News & Updates
PRESS RELEASE
| FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 23, 2008 | Contact: Dyno Wahl (208) 265-4554 |
STEPHEN SCHULTZ SELECTED AS 2008 FESTIVAL AT SANDPOINT POSTER ARTIST
February 22, 2008, Sandpoint, Idaho...A local artist with worldwide credentials, Stephen Schultz, has been selected to create the original artwork for the 2008 Festival at Sandpoint fine art poster. Schultz was chosen by a committee made up of the Festival’s past poster artists, and the announcement was made Friday night at the Festival’s winter concert featuring LeRoy Bell at the Panida Theater.
Schultz is known for his large scale, acrylic and black and white oil paintings that have brought him national and international acclaim. He describes his work as a type of figurative narrative, “a magical realism where the stories or myths are made up and describe a world in between or at the point of threshold between common everyday events and the truly special that marks our moments when we pay attention.”
Schultz was born in Chicago and raised outside of Hartford and Boston surrounded by artistic influence and inspiration. His father had gone to art school and always kept a small studio and art books at home. Growing up, his uncle John was an artist, and, being only a few year’s older than Stephen, he idolized him growing up and followed the artistic path that led him to the San Francisco Art Institute and the Rhode Island School of Design for his undergraduate work, and to Stanford where he earned his MFA.
Schultz taught drawing and painting for 23 years, primarily at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and most recently at the University of Washington in Seattle. He worked for several years in Europe at the American Academy in Rome, Bellagio Study Center at Lake Como and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France as well as rural Italy and Spain. He also taught at the University of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Yugoslavia as a Fulbright Scholar. He has been awarded many other fellowships and residencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, Idaho Commission on the Arts, and Western States Arts Federation. He has had 23 one person shows in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta, most recently in Paris, Greece, North Idaho College, the MAC in Spokane and the Salt Lake Arts Center. He has also shown his work in 75 group shows at museums, universities and galleries throughout the US and Europe.
Schultz first moved to Hope in 1987 and then in 2001 he bought a building in downtown Sandpoint that he transformed into a studio and residence. The renovation took three years to design and build (done “much in the manner of a painting” he says) and was featured on HGTV. He has served as Chairperson for the Sandpoint Arts Commission and continues to enjoy North Idaho as a perfect place to live and work.
“The size and nature of Sandpoint is perfectly conducive to my creative process,” he said. “It is a compliment to be selected by a group of other artists to create the poster this year, and it provides me the wonderful opportunity to make a contribution to the community of Sandpoint and specifically to the Festival.”
The Festival at Sandpoint is excited to welcome Schultz to the ranks of talented artists who have created original artwork for the Festival’s signature fine art poster for over a quarter of a century. “It’s quite a coup for the Festival to have Stephen create this year’s artwork – I’m thrilled that he was interested in lending his considerable talent to this local project,” said Festival Director Dyno Wahl.
The Festival will unveil Schultz’s original artwork at the much anticipated Poster Unveiling event on July 17th at the Seasons of Sandpoint, to kick off the Festival’s 26th annual summer concert series set for August 7-17, 2008 at Memorial Field in Sandpoint. The original artwork will be displayed on posters and other Festival memorabilia during the season, and will be auctioned off to benefit the non-profit arts organization. For more information regarding the Festival at Sandpoint and this year’s poster artist, visit www.FestivalatSandpoint.com and www.swspaints.com.