A mixture of styles traceable in artist's works

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--Are you into representational art? Or perhaps Expressionism, Surrealism or Cubism?

Whatever your art taste, you should find at least a smattering of it in the paintings and clay sculptures of a young, admittedly compulsive artist from Courtland, by way of New Ulm, Nicholas D. Schaffer, at the Council for the Arts in New Ulm (CANU) Kiesling House Gallery starting today.

The show's opening reception at the Gallery is from 2-4 p.m. The show continues through Dec. 16. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Viewing at other times can be done by appointment.

Adding a musical flavor to the reception will be music played on a sitar by Christopher DeSalvo of Golden Valley.

Schaffer, 19, claims to have been painting almost from the moment of birth, but it wasn't until he was a sophomore in high school, thinking of dropping out, that he made art his life.

"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do," Schaffer recalls, "but I heard about the Perpich Center of Arts Education in Golden Valley. I applied and was accepted. Then, for me, art became an addiction; I was compulsive about it."

So much so that he set a goal for himself to paint every day in one form or another. If not on canvas, paper, found material or by sculpting, at least he would create an image in his head.

When at the Perpich Center where he graduated last May, he was having two shows a month and amassing enough paintings and sculptures to hold a show with over 100 pieces of art.

The idea was, he admitted, to make people's eyes pop at the number of works of art he had created. At one show, where he was only given a 6-foot-square space to show his paintings, Schaffer created a 20-foot-tall easel out of 1x1 boards to hang his paintings on.

"It was the first thing people saw when they entered the exhibition hall," Schaffer said proudly.

"My goal is to be one of the most prolific artists in the country some day," Schaffer said.

Schaffer may work in representational style for several weeks when his art inspiration takes him into Cubism or Surrealism. Whatever the art mode he is working in, he concentrates on landscapes, portraits and abstracts.

"I have found myself including feet, key points in landscapes and disfiguring my friends and faces in portraits," Schaffer admits. "The portraits of my friends are all done in a very expressionistic style that is hard for me to ignore."

All of his landscape paintings are done "plein aire," outside on location. He likens the creation of some of his paintings to playing a game of chess, "making each move without overlooking other options."

Not only does he work in any available medium, including house paint because he can get it cheap from the recycling center, but on just about any type of material, including pillowcases, shower curtains, cardboard, ripped up mattresses and his canvas substitute--painter's drop cloth.

And he likes to work large. Some paintings are 4 by 9 or 12 by 12 feet, and he's done up to 6-by-20 foot murals.

When he wants a break, he turns to sculpture. Of the 50 or so pieces in the CANU exhibition, seven are clay sculptures. But he's created metal sculptures up to 12 feet tall; one features a section from an airplane wing.

"It's amazing what you can find in junkyards."