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Artist's Statement
"I feel connected to the subtlety of land and its species as they set a cadence of spacing, cyclical activity, and angles of repose. I see where land and sky meet as a zone of transformation - a symbiotic relationship whose offspring is flora and fauna: life. For me, working in oil on canvas is a parallel zone of transformation - a symbiotic relationship of paint and energy, cognitive and intuitive knowledge, the real and the imaginary. The painting is a visible track left by human inquiry into human potential." |
| Biography Born in Orange, California, Carol Schwennesen has lived, worked, and traveled in many parts of the world. Her undergraduate work was done at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where she earned two BA degrees in Art and Art History and a BFA in drawing and painting. Her Master of Fine Arts was awarded at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. She has taught at local, college, university and private locations in the U.S. and Italy. |
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| Degrees Held 1987 MFA, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA 1984 BFA, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 1984 BA, Art History, Western Washington University - Magna cum laude - Oustanding Graduate, Department of Art - Selected Studen Commencement Speaker 1983 BA, Studio Art, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA |
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| Recognition and Awards Marquis Who's Who of American Women 2007 Selected for Ucross Foundation Artist Residency, 2006 Who's Who in American Education 2004-05 Who's Who in The West, 2000-06 New York: Invited Speaker, Annual College Art Association Conference, 1994 Invited speaker, Montana State University Art Forum, 1994 Juror, Seattle Metro Public Arts Program, 1993 New York: Speaker, School of Visual Arts Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists 1990,1991, 1992 Nominated for National Awards in the Visual Arts, 1987 |
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| Teaching Experience 1997-2000 Adjunct faculty: art and art history, Crafton Hills College, Yucaipa, CA 1987-2005 Instructor or lecturer in painting, drawing, art history for institutions including: King County Summer Work Study (Teens) Program (1994-98) Blue Heron Art Center, Vashon Island (1991-96) Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA (1996; 1988-90) Scripps College, Claremont, CA (1988-90) Chaffey College, Alta Loma, CA (1988-90) Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA (1988-89) Cypress College, Cypress, CA (1987-88) Guest artist/lecturer for: Vashon Artists in the Schools The Harbor School Pomona College, Pomona, CA University of California, Davis Valparaiso University, IN Eureka College, IL Rancho Santiago College, Santa Ana, CA Cal State Los Angeles |
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| Publications News articles in: San Bernardino County Sun, CA; Tacoma News-Tribune, WA; Beachcomber Press, Vashon; Riverside Press-Enterprise, CA; Billings Gazette, MT; Los Angeles Times; Riverside Highlander, CA. Artwork or writing in: Visions, the Los Angeles Art Quarterly (1991; 1997); Elan Magazine (1990); Iconoclast, the Scripps Magazine (1988); ArtForum (RSC; 1988); Bellingham Review Literary Magazine (1984); Jeopardy Literary Magazine (1984). Exhibition catalogs: Inland Empire Artists (1990); The Art Tradition at Scripps (1989); CalPoly University Showcase '88. Wrote catalog essays for installations at Chaffey College, CA, “Waterforge” and “Hoop: In, Out, Through.” |
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Reviews
"In Schwennesen's pieces, human forms seem to arise from the paint as if they were swimmers, just about to break through to air. The paint curls around and defines the forms like surface tension in a lake." "Her paintings are many layers thick, with some colors and form welling up from below, while others coat over and transfigure what lies beneath. They have a visceral feel, as if the bones and guts of the work are not very far from the outer skin."
"For Carol Schwennesen, the essence of painting is in borders, in depicting the meeting places between what we know and what is mysterious. The edges and contours of the world both delimit her work, and charge it with the possibility of discovering something beyond.
- Tony Daniel
"From her earliest paintings, her intent was to probe beyond the visual world to a place of underlying connective energies. The mythological and real worlds interact here, as do the personal and the archetypal, catalyzed by images of animals, earth, air, water.""Schwennesen is impressed by the power of connection between just two elements: land and sky. These two elements came to represent the catalytic potential of all connections." - Barbara Cherne |