Fine Art nominee

In 'Evenings with the Moon' I contemplate the power of universal experiences to unify and find transcendence, engaging the moon as muse. My illuminated impressions of the night draw on the metaphor of darkness and light to express our shared longing for freedom, love, and harmony amidst the chaos of the world. Captured, layered and printed digitally on translucent vellum or Japanese kozo and gilded with white gold leaf on verso, the subjects echo the luminosity of their celestial inspiration, infused by the artist’s hand and suffused with the implied spirituality and sanctity of the precious metals. This synthesis of form and content, paired with poignant poetry and music, allows the viewer to enter a space between the real and the imagined to consider the commonalities in our collective consciousness. We all live under the same moon.

"In the still of darkness
lovers join - become one
trees whisper and quiver
a raven imparts its wisdom
an owl nods
as the wolf sings its song
under the shimmering
luminous autumn moon"

— Sue Lotta

Wendi Schneider is a visual artist illuminating vanishing beauty in our vulnerable environment. Rooted in the serenity she finds in the grace of organic forms and influenced by a background in painting and art history, she creates unique objects of reverence by capturing, layering and printing her images digitally, then applying white gold leaf on verso - to infuse the artist's hand and suffuse her subjects with the luminosity and spirituality of the precious metal. Schneider turned to photography in the 1980s to reference for paintings. Mesmerized by the alchemy of the darkroom, yet missing the sensuousness of oils, she layered oils on her prints. She moved to New York in 1988, photographing for book covers and Victoria Magazine, and to Denver in 1994, later sidelining her fine art practice while working in commissioned photography, art direction, and design. Returning to fine art photography in 2010, she soon began her ongoing series ‘States of Grace’. Exhibited and collected internationally, her photographs are held in permanent collections at New Orleans Museum of Art, Memphis Brooks Museum, Center for Creative Photography, and Auburn University Library. She is represented by A Gallery For Fine Photography, New Orleans and Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston.