Assembling The Artist’s Story: Meet the artist behind the Mixed Media
My name is Bret Schwalb, I am an award-winning mixed media artist working in the greater Chicago area. For decades my career revolved around the logic and structure of corporate software design. My work was functional, efficient, and successful, but it was hollow. Then I noticed that the corporate aesthetic was bleeding into our stores, coffee shops, and even our homes.
Talking with friends, family and patrons, I heard how they stopped wondering, exploring and seeing the possibilities. For them, the world had lost its magic. Around that time, I picked up my art again, leaning on the boundary pushing examples of luminaries like Buckminster Fuller, and the uninhibited imagination of Keith Haring and Tim Burton.
Over the next few years I explored ways to give discarded and underestimated objects a new story. Industrial materials like copper wire pulled from old motors became integral parts of my paintings. Wild clay became an award winning still life.
There were moments in the studio when structure failed, copper wire wouldn’t hold the tension, and it felt like my corporate logic was battling my artistic imagination for dominance. In many ways I held on to the safety of my corporate work and mindset out of fear of sharing my new art and message.
Then I took my own advice and stopped seeing the materials as they were and started asking, “What if?” By treating these objects as raw materials or celebrating them as the center of the story, I could bring people along, out of the familiar and into the delightfully unexpected. That leap of thought helped me to realize that the purpose of my art is to show how the discarded, forgotten and underestimated can have a new story and become the hero.
I firmly believe that art should never be displayed in a home only to be forgotten. Today, when my collectors look at a piece of my artwork, they are looking at a daily reminder to find the wonder in their own corner of the world.
5 Pebbles llc Mission
5 Pebbles LLC produces training and edutainment products that inspire, provoke people’s curiosity, and build confidence in their art and creativity. Bret Schwalb has multiple decades of experience training designers and non-designers alike, through webinars, workshops, books and inspiring fine art videos.
While he accepts a limited number of speaking engagements through the year, Bret is available to speak to students (no fee) and select corporate groups.