Student artist to exhibit thesis through femininity

With the recent decisions of the Academic Prioritization Program, students are left wondering what programs will be cut next. For art major Grace Schneider, the value of a liberal arts education would collapse without the presence of hers. The CSB senior will be premiering her exhibition installations at SJU’s Target Gallery during April 1-3. The exhibition is her senior thesis: a collection of abstract figures that represent stages of female empowerment and femininity. Currently, she has five complete sculptures in the themes of pregnancy, menstruation, childlike purity, aging and destruction.

“I’m trying to bring beauty to what society thinks is ugly,” Schneider said.

To create these feminine forms, Schneider pins tulle onto the wall and then begins shaping it into the form she wants. She adds more materials, often representing organs, arteries and veins, and connects them to the tulle with safety pins and thread. The works are intentionally abstract.

“I want the people viewing it to create their own story,” Schneider said.

Schneider has never restricted herself to one area; she has dabbled in many mediums, including fashion, painting and graphic design. On the side, Schneider also has a business with CSB senior Tori Szathmary. They are the creators of Trace, a business-turned-experiential learning opportunity that upcycles old clothing. The duo met through E-Scholars and share a mutual interest in sustainability. Though Szathmary and Schneider have different strengths—Szathmary is a global business major who self-identifies as “having little experience with art”—the pair have proven beneficial as a team.

Szathmary handles the logistics and marketing, and Schneider runs the artistic side. She leads upcycling workshops, teaching others how to reuse their own clothing. In the most recent of these workshops, Schneider taught college kids how to make their own split-end t-shirts. Schneider nurtures her interest in fashion every day through her own closet. She said it’s important to dress how she wants to.

“In what you wear, you’re making a plot for yourself,” Schneider said.

However, it can be hard to express herself as both an artist and student on campus. Schneider feels her artistic abilities are often hindered by time, space, finances and critiques. She often has a deadline in mind when working on a piece, and it can be a challenge to find a space that supports multiple large-scale products. She also hits financial challenges. Most students purchase an “artist kit” for their art classes, which, according to Schneider, costs about $60. But if a student wants to actually develop their own portfolio, it takes much more material than that.

“One thing people don’t know about our major is like, everything that we make we have to buy,” Schneider said.

Schneider also works to balance faculty’s suggestions without compromising her originality. One of the people who’s been instrumental in her growth is Steven Lemke, an art professor who introduced her to sculpture.

“I’ve never felt pressure to ever make something for him. It’s always been, ‘you do what you do because it’s good,’” Schneider said.

Lemke, who considers mentorship one of his primary roles as an Environmental Artist-in-Residence, fosters Schneider as well as another student in the exhibition, Carolina Gonzalez.

“My favorite part about teaching art is that sometimes I am their first art teacher they’ve had since elementary or middle school. As an alumnus of SJU who studied in the exact same classroom I teach in now, I understand well how this can have an incredible impact on our students,” Lemke said via email.

He is concerned with creating a space that is “genuinely welcoming,” a trait he associates with the Benedictine spirit of hospitality. He wants to make sure students are able to express themselves without restraint. Lemke said Schneider’s work is distinctive for the way it takes a large and difficult concept—the human body—and makes it into something communicable. Her use of unorthodox materials and textures relays creativity and passion, both of which Lemke finds essential in the major.

“Studying art is, in many ways, fundamentally different from other disciplines. In art, our students are challenged to produce something entirely new—whether or not it’s based in historical precedent, artists are always looking to explore, innovate, create and convey,” Lemke said.

Schneider remains up to the challenge. She originally began at CSB as a music performance major, then moved around to peace studies and psychology before settling on art. Even when she was younger, she was always creating things. Friendship bracelets. Duct tape wallets. Bookmarks. Painted jean jackets. It was a passion she always had but feared would prove impractical. Yet, like many others who have been told to follow more “practical” paths, Schneider sees value in her interest.

“Music and art are things that surround us 24/7. If you would take them out, our life would be so bland,” Schneider said.