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Artist Statement
My sculptures are about my personal travels both real and imagined. They are formed by coiling natural materials, pine needles, reed and raffia, into varied shapes. Once I’ve completed the basket I cover the surface with acrylic paint using dots, washes, figures and marks. As the painted layers build on each other a story unfolds, intertwined within the woven form. When the layers accumulate the story begins to fade from view in some areas and conversely come into focus in others. This aspect of my work interests me the most as each piece of sculpture takes on a personal journey, a voyage of discovery.
Yellow Springs

Yellow Springs

Smoosh

Smoosh

 In my new work I’ve been concerned with enlarging the human figure to fill the space. Layers of paint build up the figure and the background allowing the figure to take a more prominent place. YELLOW SPRINGS, a large oval vessel displays an elusive human outlined in yellow stretching across the vessel’s domed side. A light blue wash enhances the upper part of the figure’s outline and a speckled background peeks through. In SMOOSH a figure with flowing arms and legs wraps itself inside a lush green and blue bowl. The recent retrospective of Elizabeth Murray at MOMA inspired me to draw arms, legs, hands and feet with greater freedom. My painted figures seem to dance, snap, twist, and pulse within the textured surface of dots, circles, and loops. A final layer of marks and images gleaned from my interest in petroglyphs (ancient markings pecked on stone) add a new element of “talk and chatter” completing the story.

Solo Exhibitions:
Elizabeth Whyte Schulze--Mercy Gallery, Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT, October – Dec., 2007
Journeys – Fiber Art Center, Amherst, MA 2006
Crossings – Geissler Gallery, Stoneleigh-Burnham School, Greenfield, MA 2004

Selected Group Exhibitions:
SOFA CHICAGO, Jane Sauer Gallery 2007
Mystery Contained: Contemporary Sculptural Basketry, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO 2007
Baskets as Architecture, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA 2007
SOFA New York, Mobilia Gallery, 2007
Baskets: No Boundaries, Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 2007
A Survey of Baskets Today, Peter’s Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ 2007
Beyond the Basket, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2007
SOFA Chicago, Mobilia Gallery and del Mano Gallery 2006
Baskets: Beyond Structure, Jane Sauer Thirteen Moons Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 2006
Baskets 2006, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2006
Natural Origins contemporary Baskets, Fountainhead Gallery, Seattle, WA 2006
Basket (r) Evolution, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA 2006
Forms of Fiber, Ross Art Museum, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio 2005
Woven Forms, James Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 2004

Museum and Corporate Collections:
Office of the Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City of Los Angles 2006
Racine Art Museum (RAM), Racine, WI 1999
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA 1997, 1998 2000

Lectures/ Visiting Artist
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, lecture and visiting artist 2005
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, lecture and visiting artist, 2003

Publications and Reviews:
Review of solo show: Journeys at Fiber Art Center, Fiberarts Magazine, January 2007
Mystery Contained: Contemporary Sculptural Basketry, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO 2007 (catalog)
500 Baskets, Lark Press 2006
Baskets a Book for Makers and Collectors, Billy Ruth Sudduth 1999

Education:
Tufts University, Medford, MA – MA 1972
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH – BA 1970

Travel:
European study tour ‘68, Borneo/Southeast Asia ‘69, Europe ‘72, Japan ‘74, West Africa ‘77, Mexico’ 79, Nepal/India ‘80, France ‘81, Canada ‘95, France/England ‘96, Florence, Italy ‘98, Paris, France ‘02, Scotland ‘02/’03,Spain ‘06, Hawaii ‘06

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