Donna Schwontkowski

Lives and works in Carmichael, CA

Artist statement

My work investigates what becomes visible when ordinary looking becomes sustained attention. I photograph naturally occurring faces, animals, families, and figures that emerge from trees, shadows, pavement, clouds, frost, and other elements of the environment. The forms are not constructed or digitally inserted into the original scene. They are discovered through viewpoint, light, timing, and attention. When Nature Meets Us began in a botanical garden, where I found that the same landscape could appear empty or populated depending on where I stood and how carefully I looked. Moving only a few feet could reveal an entirely different collection of faces and figures. In this series, I pair the unaltered photograph with a small marked inset that functions as a visual key. The viewer first encounters the scene as it appeared, then sees the discovered forms identified, and is invited to look again. The work is ultimately about visual perception: what we overlook, how recognition can be trained, and how seeing differently can permanently change our relationship with an ordinary landscape. Once a hidden form has been recognized, it often becomes difficult not to see it again. The series asks a simple question: What has been present all along that we have never learned to see?

Artwork