Library Exhibits

DEBRA SCHAFFER
Step Into the Third Dimension
3-D mixed media photo collages

June 27 through August 31

Opening Reception:
Saturday, June 27, from 3 - 5 PM


Come to the Fair

About the Artist:

The art of Debra Schaffer will be on view in the H. Pelham Curtis Gallery at the New Canaan Library from June 27 through August 31. The exhibit will open with a reception for the artist on Saturday, June 27 from 3 -5 p.m. Everyone is welcome.

Debra Schaffer has been creating her three dimensional photo collages for nearly 20 years, making the move from sculpture after acquiring a camera. Traveling with her retired husband, Schaffer finds that many of the scenes they come upon—across America and in Europe—“speak to her” and inspire her to take the many photographs required to capture all the detail of a place. She cuts out and recombines images of the scene and arranges them with bits and pieces of small objects to express her experience of a place.

In her words, “I take hundreds of photographs of a scene, cut them up like puzzle parts, and reassemble them into a dimensional multi-layered collage. The photographs are my paint. The finished work has a focus and composition that becomes the essence of the place or event without being an exact reproduction.” Her pieces range in size from the very small—a few inches square—to 3-by-4 feet.

Schaffer has been exhibiting her art, primarily in New York and Connecticut, since the mid-1970's. Her pieces have won many awards, including Best in Show at the New Canaan Society for the Arts' "Spectrum" show in 1999. She was also awarded First Prize for Mixed Media at more recent Spectrum shows and at the Founders Show, Art Society of Old Greenwich, and Ridgefield Guild of Artists Annual Juried Competition for many years. She is a member of several artists’ guilds and art societies, including the Silvermine Guild.

“Step Into the Third Dimension” is sponsored by the Art Committee of the Friends of New Canaan Library. Exhibit curators are Eva McCarrick and Betty Stern.

Artist's Statement:

"I make art out of everyday experiences. I portray the mundane that is often overlooked, undervalued, or taken for granted. Old and mysterious doors and windows, hardly noticed pastoral vistas, and the hustle and bustle of markets and streetscapes become my subjects.

I take hundreds of photographs of a scene, cut them up like puzzle parts, and reassemble them into a dimensional multi-layered collage. The photographs are my paint. The finished work has a focus and composition that becomes the essence of the place or event without being an exact reproduction.

I think like a sculptor. I never see flay. My art is three-dimensional because I bring thirty years of stone and woodcarving to my collages. I always see perspective and want viewers to be pulled into my experiences and share the events and places I have seen."
- Debra Schaffer

Past Exhibits

Information about submitting work for review