“Personal Geographies,” a joint exhibition featuring the artwork of Deborah Hamburger and Patti Tinsman-Schaffer will open with a reception on Friday, March 27 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Studio B, 39A East Philadelphia Avenue in Boyertown. The exhibition continues through April 11.
Both women are not only accomplished artists but have also inspired thousands of young people throughout their teaching careers.
Hamburger’s work and printmaking is inspired from her personal connection to the earth and all of the landscapes and endless patterns, designs, and shapes that she represents in both realistic and abstract ways. Nature is where she turned throughout her exploration of printmaking in the course of pursuing her master of art degree. And it was her love of nature that she became a papermaker.
“Making paper helps me control the process from paper to print and gives a unequal quality to printing,” Hamburger explains.
“There’s a quiet subtlety, Zen-like, in her papermaking and printmaking,” notes Jane Stahl, Studio B’s director of community relations. “Teabags as sources of her papermaking were utilized in some of the first pieces of art she exhibited with us that drew me into her work, and I’m continuously enthralled by the meticulous rendering of soft colors and blending of textures in her work. Her work requires study and reflection and calms the spirit.”
Hamburger notes, “I have been a practicing artist for as long as I remember. I was an art teacher in the Allentown School District for 36 years and still enjoy opportunities to teach. Teaching helps me creatively and inspires me to explore new areas.”
“Having a collaborative show is another creative outlet that I have wanted to investigate. Working with another artist and finding our commonalities and our differences creates endless opportunities and inspiration for pieces,” she concluded.
Tinsman-Schaffer finds inspiration in the path of life created by moments in time embedded in either the conscious or subconscious knowledge that affect all moments that follow. Her work possesses a Zen-like harmony, with its attention to a fine balance between color and texture. She seeks to explore the infinite moments of time that shape us, the balance between universal polarities, and the wabi sabi beauty of imperfection.
Whether it be watching the early dawn hours of the sky, being entranced by the way a collage develops, or facilitating a class in painting, each experience takes its own form, she explains. She then seeks to examine those moments in time and capture them in whatever form suits them, be it paint or collage, reflective or inquisitive.
With a BFA in fine art from Kutztown University, Tinsman-Schaffer divides her time between practicing art and teaching at Dieruff High School in the Allentown School District.
As an art educator, Tinsman-Schaffer views each student as a work of art in progress – seeing her role in their lives as witness to where they are and as facilitator on their creative journey. Just as her teaching influences her art, the making of art, in turn, influences how she teaches: one moment in time inevitably touching another.
“The diversity of work Patti exhibits is a testament to her wide range of knowledge and skill. I love her collages that gently invoke my own memories and her paintings where her palette knife adds just a hint of color to evoke images or pleasing patterns,” noted Stahl.
In Personal Geographies, Hamburger and Tinsman-Schaffer explore their individual geographies, their commonalities and their differences. As friends and colleagues, they seek to explore the fine balance between what connects them and how their differences also serve to mutually inspire and strengthen their art and their friendship.
