ART CLOTH MASTERY PROGRAM 2014: TEN VOICES FROM ONE: Steffanie Schwam

BIOGRAPHY

Steffanie Schwam is a mixed media artist specializing in 2 and 3 dimensional surface design processes. She completed Jane Dunnewold’s two and a half year Art Cloth Mastery Program (2016) in San Antonio, Texas. Schwam’s work was included in the Fredericksburg Road Studio Tour and Exhibition (2016), the Studio Art Quilt Associates Member’s Exhibition Three Cohesive Pieces (2013) and in the exhibition by Castle Hill: Truro Center for the Arts Art, Nature, and Going Green Challenge (2013). Her work is included in a number of private collections.

At the 2016 Houston International Quilt Festival, Schwam exhibited 3 works as part of the special exhibit TEN VOICES FROM ONE: Work by the Art Cloth Mastery Program 2014, curated by Jane Dunnewold (November 2016).

Schwam is a full time Newborn ICU nurse of 30 years who holds a Masters degree in mental health nursing. Her private practice used integrative therapies with those living with a terminal diagnosis or life threatening illness. Her clients included infants, children, adults, and animals.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Shibui refers to the Japanese design aesthetic of understated elegance. This sensibility elicits a peaceful meditation of natural beauty, something that helps to balance our hectic contemporary life. Outside my work as an intensive care nurse, I spend time in nature seeking contemplative experience to counterbalance the critical and unpredictable demands of that work and the growing violence and disconnection in our world.

Professionally, I have the privilege of supporting those who are transitioning from life to death when it is the inevitable outcome of terminal illness or a life threatening condition. Drawing close to the great mystery of death brings the realization that we are not our bodies, that we do not end or begin at our skin. There can be transparency, light, permeability, transcendence, intimacy, and timelessness as we make our transition from life to death. The same can be true for those who bear witness to it.

My current series, Thinning of the Veil, draws from my work with the dying and time spent in nature and in spiritual practice. I create separate layers of hand dyed and printed silk that have various degrees of transparency. Each work hangs from several layers of clear Plexiglas. Thus light, colors, textures, shapes, and images intermingle through the surface with what lies above, between, beneath, or beyond the next layer. Air currents move the layers, much like breathing, enlivening each piece.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email: shibuihandcrafts@gmail.com