Monica Schwegman
Monica is a visual artist known for her paintings, photography, and mixed media. Raised in Fairfield Ohio, she studied design at the University of Cincinnati, and further pursued her education at the Kansas City Art Institute in studio painting. She now lives and works from her studio in Waterford, Pennsylvania.
In the early 90s she moved from Kansas to Texas where she rented studio space and a loft apartment on the courtyard square in Lampasas. Soon after, she opened a gallery to exhibit her work and the work of other artists in the region. She was actively involved in the community and was a founding member of the Keystone Art Alliance and Theatre for Lampasas. She is now a member of the Erie Photography Club, and the Photographic Arts Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Monica’s art has evolved over the years, from representational figurative, landscape, and still life oil paintings, to abstract paintings and mixed media. She also works in photography and has done installation exhibits. Recently she has returned to working in abstract mixed media, but with the new technique of using the photographers digital darkroom and printing the computer work onto rice paper. It is a process of layering colors, photos and drawings in Photoshop and then affixing the print onto an art board where more layers of acrylic paints and other mediums are applied.
Monica’s work is transformed by existentialism. When she creates, her ideas come from what she sees then shifts into abstraction by using color, line, composition and textures that are intrinsic to what she sees. The work is then exaggerated and taken into a new reality through thought and contemplation. Her work demands a longer look before you can appreciate the abstraction and its relationship to the subject matter that she is working from. The truth to her work lies in its essence rather than in its presence.
Monica’s love for art started at a young age and since then she has received several awards and has exhibited her work in many group shows and solo shows, her most accomplished, inclusion into three juried art exhibits at the Erie Art Museum with a purchase award, and a solo show at the Erie Art Museum Frame Shop Gallery.
If you would like to see more of her work visit her website at www.monicaschwegman.com or contact her at monica@monicaschwegman.com, 814-602-6345.