Trump changes artist’s focus
Pretty things.
That’s what Maxine Schreiber, a lifelong artist, always loved painting.
A Palm Beach sunrise. A parakeet in a hibiscus tree. A historic Key West home.
But for Schreiber, 72, things changed dramatically Nov. 8 when Donald Trump was elected president.
The impact on Schreiber — and her work — was profound.
“I felt very deflated and depressed,” said Schreiber, a political activist since she was a freshman at Emerson College in Boston when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. “I didn’t even feel like painting anymore. Having someone like that representing America is like a nightmare.”
So she stopped painting for a little while. Then Schreiber got re-energized while watching and participating in local protests against the nation’s newly elected commander in chief.
Schreiber found a new purpose and started painting those rallies.
“I usually don’t paint people,” she said. “But I felt so inspired. It was more important to paint protesters than paint pretty landscapes. Why would I just paint beauty? There are more important things to be expressing right now.”
Those paintings will be part of “Bread & Roses: Women Who Resist,” an exhibition Aug. 18-30 at the Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery in Lake Worth.
Joyce Brown, the gallery’s curator, said Schreiber’s work will be a big part of the show, which will include the works of more than 20 artists.
“She’s showing what’s going on in our world and the fervor of people who fight for peace and social justice,” Kevin D. Thompson Brown said. “Some people sing topical songs; she makes topical paintings.”
Schreiber, who lives in West Palm Beach, has been politically aware since she was a kid.
She grew up in a staunchly Democratic household in Newark, N.J. Schreiber vividly remembers watching the Democratic and Republican conventions on television with her parents.
She marched against the war in Vietnam. She marched for civil rights. She was part of the ’60s counterculture and volunteered for practically every Democratic presidential candidate after JFK.
Schreiber learned how to paint at an early age, around 10, from her dad, who was also a painter.
“His work was fabulous,” she said. “I was like his mentee.”
Schreiber studied fine art, planned to become an art teacher. But she discovered something along the way — she hated teaching.
Meet Plan B: get your master’s degree in expressive therapies and launch your own psychotherapy practice, something she did for 30 years — the last 20 in Palm Beach County.
Then, in August 2001, she got the urge to pick up a paint brush. She isn’t really sure why. It was like a calling. Paintings were in many of her dreams.
“I was worried because in the past, when I painted, I couldn’t work,” Schreiber said.
In 2005, she closed her practice and started painting full time.
Twelve years later, Schreiber finds herself a changed artist, one who is proud to say she’s a member of the artivism movement, where artists use their work to make political statements.
Although her art deals with serious issues, Schreiber says when people see them, they call the works “cute.”
She’s not offended by that assessment.
“They are cute,” she said. “That’s how you feel at these marches. We’re all happy to be together and how supportive and kind people are to each other. It’s very uplifting.”
The paintings, however, are also reflecting a fractured nation, one in turmoil.
“We’re living through some terrible times,” Schreiber said. “Our democracy and way of life are really being challenged right now.”
And Schreiber, former painter of pretty things, is determined to make sure no one forgets that ugly fact.