Steven Schroeder

I am interested in the way light breaks on edges, the way pigment takes to surface, the way words tumble out onto the page, the way the eye of the ear sees them. I find common ground with John Cage when he says “I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry” and (in the same piece, his “Lecture on Nothing”) when he says “Kansas is like nothing on earth.” Kansas, southeastern Colorado, the northeastern corner of New Mexico, the panhandle of Oklahoma, and (especially) the panhandle of Texas – that is where I grew up, and it shaped my eyes like nothing on earth. I find common ground with Helen Frankenthaler when she embraces chance and lets paint flow on raw canvas to create forms that surprise and invite us to see worlds we would never have seen alone. This leads me to embrace lyric poetry as a form of abstraction (in the way that computer scientists use the term), a simplification (and an interface) that allows us to manipulate complexities below the surface without getting bogged down in them. And it leads me to agree with Georgia O’Keeffe when she says all painting is abstract. I often find myself spending as much time on what is not there as on what is. This usually means focusing on a single image and letting the whole composition spring up around it — not a narrative but an all at once that evokes a here and now that is, here, now, neither. A likely story is likely to grow out of this when readers and viewers encounter it, but I hope my art always invites more than it contains.

I received my Ph.D. (in ethics and society) from the University of Chicago in 1982 and my M.A. (in divinity) in 1976. I received my B.A. (in psychology, with a minor in Greek) from Valparaiso University in 1974.

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS: [2018] Learning to See Nothing. Eleanor Hays Art Gallery, Northern Oklahoma College, Tonkawa, Oklahoma | A Gift of Fire. Chalice Abbey Center for Spirituality and the Arts, Amarillo, Texas | In the Path of Totality. The Grandview Gallery, Ada, Oklahoma | A Cloud of Witnesses. Fremont Public Library, Mundelein, Illinois | [2017] Circle Dance. Arlington Green Executive Center, Arlington Heights, Illinois | In A Landscape. Meet Chicago Northwest, Schaumburg, Illinois | Inflections. Rolling Meadows Library, Rolling Meadows, Illinois | A Mime Face on Memory. Blackstone Library, Chicago | Epiphany: what light does on edge. Chalice Abbey Center for Spirituality and the Arts, Amarillo, Texas | [2015] Dispersed Cities: Recent Work on Paper and Canvas, The Paper Crane Gallery, Canyon, Texas | [2013] Slow Light: Recent Work on Paper and Canvas, Conrad Sulzer Regional Library, Chicago | Works on paper and canvas, 2nd Avenue Art Guild, Dodge City, Kansas

SELECTED JURIED EXHIBITIONS: [2020] "Liturgical and Sacred Art," Springfield Art Association, Springfield, Illinois | “Connection” and “Art of Kindness,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | “Symmetry,” Tall Grass Arts Association Gallery, Park Forest, Illinois | “The Crow Show,” Arts Illiana Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana | [2019] “Celebration,” “Visions of the Flint Hills,” “Beautiful Light," and “TA-DA!" Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | “Pure Enjoyment,” The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri | "Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition," Saint Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis, Missouri | “Pentimento,” Tall Grass Arts Association Gallery, Park Forest, Illinois | [2018] “Visions of the Flint Hills,” “Bloom,” and “Resilience: the 4 Seasons,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | “Pure Enjoyment,” The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri | “The Road Show,” "Juried Exhibition 2018," and “The Crow Show,” Arts Illiana Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana | "Liturgical and Sacred Art," Springfield Art Association, Springfield, Illinois | [2017] “To Reform: Artists Respond to the Reformation,” Eide/Dalrymple Gallery, Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota | “Pure Enjoyment” and “Music to My Eyes,” The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri | “Visions of the Flint Hills,” “World Visions,” and “Urban+Abstract,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | “Light and Shadow,” Mildred M. Cox Gallery, William Woods University, Fulton, Missouri | "Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition," Saint Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis, Missouri | [2016] “Pure Enjoyment,” The Creamery Art Center, Springfield, Missouri | “Visions of the Flint Hills,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | "Juried Exhibition 2016," Arts Illiana Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana | "Liturgical and Sacred Art Exhibit," Springfield Art Association, Springfield, Illinois | [2015] "Annual All Media Exhibition," Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan | "Horizon: Contemporary Landscape," Community Arts Center, Danville, Kentucky | “Pure Enjoyment,” The Creamery Ar2t Center, Springfield, Missouri | “Visions of the Flint Hills,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | [2014] "Annual Regional Juried Exhibition," Freeport Art Museum, Freeport, Illinois | "Horizon: Contemporary Landscape," Community Arts Center, Danville, Kentucky | "Small Works," Riverside Arts Center, Ypsilanti, Michigan | “Visions of the Flint Hills,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | "Art at the Center-The Abstract Exhibition," Tomahawk Ridge Community Center, Overland Park, Kansas | "Third Coast National," K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, Texas | "Saint Louis Artists’ Guild Regional Summer Exhibition," Saint Louis Artists’ Guild, St. Louis, Missouri | “Art of the Center,” the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center, Overland Park, Kansas | [2013] “Visions of the Flint Hills,” Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, Missouri | “Texas Spirit,” Old Post Office Museum and Art Center, Graham, Texas.