{ updated 08/08/12 }
BIO
Rodger Schultz (b. 1970)
Sired a natural creative on the rubber rim of the Nation's Capital, Rodger Allen Schultz Jr. spent his youth flirting with the discipline of measured form. Rulers, angles, uniformed patterns and a horseman's grip on spatial relationships -- his parents pegged him an architect -- and they were close. In 1988 Rodger entered the B.A. program at UMBC for Graphic Design and left 4 years later with a hangover and a severe distaste for the machinery and precise devices that he had once embraced.
Shaking structure, he headed for the most organic place he could find. In Boulder, Colorado Rodger picked up the brush at the age of 21, wielding it in the loose and easy manner of his surroundings. He embraced the pained, disputed themes of Pablo and Vincent while secretly, and deeply, craving happiness. "The time felt like a tearing of paper," he says. Yet it is here that he would tap the spiritual vein that would eventually transform his Life. With an early patron, a vivid dream and a few loyal collectors, Schultz found himself mated in fate, entrenched in the odd and the creative for the next 10 years.
In 1999, Rodger left his Sedona, Arizona home with his new family and began a decade long career as a Media Designer in the Information sector of D.C. - you know, the heavy hitters - Silicon. He thrived in the corporate arena, once again tackling the calculate and deliberate. Basking in the new found worlds of typography, branding, retro aesthetic and modern architecture, Rodger's impressionistic tendencies jumped the curb and crashed into the graphical and linear. His combining of non-related themes sparked a decadent collision of the non-collidable. Innovation took the front seat of his Being. Yet with the corporates inexorably bound by the Corporation, Schultz began to loathe the Mind of the Machine.
So, he quit... and with space to innovate freely, original invention consumed his efforts as he again waded through the Fine Arts full-time. Private collectors lined up and a few galleries opened their doors as Rodger crafted small batches of ill-advised, themed series and presented them publicly. The ex-brand Designer unremittingly De-branded himself, and continued to do whatever he wanted.
Working in whatever materials are available, Rodger Schultz only has one rule- to never know what he is doing. He insists on working in a space of experimentation and discovery, creating from complete emptiness, where the maximum amount of mistakes occur at the most frequent rate. "Maintaining that space is the real art. The work just a reflection, and it always reveals the way it's supposed to."
-----
ARTIST STATEMENT
Love Is and that's it. There is nothing else here. You are it.
-----
ABOUT THE ART
"RAS.'s work is a non-linear festival. It seems to be evolving like a fancier kaleidoscope composed of fancy kaleidoscopes. You have to put your eye on the glass and twist the wheel to see how everything aligns."
"It's obvious to the fortunate, that going elbow deep in the Grape Nuts is the actual thrill of it. Too many people today like the prize already sitting at the top of the box. The prize is just to keep you distracted. The prize is nice, dont get me wrong. But I'm pretty sure Rodger's work is the Grape Nuts. You're supposed to stick your arm in it."
------
RESUME
RODGER SCHULTZ Reston, VA
Born: 1970, Washington D.C.
rodger@ymail.com
EDUCATION
1988-1992 BFA Program, Graphic Design, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1996 Sedona, Arizona, Sculpture Apprenticeship under Ed Beathitt
PROFESSIONAL
present I Am
1992-present Fine Artist, Illustrator, Designer and Creative
2005-2010 Senior Visual, Information & Interface Designer ; AOL Inc., Dulles, VA
2003-2005 Corporate Illustrator; AOL Inc., Dulles, VA
2000-2002 Senior Graphic Designer; Exit1 Inc., Reston, VA
1993-1995 Signmaker; Red Rock Signs, Sedona, AZ
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2012 Group Show, Cooley Gallery, Leesburg, VA
2012 Solo Show, Cooley Gallery, Leesburg, VA
2012 Solo Show, The Dunes Gallery, Washington D.C.
2012 Group Show, O'neill Studios Annual Salon, Washington D.C.
2012 Solo Show, Sherwood Center Gallery, Fairfax, VA
2012 Art Whino, Alexandria, VA
2011 Group Show, G40 Art Summit, Washington D.C.
2011 Group Show, Modus Union Fall Salon, Washington D.C.
2011 Solo Show, Avenue Beau Sejour, Great Falls VA
2011 Charity Group Show, Lamont Bishop Gallery, Washington D.C.
2011 Charity Group Show for Japan, G2, Washington D.C.
2011 Art Whino, Alexandria, VA
2010 Group Show, Adam Lister Gallery, Fairfax, VA
2010 Solo Show and Display, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tyson's Corner VA
2010 Group Show, Modus Union Spring Salon, Washington D.C.
2010 Group Show, Modus Union Fall Salon, Washington D.C.
2008 Solo Show, Dumbarton Concert Gallery, Washington D.C.
2004 Group Show, Ropes End Biannual, Annapolis, MD
2003 Group Show, Artists Museum, Washington, D.C.
1999 Solo Show, Heartline, Sedona, AZ
1998 2 Man Show, Jackson Gallery, Sedona, AZ
PRESS
Apri 2012, Sketchpad Spotlight, with Andrew Deerin, Chatham Light Media >
July 2011, Viva Tyson's Magazine, "Loving an Artist"
July 2011, Channel 9 WUSA SuperNova Profile >
June 1996, Good Times Magazine, "Demonstrating Genius: New Art Phenomenon Revealed in Sedona"
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Paul R Versace, Baltimore, Maryland | 9 Works
Patricia Daunas, Reston, Virginia | 5 works
Beatrice Beall, Davidsonville, Maryland | 5 Works
Chris Cooley, Leesburg, Virginia | 2 Works
Maggie O'neill. Washington, DC | 1 works
Gavin and Emily Long, Great Falls, VA | 5 works
David Lloyd, San Francisco, California | 3 Works
John G Krimigis, Washington, DC | 3 Works
Mary Amons, Great Falls, Virginia | 1 Works
Paul and Doreen Ryder, Boston, Massachussets | 2 Works
Sabine Laverdure, Brussels, Belgium | 1 Works
Esther Harrison, Cologne, Germany | 1 Works
Nicole Richie, Los Angeles, California | 1 work
James Davies, Annapolis, Maryland | 2 Works
Ira Goldstein, New York, New York | 2 Works
Roque Versace, San Francisco, California | 2 Works
Kaveh Afshar, Washington, DC | 2 Works
Lang Wethington, Baltimore, Maryland | 1 Work
Paul and Doreen Ryder, Boston, Massachussets | 2 Works
WEBSITE
RodgerSchultz.com
