Dietlind Vander Schaaf answers twenty questions from Trinket & Fern.
See Dietlind’s amazing collage work at trinketandfern.com.
> The Trinket and Fern Artist Questionnaire:
> Where were you born?
Baltimore, Maryland
> Where do you live?
Portland, ME
> Tell us a bit about your work:
My work is intuitive and relies heavily on text, texture, and color for it’s meaning. I am particularly interested in stories–my own and other peoples–and my work tends heavily toward storytelling. I love objects that are weathered and worn and attempt to recreate this sense of the passage of time in my work through layering and removing layers. Similarly, my use of text benefits from this adding and taking away, working toward fragments that, while short, are wide and deep with meaning. My effort is to capture those fleeting thoughts or feelings that are suggested by the experience of a beautiful moment.
Another important aspect to my work is perspective. I typically imagine the viewer to be laying or sitting on the ground, so the scene moves up and out. In one of my favorite recent pieces–Birds on Wire–I recreated a scene I saw many times on hikes in the Bay Area: a bird or two high on a telephone wire above me, the great sun hovering in the sky, and off in the distance the block-like shapes of city buildings. Currently I am working on a series of landscapes using paper, crayon, and acrylic paint. I am also beginning to explore encaustic and have plans for a series that replicates the views of agricultural geometry carved into the Kansas landscape as seen from an airplane at 37,000 feet.
> What materials do you most like to work with?
I love paper of all kinds–from books, maps, handmade, torn out of magazines, etc., as well as photographs printed onto thick paper. I also like wax, resin, wood, and paint. I am drawn to reclaimed metal with it’s intricate pattern of rust and wear.
> What talent other than your own would you like to possess?
I wish I could play the cello and speak Spanish fluently.
> What secret talent do you have?
I play the piano even though I can’t read sheet music.
> Favorites:
> Who are your favorite artists?
My partner Kelly is an amazing painter. Locally, I really like Mary Bourke. I own two pieces by an artist in North Carolina named Kelcey Loomer. I also love my potter friends Lisa Neimeth, Liz Kinder, and Lacey Goodrich. My friend Stephanie Duley makes gorgeous jewelry. I adore the work of Julianna Swaney, a Maine College of Art alumni. Finally, I love and own a few pieces by an artist in England named Cathy Cullis who combines stitchwork with old paper and fabric to create intricate pieces centered around womanhood and family.
> Drink?
Wine–red, white, even the pink stuff.
> Book?
My Antonia by Willa Cather.
> Song?
This changes constantly, but this year I listened to a lot of Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom in my studio.
> Either/OR:
> Sweet or sour?
Sour
> Beer or wine?
Wine (see above)
> Pie or cake?
Definitely pie.
> Dog or cat?
Both please! I have two cats & one dog.
> Paper or plastic?
God, paper. I think plastic should be outlawed.