VISIONS, Fall 1991
Michael Schrauzer, a highly disciplined, academic young artist, constructs technically proficient, structured paintings so that each frame, each shape, each position of an image, each bit of material is carefully selected and preplanned to contribute to the content. Nothing is accidental in the execution of a piece, only in the design does intuition come into play. His reaching for a perfection of form, he feels, is grounded in his Roman Catholic religious training. "I live my faith, so it can‘t help but influence my art...not in terms of justifying the art but in terms of an expression of my personal experience. My belief is that if we separate from God, we separate from each other, from nature, and from ourselves." His quest is for balance and unity.
Like medieval painters, he clothes his thought in allegory to find hidden meaning beneath layers of secondary meanings. It is no surprise that he finds the most impressive work of art to be the altar piece at Ghent by Jan Van Eyck, nor that his favorite poet is T.S. Eliot. The author Henry James also comes to mind when viewing his work, for Schrauzer is a detailist who pays attention to every nuance. Always drawn to representational art, he uses representational images to function as illusion to point the way to further interpretations. The painting functions as a communicator of rational, logical, important ideas. Nothing is meant to be superfluous or decorative.
An example of levels of meaning embodied in a piece is seen in Grace and Causality. Shaped like a stylized altar, framed geometric areas separate each of its images. At the base is a small cubicle containing an egg with evidence of smoke burns marking the shell. Above the cubicle is a painting of a fire, only flames visible against a black moonless night. Centered above this is a framed square of sulfuric yellow. The actual chemical element of sulfur is used in this space. Above the fire and surrounding the square is a painting of a fragile blue sky tinged with pink clouds. Although the obvious interpretation is birth, death, and resurrection, there is more embedded in that basic theme.