We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stefanie Schmid. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stefanie below.

Alright, Stefanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Learning to paint began with a YouTube video of a man on the other side of the world painting with a palette knife. His videos showed him scraping acrylic paint across canvas, and creating abstract landscape paintings. After many attempts, trials, and errors, I got it down to creating art instead of just layers of poorly mixed colors that became brown muck on canvas. I’ve noticed that many people paint with the palette knife, but my art looks different from theirs. I like that. It means that I’ve developed a unique style.

My palette knife style began in 2019, and I’ve been painting this way ever since. The learning process happened merely out of curiosity, and so I didn’t feel pressure to dive deeper right off the bat. I paint intuitively, and I don’t plan my paintings. This is different than what a lot of artists do. Though it’s great for me to learn new skills, I’ve discovered that working on my own mental health recovery changes my art. Over the years I haven’t taken any art classes to grow my ability. It’s happened naturally as my mood and my confidence has shifted. Overall, I create art to determine what I’m hiding from myself.

Stefanie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began painting during a dark time in my life; what I would call my rock-bottom. Art was a way to express my pain during a sudden divorce, eating disorder, and from surviving violence during an armed robbery, sexual assault, and attempted carjacking. At the time I had turned to drugs and alcohol for comfort, but thankfully I also turned to painting (and got help). I would paint my nightmares, and then I had an abundance of dark, bizarre art. After seven years of intensive therapy I make healthier choices, and I turned my dark art into just the opposite- something positive. I no longer want to give my darkness attention, because it is not worthy, which is why I love using such bright, vibrant colors.

I sell a variety of products on Etsy, and on my new premier website: www.StefanieSchmid.com. I also sell a variety of gift products at pop-up markets around the Twin Cities and in western Wisconsin; everything from notecards to coasters to magnets and stickers. I curate each market and stock appropriate products that fit the aesthetic of the show. I feel that art is emotional, and I am here to convey that feeling that you can’t express verbally, but you’d be able to point to and say– “this is how I feel.” I am proud to be self-taught, and I feel that I have a gift from above for my creative talents.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have always been a perfectionist. I must have been born that way. But I learned as an artist that my strive for perfection was my greatest obstacle. When I didn’t add up to my high expectations I would quit. I took a drawing and a painting course in college, and I dropped them both in under a month because I didn’t believe that I was good enough. Unlearning this pattern of thinking has opened the door for self-reflection. I ask myself this a lot these days– why do I create? Sometimes I answer this question differently, as my present state of mind dictates why. But often I come back to the same answer: to self-soothe. Knowing “why I paint” helps me standup to perfectionism, and to stand true to myself.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal is to learn to love myself in this lifetime, and I do so by painting my emotions to better understand my silenced inner voice. I’ve said before that my rock bottom was the foundation or the birthplace of my art business. With every painting I would gain a tiny bit of confidence, until it grew to a place where I beat my eating disorder that I had battled for 27 years. I continued to paint, but shifted my focus on scenes that depicted only positivity. I made changes in my life that prioritized my mental health, I found my faith, and I took risks by sharing my story publicly to serve as a role model that recovery is possible. There have been major setbacks in my journey, including the sudden death of my mother. However, art had become a tool that I relied on to cope with turbulent emotions, and so some of my best paintings were produced as I grieved. Art has brought peace and self-reflection in my life in ways that I never expected.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.StefanieSchmid.com & www.etsy.com/shop/StefanieSchmid
• Instagram: stefanie_schmid_artist
• Facebook: Stefanie Schmid Fine Art

Image Credits

Cassidy Lindahl