ART ON THE COVER

A Thousand Words
of Cameron Schmitz

Cameron Schmitz is classically trained as a painter, but her work shows an evolution of style that is entirely personal and immediate. Relatively new to Vermont, she has completed artist’s residencies at both the Vermont Studio Center and Kasini House.

The artist acknowledges being strongly influenced by her environment, a key component in the process of reflection and discovery. In her recent work, she uses language-- a single word or short phrase-- as a departure point. In rich black ink, words like “control”, “resist”, and “change” are repeated, layered and intertwined until an image emerges.

This is a fascinating technique. By bridging the gap between written text and artistic symbol, Schmitz invites the viewer to contemplate repetition in language, and how meaning can be communicated in almost unlimited ways.

From a distance, the resulting black-and-white pieces have a spare quality, a pared-down elegance. But in detail, they are impressively structured, complex and dimensional. The initial illusion of simplicity is another parallel with language itself.

Though the word-based, ink on paper works are highly concentrated and specific, there is great freedom in Schmitz’s intense, crackling forms, and the artist describes the creative act as meditative.
Schmitz’s graceful, intricate visual images are broadly accessible, using words as tools and inspiration without being bound by the conventions of a single language. It’s appropriate that the artist is on the brink of international exposure, with a piece currently on exhibit in a group show in Kyoto, Japan. You saw it here first…

G. BLAKE MACPHAIL

 

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