Ward Schumaker, a widely published, exhibited and versatile artist, has created a series of paintings employing cut-paper texts, paint spills and deft brushwork––the culmination of years of almost exclusive book-making.  The texts can be read as abstract shapes or they can be read literally–the texts are derived from the Hindu Gitas, European musical theater (Brecht and Weill’s The Three-Penny Opera), and the artist’s dreams.

Working as a successful illustrator, Schumaker’s work has appeared in over 150 periodicals, including Herme’s Catalog, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Kiplinger’s, Hemispheres, New Yorker, Esquire Japan, and Le Monde.  He has illustrated two limited edition letterpress books for the famed Yolla Bolly Press: Two Kitchens in Provence by MFK Fisher, and Paris France by Gertrude Stein. His work on the Stein book won a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators. He is author/illustrator of three children’s books.  He has received awards from the AIGA, CA Illustration/Design Annuals, Print Magazine, Graphis and American Illustration.  His work has been the subject of articles in Communication Arts, Print, Step-by-Step, Design Journal (Korea), and Portfolio (Japan). With the Smithsonian Institution, Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, he received a Federal Design Achievement Award for his work on “Unlimited by Design.”  His work hangs in the Zimmerli Museum of Rutgers University and the Joslyn Art Museum.  His books appear in numerous private collections, as well as the New York and Boston Public Libraries, Swathmore and Clairemont Colleges, and Stanford and Wake Forest Universities.  The artist lives and works in San Francisco with his wife, artist Vivienne Flesher.