Artistic Collaborators: Jeremy Schilling and Adrienne Wooster - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Artistic Collaborators: Jeremy Schilling and Adrienne Wooster - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

 

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

Seeing two artists collaborate allows viewers to see and appreciate new perspectives on the work of both art makers. Painter Jeremy Schilling and photographer Adrienne Wooster are artists and partners who create works that share overlapping qualities while diverging in style and media. Schilling is a painter and draftsman focused on figurative subjects and Wooster is a photographer whose lens is often aimed at landscapes. They are two of the state’s promising emerging talents.

 

Originally from Connecticut, Schilling came to Rhode Island to study Illustration at RISD. An independent working artist, he has shown his work at venues across the state and around the region, and can regularly be found vending at local art markets. Wooster is a Roger Williams University graduate who focused on Creative Writing and minored in Photography. She combines making art with a day job at The Collaborative, a cooperative art space in Warren. Newer to exhibiting her work, Wooster has an eye for subtlety. In June and July the pair are showing their respective works together in the offices of Studio29, an interior design firm in Providence.

 

 

The collaboration between the artists and Studio29 is benefiting the The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Rhode Island Chapter and will kick off with an opening evening on Thursday, June 1 from 6-9pm at 29 Okie Street in Providence. The program will include a show of artworks by Schilling and Wooster with music by Providence firefighter and musician Corey Chouinard.

 

On view in the space, Schilling is showing a collection of figures executed both in charcoal and in oil. Larger scaled nude figures are contrasted against small close ups of eyes, mouths, and noses. In tandem with these works, Wooster is sharing a collection of photographs that focus on landscapes in both direct and more abstracted forms. These artist partners both have keen eyes for detail and for the quietude that comes with deep observation.

 

 

Asked about how models inspire him and what it is like to make the subject of the figure such a large component of his work, Schilling says, “Working from life is a unique experience, as the act of observation is fleeting. There is only time to capture and record the most important elements and because of this, a drawing can become a journal of decisions of deemed importance. There is an honesty that emerges from these decisions when working from the human form.”

 

Schilling’s examinations of the figure often come in grayscale and Wooster’s photographic work is primarily executed in black and white as well. Asked about her interest in sharing photographs void of color, Wooster says, “I've always appreciated reimagining my world in shades of light. I’m fascinated by the cliche but nevertheless marvelous duality of light and dark, the merging of the two, and the emergence of emotion as a result. For me, black and white imagery is a wonderful challenge that involves stripping down a subject and getting to its form, whether that form is a concept, energy, landscape, person or place.”

 

 

Seeing their individual bodies of work alone, one might think about the qualities of their artistic skills. When combined, new connections come to life in exciting ways.

 

The inventive exhibition partnership with Studio29 will make this connected collection of works by Schilling and Wooster available to clients of this Providence design firm and to the public as well. A portion of the sales from the show will go to support those impacted by suicide. Speaking of the event, Studio29 owner Olivia Beauregard says, “This event is driven by the amount of people who are impacted by suicide. Many are reticent to share their experience due to the unfortunate stigma associated with mental health. I feel art is a beautiful way to connect people within the community on such a heavy subject.”

 

 

Reflecting on what they hope people see when considering their work alongside one another’s, the artists say, “When viewing our work, we hope that people will see an unspoken conversation. Art is a powerful tool to tell others what we notice most about our external and internal worlds —  these observations and conversations merge, becoming a point of connection for our individual lived experiences, enabling us to broach difficult subjects, have insights, and acknowledge each other with more empathy.”

 

Through the close-looking implicit in the works of both Schilling and Wooster, viewers might find new ways of observing and a more acute sense of the world, and the people, around them. Through the work of two young artists, a more sensitive view of the world can emerge.

 

Learn more about Adrienne’s work at https://awooster174.wixsite.com and see examples of Schilling’s work at https://jeremyschillingfineart.carbonmade.com.