Artist’s Statement

All things, histories, and particles are connected and pulsing. This is my inspiration.

Through art I aim to bring more knowledge and beauty to my communities in meaningful, transformative and playful ways. I collaborate with a wide range of materials and modes to achieve these goals. Beyond traditional sculptural mediums I may use the growth of plants, digital communications or bike parts. In essence I work with materials that are accessible and available. Materials that can change and grow, respond and invite us to reenvision our spirited world are especially interesting to me. I choose them to encourage us and to communicate the possibilities of change. I make art to draw the connections that I see.

I work in the rapidly changing traditions of ecoart and public art. It is my intention to create work in service to our ecologies, to show and share the beauty, love and magic that I find in the world, and engage the critical challenges of our time. Our world is beginning to feel significant climate change. I am working on the edge of this change to nurture biophilia (love of nature). I believe biophilia will help us make the changes we need to make in order to address climate change. Connecting with nature will help us connect with each other, and lead to more social justice in the world.

Energy is a fascination and focus of mine as it connects us both literally and metaphorically, and is among the most pressing geopolitical, economic and humanitarian issues that we face. I work to explore and play with our habits of consumption and creativity to foster an appreciation for the origins of our energy and generate positive change such as using less.

I use the process of art making and the research that I do in making each project to understand our collective environments and the patterns that we create. Research, conversation and education deeply inform my concepts, inspiring me and helping to clarify the work on many levels. For me, sharing knowledge is another form of creating. Education and collaboration play important roles in my work – they embody the power of community and create energy better than any other medium. I wish to have people and other elements in nature cooperate with materials in unexpected ways that lead to exploration beyond the sum of their parts.

Rebecca Schwarz