MaryAnn Schummer Gaw

I spent years designing and building complex technology products before art became my full-time focus -- and that same creative discipline, that instinct to architect something from nothing and iterate until it holds, is what drives my studio practice now.

I work in cold wax and oil, acrylic and mixed media -- building surfaces layer by layer, then scraping back, adding more, scraping again. Figures and structures emerge from underneath; little cottages, creatures, memories of places I've seen and moments I've felt. My surfaces are textured, dimensional -- I want you to reach out and touch them. The finished image is never the point; it's what's underneath.

A painting's meaning comes from the experience embedded in the work -- the feeling of making it, the memory that surfaced, the discovery that happened while adding the twelfth layer. My favorites are always the ones that connect to what it felt like to create them.

I work between two studios -- a larger space at our lake house in Harrison Township, Michigan and a smaller, quieter treehouse studio in the Ozark foothills of Arkansas. Different light, different energy, same process.

Studio visits are welcome by appointment. If you'd like to come see the work in person, email me at MaryAnn@SchummerGawArtStudio.com.

--MaryAnn