Amy Schomaker
Amy Schomaker’s love of texture and form are apparent in her diverse use of handmade paper, painted paper and low-relief dimensional collages and paintings.
She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1990 concentrating in oil painting and printmaking. A St. Louis native, she now considers Columbia Missouri her home.
Amy is continuing to learn new techniques and applications in papermaking as a member of the Fiber Arts Study Group through the Columbia Weaver’s and Spinners Guild. Her work can be seen in a variety of locations throughout Columbia in the Art League’s Community Exhibit Program.
A medley of artwork lines both walls like playful sentinels. These are the colorfully manifest creations of Columbia artist Amy Schomaker, bringing life and light to the otherwise gray corridor of Boone County Regional Hospital. Bold acrylic paintings, silkscreen prints, delicate torn paper collages, and painted paper creations hang neatly, side by side. She holds no objections against exhibiting early work alongside her latest creations. “Art doesn’t have an expiration date like milk,” Schomaker contends.
Schomaker pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in oil painting as well as printmaking at the University of Missouri in the late 1980s. Additional art making techniques were acquired throughout the four years Schomaker spent teaching art to middle school students and the influences she encountered as a member of the Columbia Weaver’s and Spinner’s guild. Schomaker attributes much of her artistic growth to Leandra Spangler, a mentor and friend, who set inspiration in her to continue developing as an artist.
Although Schomaker’s artwork has many influences, the most essential influence is her own: and it proves to be the single tie that binds the variety of art forms together. Each work embodies Schomaker’s veneration of nature and her playful dance with unconventionality and inventiveness.
“You don’t have to color inside [the lines],” Schomaker insists. She allows this concept to trickle over into her paintings which are layered, folded, cut, burned, or torn to effect multi-dimensionality. Variations on these techniques encourage shadow play arising from the surrounding light situations to pass through the artwork, resulting in many transient impressions of the painting.
Organic elements enter into Schomaker’s hand painted paper modeling and collages. She adds cooked down plant fibers to her handmade paper before “combing” distinctive textures onto each paper sheet. Her paper works are a continuation on the theme of mingling actual and applied perspectives and are what she describes as “low relief sculptures.”
Schomaker regularly participates in quarterly community exhibit programs, Fiber Arts tours, and regional art exhibits. She has her sights set on expanding her audience and will undoubtedly continue developing and applying new techniques in her art forms as life itself unfolds alongside her.
by Lindsey Cole
