As you’ve probably already figured, my name is Nathan Schulz. I’m an Australian born artist who’s always felt rather deeply about many things. This combined with a perfectionist nature and touched off with a darkened root is what drives my artistic style. To feel, to be felt and to be seen.
Creativity runs through my veins. As an unconfident child, drawing allowed me to capture things in a unique way; show the emotion I was feeling through the stroke of a pencil or flick of a brush. It was how I expressed what I felt. It was what made me, well me.
This artistic talent followed me through all my schooling. Being artistic I was encouraged to express my passion and with this I achieved many things. Having one of my artworks displayed in the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Federation Square I finally glimpsed at what everyone else had been seeing.
Up until this point I could never see what everyone else saw, I was doubtful, deep and dark within my own thoughts. The work featured in the NGV focused on depression and illustrated a mental void, unescapable, and experienced by all ages. This particular artwork contained a slither of my own soul, and in this light, it could grasp everyone else’s.
All the artworks on this website contain a similar influence, up to the date you read this I still place a part of me into every work. As of the 21st of January 2023, I have been allowed to feel & to be felt, but now it’s time for me to be seen.
So, thank you from the bottom of my heart, for even if you just read this you’re allowing me to be on the right track. Thank you deeply.
Signed,
Nathan Schulz
The Painfull Truth
My Story
The Emotional Side
Who is Nathan Schulz? In all honesty it’s still a question I’m trying to figure out myself. Simply put I’m an Australian born artist; but the truth is more complicated than that. The truth of what shaped me into the artist I am today, my heart story, well it started 19 years ago in a small house. At the age of 4 I used to be watched by a caretaker when my parents were too busy supporting our family to do so themselves. At the fault of no one and unbeknown to my mother at the time was the neglect I faced during these hours of “care”. What I didn’t realise until 21 years of age face to face with a councillor was that this moment fractured my mind forever. The neglect that I experienced all those years ago caused me to suffer from Emotional Deprivation Syndrome; a lonely, bitter, feeling of depression with no apparent awareness of the reason. It caused me to feel alone and abandoned, as if there was something wrong with the person I was. At 10-16 years of age, I would cry myself to sleep on many occasions, I had mapped out ways to self-harm in which were thoughts that should have never crossed my mind; but they did; consequently to all the sadness I felt, no one could make the pain go away. Having no understanding of why I was feeling the way I was meant that there was no escape. So, I found one within my artworks. In these depressing moments I would draw, feeding the anguish into the paper, letting every stroke speak a thousand words. This particular instinct is why I believe charcoal remains my medium of preference, for it is expressive, dark, uncontrolled and raw.
I don’t ever consider my past as a burden, or the fault of a particular person, however, once upon a time I did; and sadly, the person I blamed was myself. Thankfully to therapy I understand the truth to it all in its entirety. Respectfully I don’t mind my past, if I could, would I change it? Maybe. Yet, I don’t think so, it’s made me, well me. It allowed me to feed a raw feeling into art that can be viewed by many; and this is what I like most. That it doesn’t matter who we are, where we have been, what we do, a single piece of art can cause us all to feel something deeply about ourselves. Art in this nature becomes a shared but silent language of emotion.
What I hope after you’ve read this is that at some point in your life, go speak to someone about your problems, we all have something to talk about. Heck, no they aren’t easy. We may not even understand them, I didn’t. But I knew the depression I felt wasn’t normal. So, I got off my ass and made a difference to my life. Without those sessions I’d still be coming home to sit in the corner of a room, hidden from the world, head in hands, wondering ‘what is so wrong with me’. Today I look back at the child I was, happy to the masses, broken in isolation.
Not every day can be the same as yesterday, but each day must be different to today.
Truthfully,
Nathan Schulz
If you need a chat it’s a choice away… Beyond Blue