Diane Schroeder Paintings - Artist & Purchasing Info Below

When I was in college and just starting to figure out who I was and getting an understanding of my values etc., Joni Mitchell came along. It’s not that she changed my life, but she certainly did change my understanding about the depth and range of emotions women could have. There were storms to weather, and happiness to drink in, and experiences to collect and express.

And when one thinks back to those heady days, when a mandolin and a voice of an angel were played over and over, I remember them with an ache and a feeling of both nostalgia and the jolt of hearing something new. Diane Schroeder’s work reminds me of that feeling. In its definition of abstract work, it feels like it is carrying on the tradition of abstract painting, and it seems new. The use of abstraction creates an experience that responds to an individual's world of nature ever changing with new interpretation.

During that same period, I was flying to Chicago, when someone pointed out to me that you could see the curvature of the earth. Whether or not that was true, I loved that idea- being in the middle of the country, and in the flattest part of the country, being able to see that which seemed magical and scientific all at once. 

Diane Schroeder resides in Chicago, and went to school in Nebraska. Living in the middle of the country and exploring place as narrative, she has crafted paintings and pieces that respond to the idea of weathers, landscapes, and atmosphere. But also, paints in the way where mark, color and meaning collide in discrete images. Like Joni Mitchell, it is personal, yet relatable. And, like Mitchell, there are contradictions that come together in harmony.

As she herself writes, she is interested in” oil and water, shiny and dull, transparency and opaque, rough, and smooth,”. But to think that the work is only about opposites misses the point. There is resolution of the opposites on the skin of the paintings. Some have dimension. Some have collage. The paintings marry the opposites together in a united front. The paintings seem delicate. But they are not. What they are - are beautiful. There is an aliveness to the work. Seen from different angles renders new ways to look at them. Like listening to songs where you hear something new every time you listen. They are about landscapes, but they are also personal and about autobiography. They combine the magical idea of light and a storm moving in. At other time, they seem to express the calm before the storm. They are ephemeral but are not fragile. There is a dynamism, that requires a long gaze.

This allows for an ever-changing experience. Definitely - work that needs to be lived with. Although the work tends to be a conversation about opposites, it is instead a dialogue about the resolution of them. It is a vortex, where they come together in harmony. They possess that magical quality that believes you can see the curvature of the earth, and feel the grandest and most intimate moments of nature. While listening to beautiful music.