Schwei Studios' Home Page

1945--Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1963--Graduate Neenah High School, Neenah, WI.

1963-1967--Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. BA in biology.

1967-1969--University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, New York. I decide I'm really not cut-out to be a doctor.

1969-1973--University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. Graduate school in Tibetan Buddhist studies, including Indian as well as Tibetan culture.

1970--I start making art, inspired by the art of Native America, Africa and New Guinea as well as that of Tibet. I try to develop my art as "philosophy expressed."

1972--I meet JorJan at a party in Madison. There's an earthquake that night. We move in together (what else could we do?), renting a cabin west of Madison with no plumbing and inside snowdrifts. We abandon academia and homestead, make art and sell it at local galleries and shows.

1975--We buy a small farm and start raising sheep. JorJan goes to work at the local CAP and I play in a local band.

1977--I'm hired by the Wisconsin Arts Board to accompany a mime troupe on guitar and Fred, a six-foot wooden bird with cello strings I lead around on a leash. JorJan starts working part-time for the state as a planner.

1979--I begin painting, at first mostly abstract experiments with color, space, rhythm and materials.

1980--Teddy is born September 6. We get married in honor of the event.

1981--Teddy is diagnosed with Sandhoff's Disease, a genetic, fatal, progressive degeneration of the central nervous system. JorJan takes a leave from her job and we stop showing art so we can take shifts in the around the clock care he needs. We try to support ourselves with things which can be worked around caring for Teddy. Minute to minute life and death becomes routine.

1983--Coriandra is diagnosed in utero with the same disease. No other option than a difficult abortion.

1984--I start painting about Teddy and our life with him. I can no longer use my art "to escape."

1987--Teddy dies, having stayed aware of things until the end and having lived longer than any other Sandhoff's child. We're tired, isolated and deeply in debt but glad we were able to give him the best life possible. We both go to work at Lands' End in Dodgeville answering phones for the Christmas season.

1988--JorJan goes back to work part-time for the state and I stay on part-time at Lands' End.

1990--I have a major show of the Teddy paintings at ARC Gallery in Chicago. The show proves a cathartic experience for many viewers. I'm struck by the number of people who have been or know someone in a similar situation, and at how many thank me for sharing my experience. The critic, Michael Bonesteel does a long feature article on the paintings and on our experience for the Chicago "Reader" which leads to contact from Simon and Schuster Publishing Company about the possibility of a book about our experience. It falls through largely due to aesthetic disagreements; they seem to want a pop-seller disease of the week sort of thing that ends on an uplifting note.

1993—We sell the sheep — only so many financially unprofitable things we can do all at the same time.

1994--I'm a visiting artist at Carleton College, Northfield, MN.

1994-1999--I play fiddle in "Grand Chien Cajun Band." We play throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

1997--I quit Lands' End since I have not had enough time for my art.

1998--We buy an old Trachte Co. Metal building in Highland, WI. to use as a studio.

2001--We self-publish our book, "Living With Dying."

2002--I have a heart attack while cutting firewood even though I have low blood pressure and low cholesterol. A surprisingly peaceful (although painful) experience since there was nothing I could do about it except hang on.

2005--In January I have surgery for prostate cancer.  A month after surgery my PSA reading is where it belongs, although I have the expected problems with urinary control.  In June my PSA is higher than the doctors like, but not so high as to require immediate radiation.  After retesting a number of times my PSA seems to remain steady, so we adopt a wait-and-see policy, retesting every three months.  Urinary control has returned.

2007--My PSA reading is back up indicating I still have cancer cells present, so for the first six weeks of the year I commute to University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison for radiation therapy.  It leaves me tired but hopeful.  We should know in about a year if it worked.

2007--My PSA readings taken in July and September are finally down where they belong.  Now, if they'll just stay there...

Present--Except for loss of some energy and stamina, I seem recovered. I continue to do conceptually driven artwork and to play the fiddle. And we continue to homestead.