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 “If you were ever stuck on a deserted island, Rochelle Schueler is the person with whom you’d want to be stranded. She can do it all and do it in style.”

--Penny Nakamura, The Bend Bulletin

 

As a child and young adult, Rochelle created unique gifts for people using poetry, photography, or craft such as woodworking. It was an avenue for an introverted child to convey her feelings for others. She wanted to study architecture and alternative energy, but the cards played out that she studied her other love- the natural world.

 

She continued being a “maker” as she raised a family, passing the skills on to her daughters while creating a successful screen-printing & tie-dye business, building houses, and creating theatrical sets and props. As a self-taught learner, she was constantly pursuing knowledge by reading technical books and experimenting. As time became available, she started taking classes in drawing, welding, metal art, and ceramics and realized how much she loved art, the value of art, and that one could have a business creating it.

 

In 2012, she discovered the poetic language of mosaics. She has taken numerous mosaic classes and has studied extensively and apprenticed under internationally recognized mosaic muralist, Laurel True, who inspired her to start her own mosaic art studio in 2014. She has traveled and worked on various commissioned and public art projects alongside True in New Orleans, San Francisco, Mexico, and most recently Haiti where she was invited by True to help facilitate the creation of 4 large-scale tile murals with a team of young adults in a re-constructed hospital in Jacmel. She experienced first hand how public art can transform a space, the economic, social, and psychological effects on the community, and how it creates a sense of pride.

 

Rochelle specializes in contemporary mosaic murals and architectural, functional, and sculptural mosaics using glass, ceramic tile, mirror, concrete, and recycled materials. Her work is full of energy, color, and movement. She recently designed and created a 4 foot x 8 foot tile mural titled Ripple Effect that was juried into the 2019 Mosaic Arts International: Architectural & Site-Specific mosaic exhibition. In 2015, she fabricated an award winning public art project, a 40-foot recycled metal mural with a metal mosaic logo “floating” over it for the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Bend, Oregon. She has also been a member of other award winning collaborative design teams.

 

She plans to continue to gain more experience in the area of public art, exploring the use of different materials and techniques.