The imagery in Rebecca Schultz’s work references the essential qualities and forms of rocks, trees, clouds, and other elements of the environment. Her newest body of work is inspired by the rock formations she observed and sketched during her residency in Iceland in July 2017, as well as formations she have observed in places in the US that have personal meaning for her. “Strike” and “dip,” geological terms that describe the slope and orientation of rocky outcroppings, reflect Schultz’s concern with the angles, planes, and surfaces of her subjects. Rocks might appear immutable but they are formed by the most extreme, dynamic, and elemental processes on earth. In capturing the essence of rock formations, Schultz considers what they have already lived through and what they will witness as our planet changes.

Schultz is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts facilitator/educator whose creative practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking, and collage; participatory installation and public art projects; and performance art. She studied painting at Rhode Island School of Design, but by the end of her undergraduate studies was making mixed media installation pieces examining gender socialization and media messages about women. In 2014, Schultz returned her focus to visual art, a shift that paralleled her increasing awareness of environmental issues, particularly humanity’s impact on the ecosystem. Since moving to the Philadelphia area, she has shown her work at the 3rd Street Gallery, Crane Arts, Philadelphia Open Studios, the Philadelphia Sketch Club, and the Cheltenham Center for the Arts, and has created a mural in collaboration with young people at the James L. Wright Recreation Center in West Philadelphia as part of Mural Arts’ A2O program. She is currently teaching for the Delphi Art Club and Art Futures programs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and facilitating a community-based project for Mural Arts’ Porch Light program. Schultz is a member of InLiquid, the MamaCITA Collective, and the Cheltenham Center for the Arts.