Amidst her busy schedule between artist talks and presentations at the museum, 2024 Artist-in-Residence Myra Schuetter sat down with me for an interview to examine some of the details of her work. In our conversation, we discussed humor, love, joy, conflict, anger, and loss. Her pieces often blend these raw, challenging themes with playful elements such as dolls, action figures, chocolate, and wine, maintaining a delicate balance between the sometimes-harsh realities of life and the whimsy that helps us navigate them.
Chey Miller: When did you start creating art?
Myra Schuetter: As soon as I could hold a pencil. My sisters would be outside playing ball and doing things like that, and I would be inside drawing or reading (mostly drawing). I don’t remember a time when I didn’t.
CM: What are some of your art historical influences?
MS: When I was in college, Helen Frankenthaler. Her work is non-objective, she was simply after the color flowing. Color is the topping, it’s just color for its own sake. And while this may sound odd, so will the next one. Henri Matisse: color. At the end of his life, that’s what he was doing. It was just large blots of color and form. Those are my top two.
CM: How long does your process take from initial sketches to the finished product?
MS: Well, it’s taking longer and longer. I’m semi-retired. If we decide we want to go farting around for a day, we do that. I want to do that. I’m not working five days a week, seven hours a day anymore. In fact, I’m doing pretty well now if I do three days a week for five or six hours. I’m doing glass because I just have to conquer that. I’ve done it, but I have not been deliriously happy with it yet. So, I’m doing it again. This next painting has something like 30 jars, bottles, and vases. And the jars have clowns in them. If I have this painting done in the next two years, I’ll be happy.
CM: Have you ever experimented with other media or techniques?
MS: Only in high school. I have had conversations with other artists about the use of watercolor - I have a friend who insisted it was simply a staging ground for something else. It was just a way to get into oil. Watercolor is often seen as a sketching medium.
CM: I think that was what was so striking to me about your work. I’ve never seen such a rich and authentic application of the material. How many layers do you typically add?
MS: A lot. A lot. And I never, ever use white paint because the white paint itself just sits on the surface. My white paint is murky gray water. For highlights or my signature, I just leave those spots until the end and paint around the white areas.
CM: What’s your favorite part of artmaking?
MS: Drawing. I spend a lot of time on drawing, and I used to do a half-scale model of whatever I was going to paint. Like for Old Glass and Cookbooks, I did a 30x30” drawing and then gridded it out and increased it by 2. That was when I could sit across the room from my still life and still see it. I have older eyes now, so I draw individual figures or smaller segments. I also found out this way that I can move the drawings around on the watercolor paper. I take my small drawing, copy that on tracing paper, transfer it, and then I’m ready to start applying paint. It gives me more freedom to move things around, make things closer, and make more connections between things. Fight for Democracy was created that way. All of those dolls were painted on one side then turned around and painted on the other side. I put a strong light over my table and moved it around to match the shadows.
CM: I also read that you have a lot of fun creating the still life arrangements - do you use a combination of imagination or just still lifes?
MS: They’re all still lifes. Having the objects physically set up on a table helps me because I can see what I need to paint first and what I need to paint last.
CM: How would you describe your relationship to painting or art in general?
MS: “Gotta do it.” It’s just a part of me. That’s another thing that Wayne realizes - it’s just something I have to do. If I’m away from it for too long, I get nasty.
CM: That relates to another question I had. In your piece Fight For Democracy, you said that you almost quit painting after finishing it. What brought you back? Was it a sort of innate desire or something else?
MS: Our nephew and his wife showed up one weekend and caused me to paint Happy Little Clouds Give Me A Breakbecause Cheyenne, I really was thinking about giving it up. I needed a new roll of watercolor paper, and I thought, “I’m just not going to order it. I’ve got some scraps left if I really want to do something.” I was way down there. The painting took me two years and our family heard a lot of ranting and raving. They would say, “Is Myra on that again?!” So, I had the painting finished, and they showed up with a bottle of wine. They said, “you're free!” but I’m still ranting and raving. The next morning at breakfast, I’m still going on and on. He looked at me - Brian looked at me - and said “Myra, you need happy little clouds.” I think my jaw dropped, he hit it right on the head. At that moment, that painting formed itself in my mind and I had to do it. I was going to paint the things that I loved to paint: colored glass with light shining through it, sunflowers against a blue sky. I also needed to work in throwbacks to studies I’ve done for other paintings, like the bobbleheads of the senators or some of the cartoons I’ve used.
CM: Does adding a humorous element to your work help you come to terms with these real world events?
MS: Apparently. You’ve gotta look at things in that kind of a light. There are people who believe this so whole-heartedly and people who believe that so whole-heartedly. With social media, there is validation for every opinion no matter what. You have to use some humor. That’s one of the reasons I created “I Should Have Stopped With the Animals.” We had seen so many horrible things on the news that night. The next morning during coffee, Wayne looks at me and says “Do you think God ever said ‘I should’ve stopped with the animals’?”
CM: How do you balance humor and conflict to convey your message and to avoid making light of an issue?
MS: I do not want to cross that line and look like I’m making light of it. I don’t add caricatures that I’ve found during my research to my paintings even though they clearly tell the story of what was happening. I Should Have Stopped With the Animals is one of the most serious paintings that I’ve done because it is about systemic bias, which has been going on forever. The flowers are for people who don’t care about the deeper message - they can just appreciate the flowers. But the flowers were still chosen due to their symbolism, which enhanced the message of the painting. There’s a lot of bad stuff in that painting. When I work on a painting like that, I have to add something else - chocolate or wine - to keep me sane.
CM: The tone in Are You In There? is fully somber, in contrast to most of your work. What made you paint it that way?
MS: Anger. My mom was in a nursing home during COVID and we couldn’t visit her. We had to visit her through a window. All of these photographs were in the window, blocking our view of her. She couldn’t understand why her daughters weren’t allowed to see her anymore. The nursing home was just about to open back up for visitors. Right before, Dubois County COVID rates skyrocketed. She died in the meantime. I was finding comfort while working on this piece because everyday was touching her face. The last thing I painted was her face, it was the last photograph of her. It started in anger but I finished it feeling okay.
Myra Schuetter: Fifty Years of Watercolor will be on display in the museum’s Old Gallery until February 9th, 2025. Additionally, Myra Schuetter will be presenting at the museum for The Club on December 6th, 2024 at 11:15 am CST. Join us for the opportunity to experience Schuetter’s masterful manipulation of watercolor to explore and express deep emotions and complex narratives and immerse yourself in her unique artistic journey.
