Bernard Schatz/L-15
Schatz received a Tree Of Life Individual Artist Grant for The Comeback of L-15.
Biography
Schatz loved art as far back as he can remember. At an early
age, he read the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, which greatly impressed
him. He has studied the works of mainstream artists using books, photos, and
visits to galleries and museums. He studied ceramics and glazes under the
tutelage of Martha Longenecker and at UCLA with Laura Andresen. While at UCLA,
he also studied painting with William Brice. He was an apprentice for eight
months with Bernard Zimmerman, a metal sculptor. As an artist in residence at
the Roswell Museum of Art, he developed a technique to raku solid clay bodies,
including porcelain. In addition to clay, he uses a variety of materials for
his art such as wax, plaster, resin, paint, fabric and wire. Schatz has worked
primarily on his own in a solitary environment, going from one form of art to
another and accumulating thousands of pieces. He has ventured out into the
world with an occasional exhibition or performance under the name L-15 or
(earlier) Cheyenne Schatz. The latest exhibition (5,000 pieces) was at the
Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Schatz says
that he is viewed as a primitive, untrained, outsider artist, but he is
thrilled to be an ARTIST.
The Comeback of L-15
I am now eighty-two and have thousands of artworks from the
very early part of my career through the sixty years plus years that I have
worked as an artist. I will use the Tree of Life Grant to continue unpacking,
photographing and adding images to my website. This process will include
labeling, categorizing and packing for inventory and storage of all artworks. I
will scan documents of my early performance art as well as other publications
about my art, commercial gallery and university exhibitions. I will also edit
portions of television and private videotapes for my website, including
excerpts from three of my seven appearances on the Steve Allen show in 1963.