Emma Rose Schwartz

Lives and works in Cragsmoor, NY, USA

Artist statement

My paintings are largely reflections on introversion, exploring the ground that divides a singular entity from the collective whole and the frame separating the self from the other, the inside from the outside. Looking at my own origin story in Tennessee, images come in and out of focus through the layering of paint, charcoal, chalk, and pastel. The surfaces of my paintings have a fresco-like topography that appears dense and aged. Color choice emerges from where social notions of innocence intersect with the colors of organs and our bodies’ interiors. References to containment (binding, framing) vs. expansion (leakage, extrusion) are repeated in architectural forms and nebulous, spectral women and girls occupying intimate domestic spaces.The ranch-style homes I paint act as a framework for the figures, an emblem of the familial unit and dynamics within the structure. The houses contextualize the figures by way of their own histories as a uniquely American form of architecture that developed due to sprawl and the promotion of the idealized nuclear family. Often using idioms to title my work, I am interested in how meaning can shift depending on emphasis and context. Words, like people, have their own ancestral lineages that develop and warp over time. I think of the figures in my work as fractals of the same character, they share related etymological roots but have developed independently of one another. My work is driven by an interest in loosening the boundaries between...

Artwork