Eliza writes:
The "Magic Letters" series of paintings are mostly on unstretched, double-gessoed canvas executed in the last two years. Meant to be wallhangings, they range in size from 35-65 inches long and 25-40 inches wide, are painted with acrylics, mixed media, and acidfree permanent inkmarkers, and some contain pieces of collages. I am intrigued by the magic of writing in every known and unknown form and language, alphabetical, syllabic, hieroglyphic, cuneiform, petroglyphic, etc. In my paintings are symbols from ancient Sumer, the Easter Islands, ancient Greek, Latin, Semitic, Mayan, Gothic, Egypt, and even invented forms of writing. Although I sometimes tell stories, the paintings are primarily meant to be decorative or part of the mystery of ancient and modern images playfully thrown together to create a puzzling, unexpected effect. For instance, there may be Celtic symbols with Aztec faces and modern English script; flowers and other organic forms coming to the foreground, but retreating behind other images or a wrought-iron gate; pre-Columbian images with graffiti or political banners copied from the plaza in Oaxaca; or landscapes hiding behind horses, angels, or an Etruscan dancer or Spanish Colonial cathedral. I have created fifty paintings in this series, and continue to produce more.

Eliza M. Schmid was born and raised in post-World War II Vienna, Austria. She attended medical school in Vienna which, lucky for her, turned out to be the second-best art school in town, because students had to copy human normal and abnormal anatomy from huge blackboards. Schmid came to the USA on a fellowship to Stanford University in 1976. After a residency in psychiatry at the University of California in Los Angeles, she worked with indigent patients for the County of Los Angeles until she retired and became a full-time artist. Although she started painting relatively late in life, she has produced a prolific body of work and shown in scores of galleries both in solo and group shows, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Rental Gallery); San Bernardino County Museum of Art; BGH Gallery in Santa Monica, CA; Whitney Young Cultural Center, San Francisco; Dartmouth Street Gallery, Albuquerque, NM; Amsterdam Whitney Gallery and Jadite Galleries, New York City; Infusion Gallery, Los Angeles; Icon Gallery, Phoenix, AZ; Dikmayer Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Maryland Federation of Art, Baltimore; Santa Fe (NM) Fine Art Brokerage; Stables Gallery, Taos, NM; Ojai Art Center, CA; Shenere Velt Gallery, Los Angeles; Vallejo Artist Guild, Vallejo, CA; Collaboration Gallery, Santa Fe; Ushasti Gallery, Albuquerque; and many more. Eliza can be contacted via email at: elizak@cybermesa.com. More of her work can be seen at: www.judithshawgallery.com/Eliza_Schmid_index.htm.