About the exhibition:

Artists Eric Schaeffer and Sarah Baptist present their Urban Landscape photographs and paintings in square format for this exhibition at Da Vinci Art Alliance. The square format provides a symmetry and brings its own particular beauty and precision to Eric and Sarah's artwork. The square, which Instagram has helped make so popular, supports the complexities and like shapes found and repeated in the urban landscape, such as the city block itself. Eric and Sarah both worked in this format prior to It’s Hip to Be Square and decided it would be a great building block for a collaborative exhibition.

Eric Schaeffer and Sarah Baptist both straddle the line of representation and abstraction in their work. Using shape, color and texture, they skillfully interpret and celebrate the world around them. Eric’s striking use of structure and light in his photographic works pairs well with Sarah's spontaneous approach to many of the same subjects with oil paint. The artwork of these two artists compliments each other and creates a wonderful interplay. Seeing their work side by side, presented in a square format, almost like small city blocks on the wall, will be of particularly strong impact.

It’s Hip to Be Square will be on view in Gallery 2 at Da Vinci Art Alliance beginning April 1st and will be available as a video walkthrough shortly after.

About the Artists:

Eric Schaeffer has always been interested in Art and image making. Always drawing and experimenting with forms. It was in High School where Eric was introduced to photography and he became the photographer for the school newspaper. Eric continued to make images through his undergraduate college days through courses in drawing, painting and printmaking even though he was a Sociology major with a minor in Psychology. A few years after finishing college Eric was introduced to Theatre where he discovered he had a talent for Set Design. Eric now made 3 dimensional images that actors walked around in. Eric continued with photography for a number of years doing actor headshots and photos of shows that were used in newspaper reviews. Back then this photography was done with a 35 mm camera on black and white film that Eric developed and printed himself. This photo work continued through Eric’s years in graduate school and beyond but eventually Theatre came to take up all his time, that and raising a family, and photography was left behind. Some 30 years later after Eric left the Theatre and he returned to photography. This time with his cell phone. Now Eric specializes in capturing light images with his phone. Something he always has with him and is always handy to pull out and snap a random shot of the world.

At age 13, Sarah Baptist fell in love with theater while building sets for a summer theater program. Years later, Sarah chose set design as a career because she loved creating the illusion of another world on the stage. That morphed into painting scenery for theater, opera and specialty events for 20+ years from Maine, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and finally Delaware. Sarah returned to her roots and what she loved most, ART, full time in 2014. Now Sarah creates worlds with oil paints on panels rather than the stage! The character and essence of city streets, alleys, and urban vignettes capture Sarah’s attention when she looks for subjects to paint. She finds rhythms in the shapes and spaces of the urban landscape. Sarah enjoys plein air painting. Being on location, responding and reacting to the light, color and atmosphere is a challenge and a joy. Sarah has started to use this plein air work, as well as many photos taken while out painting, to create larger urban landscapes and abstractions in her home studio in Wilmington, Delaware. Sarah is a self-taught artist. She has won numerous awards for her work and was a featured artist in Plein Air Magazine in April 2019.

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