallery, Santa Fe 2008, 2007
1228 Parkway Art Space, SFe, NM 2008
Marziart, Hamburg, Germany 2007
Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe 2007
Women in the Arts Group show, Four Star Gallery, Stonington, CT 2007, 2006
New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky 2006, 2005
Contemporary Portraiture, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut 2006
Farrell-Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2006, 2005
Emerging artists show, Scottsdale, Arizona 2005
SKF Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2004
High Road to Taos Open Studio tour in Truchas, New Mexico 2004, 2003
Master Works of New Mexico, Sixth Annual Spring Arts Show 2004
22nd Annual Juried Exhibition, Pastel Society of the Southwest, Dallas, Texas 2003
El Museo Cultural, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2003
Koskinas Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2003
AWARDS:
2003 Award of Merit, Pastel Society of the Southwest, 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition
PUBLICATIONS:
2005, “Beautiful and Without Fences” Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky, May 8)
2005, “Desert Visions,” Nougat Magazine (Lexington, Kentucky, May 15-June 15)
ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY:
Julie Schumer was born in Los Angeles in 1954. She attended UCLA, graduating magna cum laude in 1975 and went on to law school. She has been a practicing attorney for the past 29 years.
Schumer began painting at age 5 and continued through high school. Once in college her practical nature asserted itself and she became a lawyer instead of an artist. In the following years Schumer collected art, wishing all the while she had painted what she collected.
Finally, in 2000, she reconnected with an old friend, artist James Koskinas whose work is also available at the Selby Fleetwood Gallery. He sensed her long suppressed desire to create art and asked her why she wasn’t painting. Schumer answered she didn’t know. Koskinas brought her several pieces of wood, acrylic paint and a few brushes and said, “Paint.”
Schumer hasn’t stopped painting since. She and Koskinas joined forces and moved to New Mexico in 2002. They paint companionably together in their Lamy studio, a modern day Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner.
Since reengaging with her art Schumer has studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California and with artists Robert Burridge, Mira White and Edward Gilliam. Her paintings immediately resonated with viewers as other artists in workshops she attended wanted to buy them. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and most recently in Europe.
Schumer paints in the tradition of post-modern expressionism. Rather than beginning with a fixed idea, Schumer starts first by introducing color, shapes and line and responding to their development. She moves images around by sanding, scumbling, rearranging and adding and the painting begins to paint itself. Her figures ultimately arise through the subtle layers of paint that are applied and partially removed with a soft touch.
The figures, part of her ongoing desert figure series, gradually appear as though they have just arrived. They are at once both guardians and messengers of the spiritual power of the desert.
