statement

We progress by an accumulation of information. We have the unique capability to implant a thought, to transfer information without experience. But what can we pass if thoughts and images are incomplete? How can we discover our past if we cannot access the information?

What becomes of the information stored in constantly changing formats? How will we access family photos stored on a floppy disc, instead of a trunk in grandma's attic?  Will I be able to discover the love letters that opened my father's heart to my mother if they are on email?  Artifacts last for hundreds of years, what about digital storage? Who will decide what knowledge is important enough to be re-formatted and moved forward? These are the notions considered in the new paintings.

Americans like their information processed into nice, easily digestible slogans and sound bites.  We grab information to suit our purpose, relying on distilled thoughts and truncated video experience as needed. Knowledge for it's own sake carries the limitless potential of combining random ideas into new thoughts.  What is the implication of information reduced and isolated from context? This is the reference for the painting, "Collected Knowledge."

The paintings and drawings continue to feed my fascination with connecting threads in social fabric, while the illusionist format points to its continuity, by reminding the viewer of the unchanging reality of sight.

bio

born: 1952, Detroit, Michigan

education

University of Iowa, MFA, 2006
University of Iowa, MA, 1976
Michigan State University, BFA, 1974

selected awards/honors

Best In Show, Contemporary Realism Biennial, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, 2010
Benard L. Mass Prize,  Benard L. Maas Foundation, 2001
Arts Foundation of Michigan, ArtServe Michigan Grant, 1999
Pollack-Krasner Foundation, 1995

selected publications

Hodges, Michael, "2 Styles, Similar Effect", The Detroit News, May 31,2012, p.17M
del Valle, Robert, "A Dangerous Thing...And Beautiful", Real Detroit, May 16, 2012
"Robert Schefman", Poets and Artists Magazine, October 2010, p.68-73
"Corpus Maximus", American Art Collector, May, 2009, p.166-167

selected solo or two-person exhibits

"Collected Knowledge", Robert Kidd Gallery, Birmingham, MI, 2012
"Carbon And Gold", Macomb Community College, Macomb, MI, 2011
"Corpus Maximus", Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA, 2009
Meadowbrook Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, 2005

selected group shows

"Contemporary Realism Biennial", Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN, 2012
"Narrative Fragments", Quidley & Co. Fine Art, Boston, MA, 2012
"Midwest Drawing Invitational", University of St. Francis, Fort Wayne, IN, 2012
"Sweet Spot", Robert Kidd Gallery, Birmingham, MI, 2012