Artist Statement

Painting

My interest in painting human faces lies not in representing images
in a realistic manner, but in conveying human feelings or expressing the nature of the relationships between the subjects.  In this sense, I follow an expressionist tradition, but I also try to incorporate narrative elements into these “portraits.”  As in real life, we are asked to intuit the nature of relationships between people, to imagine what has led up to the expressions in their faces, to wonder about their past and future.  This process of responding to art refines our awareness of and sensitivity to the people with whom we share our lives.

The landscapes paintings seek to evoke the mystery and spirit of the natural world, its joyful or forbidding presence that brightens or casts a shadow over our lives. The watercolor and pastel pieces in this show were inspired by recent trips to Alaska and the Teton Range in Wyoming.

Printmaking

I am a relative newcomer to woodblock printing which was perhaps the most striking medium in German Expressionist art of the 1910s and 1920s. The simplification of form and the starkness of the black/white contrast seek to express the emotions latent in the subjects. Each image is printed by hand from the original wood block and is a unique work of art because of the slight variations that result from the application of the ink to the block.

Matthias Schubnell is a professor of English at the University of the  
Incarnate Word and originally comes from Freiburg in Germany.
Please direct any inquiries to schubnel@uiwtx.edu