Thea Schrack's talent is best summarized as the ability to reveal the timelessness of beauty. The diversity of her artwork is evident in her client base, which ranges from international fine art galleries to software giants. Her original intent upon completion of a conventional art education was to pursue fashion photography, but it wasn't long before requests took her far from that goal: from panoramic post card books to commissioned corporate gifts, to winery and vineyard brochures, ad campaigns, book and album covers and historical monument photography.
The diversity of Thea's life is reflected in her work. Her childhood days on a Nebraska wheat ranch provided a deep understanding of vastness, solitude and the discriminating subtlety of light. Formal studies in Colorado and San Francisco, her current home, helped to express the impression. Life experience and extensive travel developed her ability to capture the similarities that run through diverse cultures over time. Thus, the majority of Schrack's works, from panoramic views of San Francisco, to lively scenes of Manhattan Beach, to one solitary, cobwebbed chandelier, hanging from the ceiling of an abandoned Bohemian ballroom, romanticize fundamental components and relay dreamy/detached complexity.
Thea Schrack's predilection to the natural is demonstrated by the abundance of her garden, flower and vineyard compositions. She manages to capture the compassion of nature in a single wild pear as clearly as she finds it in a manicured English garden; it is as evident in the wind raging around a coastal lighthouse as it is in autumn leaves slowly gathering around benches in the park. "I like to soften the view of the common and harsh world, and expose the beauty and mystery that others may have overlooked," she says to explain her purpose.
The artist uses various cameras and techniques to balance the actual with the ever changing and to capture the essence of her subject matter-whatever that may be. Once she is satisfied with the images she may add sepia tones, and colors to the image. The paints highlight weather patterns and play off light to create scenes of passion and mystery. The preciseness of photography is artfully interpreted to the point where reality and imagination converge.
World travels provide inspiration to the artist and diversity to her collection, and becoming a mother added yet another dimension and focus. Emotion dictates every composition. The innocence of children recently became a penchant, but inevitably a soft, surreal touch prevails over tricycles or mansions, grapevines, apple peels or antique roses. "Nature and light continually change; a constant lies at the heart of all external transformation and affords the balance of power and beauty I try to relay."