Born into the waning days of the Eisenhower administration, Natalie’s work is often influenced by her memories of the 1960s and 70s, and is usually based on people and emotions rather than places or things.
Natalie Schorr spent 12 years working as an art director and set designer in motion pictures and television before leaving to raise her children. Her early work focused on realistic drawing and watercolor. In 1999, she added printmaking to her skills, experimenting extensively with early photopolymers and other nontoxic methods.
After a gap of many years of other creative pursuits, Natalie returned to art. Recently, she has become more focused on mixed media, frequently employing collage and printmaking as a starting point. Her current work often includes old and recycled items, with works primarily relating to memory and social comment. Natalie believes that in a perfect moment, mixed media brings together all her skills to create something no one skill or medium could possibly express.
After living in several cities over 4 states, Natalie recently returned to Greensboro, NC. She holds a BFA in Costume Design from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and an MFA in Scene Design from Carnegie Mellon University. Her studio includes a large printing press and an embarrassingly comprehensive supply of old magazines, wallpapers and ephemera.
Natalie Schorr Artist Statement
So why analog collage?
I have spent most of my life having my shortcomings pointed out to me on a near daily basis. This made me, like a lot of women, really strive hard for perfection, an amusingly unattainable goal. It wasn’t until I ran up against something over which I could have absolutely no control - my husband’s battle with cancer and our subsequent divorce - that I began to let go of perfection and instead embrace acceptance.
So for me, analog collage is about acceptance and learning to be good with whatever comes along. The perfect picture is not the right scale? OK. The eyes don’t match? No problem. The mouth is too big? That’s fine. It would be all too easy to scan the ideal picture element into Photoshop, resize it, and print it out in the perfect proportion, but I’ve decided not to do that. I choose to accept varying scales, wrinkles, and discolored papers as an essential part of my work and to be OK with all that. It’s a much happier and more genuine practice, and I’m good with that.