Biography

Lilian Schaffer is a Denver-based abstract expressionist painter and horse-mom.  She graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in mathematics and studio art, and also owns a horse-care business, Big City Nights Equestrian.


Statement

Awareness of the self in the context of the human condition is naturally reflected through the act of painting, and can be channeled into a sublime experience within a subset of the infinite.  Breaking free from the constraints of hyperrealistic perfectionism in order to savor the experience of paint is ideal in order to give the conscious a rest, yielding large-scale controlled-chaotic intuitive painting regulated by visual analysis and academic knowledge.


Painting Story

I used to be a strict hyperrealist.  For the majority of my art career, my portfolio consisted of only picture-perfect representations.  I was objectively good at it because I have severe diagnosed OCD, but I was miserable.  I would spend hundreds of hours on each piece, criticizing myself the whole time and getting bored.  And for what?  To draw something a photograph could easily achieve?  


That was when one of my mentors, local artist Deborah Howard, stepped in and encouraged me to try abstract expressionism.  I resisted for the longest time because it was way too different, a complete 180 degree turn.  But it was just what I needed.  To use my eye and skills in a way that was less harsh on myself, more exciting, and more in tune with what my subconscious needed. When I paint now, I have fun and let the painting be whatever it wants to be, rather than forcing something.  It’s 90% automatic now and 10% conscious, and relaxes my OCD rather than exacerbates it.


Process​

I always start on a large, gesso- primed canvas.  I will usually have a vague idea of the direction I want to go, whether it’s a color calling my name, or a specific form I want to include, and usually not much more than that.  Sometimes it depends on my mood and what is going on.  I just let the painting speak to me and paint until I see where it is going.  I use tools ranging from brushes, to bench scrapers, to razor blades, and put my body into it.  Once I have enough on the canvas, I will step back and see what it needs-a middle mixture of the colors to tie it together, more forms, more balance, etc.  I know it’s done when I feel like I keep messing it up and need to walk away.


Defining Characteristics of Abstract Expressionism

1. Willfully distorting aspects of reality for an expressive end regarding the human condition, the self awareness of being human and attempting to define and give it meaning.  Consciously interested in romantussm, locus within universe.
2. Textural application of intense colors to maximize the power of paint  as expressive agent.
4. Flat composition lack of perspective; alloverness, no single focal point. A conscious subset of the infinite.  Thus, no frame.
5. Interest in experience of the viewer through the experience of a transformative visual sublime.
6. Abstracted imagery as holder of content, often with vaguely human forms.
7. Scale and monumentality; use of entire body rather than hand.
8. Emphasis on process and mark making; human heroic marks as fingerprint of existence showing emotions and violence.