K.E. Schaffer

medium: painting

Click on the image to see the full version.

Slide 2012 Painting	Detail of the work "Slide" Painting	Annex 2012 Painting
Detail of the work "Annex" Painting	Broken 2012 Painting	Detail of the work "Broken" Painting
Fractured 2012 Painting	Detail of the work "Fractured" Painting	Timeless 2012 Painting
Detail of the work "Timeless" Painting

Contact information
705 Village Green Way #403
West Bend, WI 53090
Email Address: keschafferart@gmail.com
Web site: keschafferart.weebly.com

Artist statement
I am integrally interested in the window that art provides and the framing that it allows. I am also fascinated with juxtaposition of various elements and notions in all facets of life. The interplay of the organic alongside the structural, the relationship of differing textures or media, and the interaction of complementary colors or of contrasting values all intrigue me. Through these contradictions, I explore the human experience of failure and success, faith and proof, good and evil, simple and complex. During my life, I have developed a keen awareness of architecture, especially of urban and industrial structures. At the same time, I have nurtured an earnest appreciation for the subtlety and grandeur of the natural world. My own photography of urban and natural landscapes has both informed and inspired my work. These landscapes sometimes become an entirely new abstraction, while at other times they are simply the landscapes themselves, reflecting sad, forlorn worlds or places of robust hope, monolithic edifices or cracked and crevassed constructions. My current work consists of organic abstractions in lush oil paint amalgamated with graphical spray painted patterns. This combination allows me to explore the interactions of humans with nature. I frequently use seemingly contradictory surfaces and techniques to explore and manipulate the illusion of surface and the window of the painting. Texture plays a pivotal role as well: I continuously juxtapose hyper-smooth surfaces with highly textured ones. Finally, the window of art allows me to experience, question, and decipher the world around me.

Biography
K.E. Schaffer was born in 1983 in Pierre, South Dakota. She lives and works in the greater West Bend, Wisconsin area. Schaffer primarily produces contemporary abstractions in oil and acrylic paint. Her recent work seeks to amalgamate both organic and man-made elements into unified and intriguing works expressing an earnest appreciation of both nature and structure. Schaffer is the visual art instructor at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School. She has attended and served as a mentor for the Teacher Institute in Contemporary Art (TICA) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also serves as the private schools representative on the board of the Wisconsin Art Education Association.