As a creative individual with a passion for painting and photography, and a profession rooted in analysis as an IT Project Manager and Compliance and Security Program Manager, I strive to leverage my strengths to expand my horizons. My membership with the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) has been a valuable part of my journey, and I recently took on the volunteer opportunity to assist in the editing and writing for the NAWA Now Magazine.

In addition to my work with NAWA, I also serve as an Arts Ambassador for ArtsWestchester, the largest private nonprofit arts council in New York State. This role allows me to combine my love of art with my commitment to community engagement.

Finding Inspiration through Art

Creating art through painting enables me to view the world from diverse perspectives, drawing upon my past experiences in printmaking and glass. Many of my recent paintings are inspired by the energies of nearby locations, such as Untermeyer Park and Rockefeller Preserve State Park, as well as my travels cycling abroad in countries such as Italy, France, and Peru. I often capture memories through photography and then reinterpret them through paint, allowing me to express my unique vision.

All of my paintings are created in acrylic. I am an avid photographer. My process consists of taking multiple photographs and combining aspects of each of the photos into one to form a blueprint using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Then I draw the entire thought process on a canvas. There is no AI. As a painter with printmaking background, my paintings are becoming more texturized than in the past. Often while I am painting there is not a one to one translation between the blueprint and the painting so I often have to modify the painting while it is being created. I would then either update the blueprint in the computer or draw directly on the canvas. In addition, I work with a 1.5 to 2 inch borders, and my work always extends to this side portion of the canvas called a cradle, including an extension of the painting content or a related design.

A Sample of My Work

Below is a selection of my paintings, each measuring 24 x 36 inches (excluding the frame). The gessoboards are built around a 1” to 2 “ cradle which is decorated either as an extension to the painting or with a complementary design.

Future Plans

Due to my work obligations, I typically only create 1-2 paintings per year. However, as I look to the next chapter of my life, I plan to focus more on my passions for painting and photography, allowing me to explore new creative avenues and share my art with a wider audience.

Sincerely,
Amy Schneider

After decades of photographing, the camera became my way to see the world. I began in the black and white darkroom with its smells and fumes and controls, yet for me handling the paper while the image emerged was always magical. Even as I embraced digital photography with its new creative possibilities, I longed for the tactile experience of analog image-making. I sought techniques that would allow me to engage with my work on a deeper level.

R, photo-encaustic with her-story and his-story layers

My journey into photoencaustic art began unexpectedly when I visited a gallery that showcased an encaustic artist who incorporates photographic images into her encaustic pieces. That’s when I knew I had to try it. The tactile quality of the wax immediately enticed me, offering the physical connection to my art that I had been seeking. Most of my life, I have experienced my world through the lens of a camera, so I wanted to continue with my photographic vision while adding the depth and tactile nature of the encaustic wax. Along the way, I realized that encaustic wax is a living medium—unpredictable yet full of possibilities. I played with that delicate balance of photographic image, substrate, heat, wax, and pigment in many forms. As I learned more about using encaustic wax, I discovered the challenges of the medium and at the same time I became fascinated with the endless possibilities. For me as an artist, I truly found my voice in this blend of photography and encaustic wax, a voice that feels tactile, intimate, and alive.

As I explored more encaustic wax techniques and how to combine these with my photographs, I realized how much my upbringing influences my art. I grew up in a time and place where stories permeated our lives. Many of these stories were unspoken and unnoticed, yet they became a foundation for my artistic expression. The layers and textures of encaustic wax gave me a new way to portray the depth and richness of our human narrative. Just as the many layers of life in my small town shaped me, working with wax invites me to express the layers of our lives, both visible and invisible. As I expanded my techniques to include layered images and more textures, I found a path to expand these stories beyond a single fleeting moment. Our lives contain valleys and mountains, so to me each layer and brushstroke speaks of these contrasts—both low and high, rough and smooth, both pain and joy. In my work, I see the visual tension between “photograph” and “not-photograph” as a mirror of the contrasts and tensions within each of our souls.

Often, I work in series so I can expand my theme across time and space. I’m drawn to narratives that center around people, especially women, and the things they cherish. Movement catches my eye, and portraying this fluidity has become one of my overarching themes. My lifelong passion for dressage, ballet on horseback, has led me to appreciate human dancers. For decades, I experienced firsthand the same elements I find in the dance—gesture, movement, passion. The graceful motions and the fleeting moments come together to create a story, a chapter in an unspoken narrative. In my studio, I’m inspired to re-create this sense of movement and elegance. In my dancer-muses, I see the human body creating art, the human spirit merging with artistic expression, and the human soul speaking to me. Through my blend of photography and encaustic art, I seek to continue this conversation between spirit and art. We are all invited to explore the emotion, story, and passion that shape us.

I received artistic merit scholarships and academic grants from the University of Hartford Art School in West Hartford, Connecticut after being awarded a public commission for a life-sized sculpture from High Plains Arts Council in Loveland, Colorado. At the Art School, I earned my Bachelor of Fine Art degree majoring in sculpture & printmaking. Since graduation, I have taken printmaking workshops at Zea Mays Printmaking in Massachusetts, made molds of large-scale sculpture for Lands’ End Sculpture Center in Colorado, taught art at Irving Robbins Middle School in Connecticut, did a five-year-long residency in Beijing, China before opening my studio in Connecticut.

My love affair with form, along with my natural tendency to use symbolism and surrealism in my work, have come together to create my distinctive visual and written language. I use this language to communicate ideas concerning relationships, the environment and culture. Elements of the natural world, especially animals, are the subject matter I use to express these ideas. Drawing, printmaking, sculpture, the written and spoken word are my medias of choice.

Last year, I published a book titled Magic Circle: Animal Tales / Poems. It began as another creative tool to express ideas surrounding my circle of life drawings. Each drawing inspired me to clarify my thinking by writing about the wonderful creatures we share the planet with. The twenty-one animal tales/poems comprise this book along with the seven circle of life drawings (three poems per circle of life). The circles play with life’s issues faced in infancy (Ocean), youth (Jungle), maturity (Forest), middle age (Savanna), old age (Tundra), death/rebirth (Desert) and ending in the here and now (Farm). Both the artwork and the animal tales express a child-like wonder but with an old woman’s wisdom and humor.

In this Shout Out, I am sharing all of the drawings and one of the poems. Like all the poems it uses different animals from the drawing to represents both themselves and their human counterparts. The circle format represents life on Earth and the interconnection of all life forms. The first drawing is titled Zoo Series – Tundra with one of its accompanying poems titled Magic Tundra – Moose, Hare, and Puffin. The rest of the drawings are below in the order they appear in the book: Ocean, Jungle, Forest, Savanna, Desert and Farm. To hear the readings of all my poems, go to my website under the menu item Magic Circle Readings. Here is a link to the poems:

https://www.kathleen-zimmerman-artist.com/magic-circle-readings

Moose, Hare, and Puffin

Sweet Moose was born a pessimist so she could never believe her luck.
She thought her life was supposed to be terrible but no such good luck.

Instead, life had been most pleasant without too much trouble and such rot.
You might think she would have been thrilled by her luck but sadly she was not.

The problem was she had an image of what life was supposed to be,
and it had not been how she imagined it as anyone could see.

She used to complain about life, but others said she was truly blessed,
so, they would no longer listen telling her to please give it a rest.

She did as they asked not being happy but resigned to the sad fact,
that complaining was no fun if they will not listen with polite tact.

Moose tried to change her bad luck by living in a brutal harsh climate,
thinking it would make her miserable and she would not find a good mate.

But this did not improve her luck she sadly was content living here,
she even met Michael living next door who had been such a fine deer.

She had known that the tundra was dark and frosty most all of the time,
and it was muddy and filled with mosquitoes in the hot summertime.

Who knew she would love the freezing air numbing her big soft padded nose,
or she would adore the squishy mud in-between her lovely hoof toes?

Even Mike was better than she had any right to think he would be,
he was handsome and quite kind to her which anyone could clearly see.

She knew this was not how her sad life was supposed to happen at all,
but she had the worst kind of luck until she met a Hare named Hare Paul.

Hare Paul like Moose had bad luck so when he saw her he let out a cry,
“Wait until seven to step on me that’s when I am supposed to die!”

Moose had not noticed Hare Paul because the thick mud matched his dirty tint.
So, she was surprised by him and what he said thus asked him for a hint,

“I’m not going to step on you now and certainly not at seven.
How do you know seven is when you are supposed to go to heaven?”

Moose did not know about hare or about Death so decided to ask,
“Do all hare die at seven and when do moose wear the dreaded death mask?”

Hare Paul replied, “No I picked seven for mine. I don’t know about moose.
I suggest you pick your lucky number or play the game Duck, Duck, Goose,”

Hare continued, “Since life has not turned out as I imaged it would,
I decided to make sure that death would happen as I think it should.”

‘My life has not turned out as I thought it was supposed to,” Sweet Moose said,
“I would plan my death too if I knew when I was supposed to be dead.”

She had never really thought about how death was supposed to be done,
but now she thought that at seven maybe Death would take more than just one.

Rude Puffin had been flying by when she heard this strange conversation,
she had a habit of eavesdropping, which I should probably mention.

It was Puffin’s way being born nosy in more ways than just the one,
besides no one noticed as she flew high over so what harm was done?

Anyway, Puffin’s interest was piqued since her luck had been really bad,
so, she chose to land on Moose using Moose’s rump as a landing pad.

Then Sweet Moose, Hare Paul, and Rude Puffin shared their life stories of bad luck,
followed by how life was supposed to be lived in this cold land of muck.

As they compared how their lives were to how their life was supposed to be,
each was surprised by the other’s good luck wondering, what about me?

When they had all finished they asked one another, what is the matter?
You both have had good luck frankly it could not have been any better?

By seeing their lives through someone else’s eyes helped them to realize,
that maybe they really should not be planning their untimely demise.

Maybe life was not meant to go as you thought it was supposed to go,
maybe life was a journey of discovery so you will then know.