| May 12, 2005
Del Mar’s Betsy Schulz: Artist-In-Residence
and Resident Artist
By Lee Schoenbart
She was determined not to be one of those “starving
artist types.” And while Betsy Schulz graduated from Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh with a B.A. in art, her background was
in graphic
design with concentrations in art and business.
“I always wanted to be an artist,
but I got the graphic design background because I don’t
like working in restaurants,” she said with a laugh. “I
wanted to make sure I had a practical way to make a living
and still have
art be the main thing.”
“It’s a more practical application
of art because it’s something people can buy,” said
the 11-year Del Mar-Carmel Valley resident of her graphic arts business.
She is the artist-in-residence for Del Mar Heights Elementary School
under Principal Wendy Wardlow as well as one of Del Mar’s
resident artists.
During her 18-month affiliation with the school,
Schulz has gone from planning gardenscapes to lesson planning.
Last year she devised a semester-long assignment
for 90 sixth-graders with teacher Pam Martin that brought other
subjects along side the art project. The students created an 18-foot,
yellow-and-green mosaic sea serpent-shaped bench next to the school’s
playground.
In 2002, Schulz and author/artist Pat Welsh worked
with the Del Mar Foundation, Del Mar Garden Club, Friends of the
Library and 80 volunteers to create an ocean-themed, mixed-media
mosaic to beautify the concrete, street-side retaining wall in front
of the library on Camino del Mar.
Three years later and two blocks away, Schulz
guided Del Mar Heights Elementary students in the creation of a
10 feet tall by 6 feet wide mosaic depicting a coral reef at Java
Kai, a Hawaiian coffee shop on Camino del Mar.
Schulz likes wall-size projects such as murals
because she likes her art large. So large, in fact, that Schulz and fellow artist Hans Tegebo collaborated
on a 12-foot, 1,200-pound cement and ceramic sculpture in the shape
of a surfboard titled "The Surfboard Cypress" for the
Port of San Diego's first Urban Tree Project.
Undaunted by the Cedar fire destruction that
swept through Tegebo’s Harbison Canyon studio on Oct. 26,
2003, where the “surfboard” was being stored at the
time, the artists refused to give in to the elements and restored
the piece in time for display along the Embarcadero and renamed
it the "Surfboard Cypress Survivor."
The sculpture has since been purchased by Scripps
and is on display in the Wolfstein Sculpture Garden at Scripps Memorial
Hospital in La Jolla.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve
always really wanted to do large-scale art, environmental type of
pieces,” she said. “I always paint large paintings.
I like things to be large. “I think when you have something that’s so strong in
you, you can’t just not do it,” Schulz said.
Among her many simultaneous projects, Schulz
recently designed a book written and illustrated by Welsh. “The
Magic Mural: A Fable for All Ages” tells the story of the
mural that graces the wall in front of the Del Mar branch library.
The book is scheduled for publication in about six weeks and will
be sold at the library as a fund-raiser for the library.
Collaborations, with students, community volunteers,
Martin, Tegebo and Welsh are the ones Schulz finds most satisfying.
“It’s really great getting
the community involved, because it gives them a sense of ownership,”
she said. “It’s more than just an artists’ piece,
it’s something that everybody had a hand in.
“People in the community had an opportunity
to work on it and it becomes a little bit of everybody’s art
piece. I like that because art is very subjective,” she said.
“I think it gives people a better
understanding of what goes into it by actually working on it, working
with the artist and understanding what they go through putting it
together.
“It’s harder to have people
involved because it’s more organization, but I love that feeling,”
she said.
For members in the community who have participated
in any of the Schulz-led projects, and were bitten by the creative
bug, she offered this advice.
“Be persistent. As an artist, you
do things over and over and over,” she said. “I do a
lot a sketches and miscellaneous little projects, and there’s
just a few of them that I really think are fabulous.
“My advice would be to just work
on it. Don’t be discouraged, just move forward.”
To learn more, visit Schulz’s Web
site at www.adesigngarden.com.
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