A Journey Made Of Sculpture - Mia Nicholson

New York artist Rhonda Schaller doesn't have to search for subject matter - her own life provides the inspiration.

"All my work is very personal," explains Schaller. "I take the facts of my life and transcribe them into shape and form."

Schaller's drive to convey her personal experience has led her through a series of media, from stone to clay and ultimately wax with mixed media. In this most malleable of sculpture media, Schaller found the fluidity she sought - and a complementary partner to the fabric, dirt, and found objects that are integral parts of her work. The effect is luxuriantly organic.

"Gauze, dried flowers, silver trays, potting soil and straw are some of my favorite materials," says Schaller.

A JOURNAL MADE OF SCULPTURE

Schaller's show is a personal narrative in three parts exploring the stages of erotic and creative reawakening she experienced after ending a long relationship in which she felt "dead ... asleep and buried."

The end of her relationship proved a new beginning for the artist.

"I felt wildly alive again, " she remembers. The experience was so powerful after years of comparative numbness that she likened her new erotic energy to mania or madness. Out of this arose the sculptures "Erotic Madness I and II and Erotic Fury I and II", followed by shipwrecked series; a visual description of Schaller's necessary discovery of a new identity within her changed self.

"I was shipwrecked in a rand new space within myself," says Schaller. Her art essentially served as the vehicle for her personal voyage.

Alchemy represents the "new place of being", a higher Self where the elements of her new identity are honored.

THE ARTIST AS MOTHER

Devotion to self-discovery and expression is only one aspect of Schaller's life.

I'm a Mom, first and foremost," says Schaller with obvious delight. "Everything I do is with my son at the center."

Indeed, Schaller's seven-year-old son Elia is a regular denizen of Schaller's studio, where he creates independent works of art in his very own space.

"He has a very artistic sensibility," marvels Schaller, who strives to learn as much from Elia's inborn vision even as she imparts her own artistic knowledge.

"Here's this fount of wisdom in this little body that's only been on this earth for seven years!"

Together, Schaller and her son explore their daily experience for clues that guide their creations. When Elia is feeling a difficult emotion like anger, Schaller encourages him to think about how he might express it in material form.

"What does anger look like?" Schaller asks her son, providing him a safe creative channel for his emotions.

In this way, Schaller hopes to pass on her passionate quest for the self to her son as her spiritual legacy.

"There is a famous Chinese scholar who said that the search for self and the search for God is the same," says Schaller.

A SENSE OF PURPOSE

Sharing the narrative of her life via her art is Schaller's way of showing others the restorative potential that daily life offers each of us.

"I want people to feel something," Schaller notes. "Life is a healing journey. The pain we experience can be healing. It can provide a source of awareness ... There's a gift in everything.

Mia Nicholson, Arts Editor
ARTSCENE July 1997