Stitched Folklore TJ Schwartz
Memory of Drowning
By TJ Schwartz and Dan Breen
"Every piece I create tells a story from a folklore based on my childhood in West Michigan. Folklore stitched together in clay and fiber from traditional Michigan folk stories, family tales, and my spirituality. As I have grown, my family has scattered, and all the spaces we once existed in have faded away," explains TJ Schwartz.
"My folklore is all that is left," says Schwartz. Through the tactility of clay and fiber, she seeks to depict these beautifully strange images from my tales, imparting to viewers the sense of what binds us to a place and conjuring the story told.
You Weep What You Sow
Schwartz is an artist and stay-at-home mom living in Saint Joseph, Michigan. She works in her home studio and at the local Krasl Art Center ceramic studio, where she is a member of the Guild.
Schwartz was born and raised in West Michigan until the age of fourteen, when she began her first of several moves around the country. Schwartz attended summers at Interlochen Arts Camp and the prestigious HSPVA (now called the Kinder School for the Performing and Visual Arts) high school in Houston, Texas. After winning ARTS from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, she became a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. There, she learned ceramics and majored in fibers, focusing on weaving.
Drowning Cubs
After graduation, Schwartz moved back to Houston to become an art teacher in a Title 1 school for several years until meeting her husband. Due to her husband's career, they moved to Alaska for two years. They then happily returned to Houston to begin their family. While in Houston, TJ Schwartz was inspired to return to ceramics and, upon moving to Saint Joseph, MI, joined the Krasl Art Center ceramic guild.
Mournful Sound
higan, Schwartz has gained a clear direction within her work and strives to share it with viewers. TJ Schwartz takes pride in her family's love of making and spends most of her time creating with her children at home.
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