The Cloud Gallery - Artist Tony Schaefer - About Me.
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Presently Living in South Grafton, N.S.W Australia.
Artist Statement
The central endeavor of my work is to visualize a journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening, questioning the perception of a world and a self that seems separate within it. To explore a reality beyond the constraints of time, space, and physical identity, I employ "the everybody"—an archetypal, over-simplified figure that acts as a witness, a projector/creator, and a passive compositional device.
My visual language is deeply influenced by the metaphysical principles of A Course In Miracles and the abstract pioneering of Klee, Kandinsky, and Hilma af Klint. After nearly two decades of teaching internationally, I have returned to Australia to refocus on expressing this spiritual solution through art. I am drawn to the digital medium for its forgiving and adaptable nature, allowing me to distill complex visions into simple forms without fully surrendering to abstraction, and opening possibilities for integrating sound and motion.
Bio
My artistic journey has been one of departure and return—a cyclical path that has taken me from the halls of the National Art School to the museums of Sydney, across the world and back again, carrying a transformed vision.
In the late 1980s, I graduated from the National Art School (East Sydney Tech College) with a Fine Arts Certificate. The decade that followed immersed me in the institutional life of making art — working for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Grafton Regional Gallery, and assisting with exhibitions at The Sherman Gallery and The Art Gallery of New South Wales. Yet beneath this professional exterior, restlessness was building. I had seen things that deeply questioned my understanding of reality, purpose, and place.
By 1998, disillusioned with the art industry and searching for something beyond its boundaries, I left Sydney. That search led me to A Course In Miracles, and to an unexpected journey: a profound spiritual awakening that would reshape everything. For nearly two decades, I taught A Course In Miracles all over the world, setting aside my artistic practice to pursue a different kind of expression.
Returning to Australia with my wife, I felt the stirring of a renewed creative vision. But the artist who returned was not the one who had left. The work now had to serve a different purpose.
I re-entered formal study as a pathway back to practice, beginning with the Diploma of Visual Arts at Coffs Harbour TAFE (graduating with Distinction and a TAFE Award of Excellence), followed by the Advanced Diploma, and culminating in a Bachelor of Fine Art from Curtin University in 2020. During this period of reimmersion, two profound influences shaped my direction: the pedagogical writings of Paul Klee, and Kandinsky's seminal 'Concerning The Spiritual In Art'. The exhibition 'The Spiritual In Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985' became a touchstone, connecting my personal journey to a broader historical lineage.
This foundation gave birth to new bodies of work. "The Hum of Eternity"—a series of 1600mm square paintings on linen—represented my first serious attempt to integrate sound with visual art, drawing directly from the text of A Course In Miracles to create an ambient, nearly imperceptible sonic dimension. I began constructing my own stretchers using Golden Rectangle ratios, experimenting with traditional gesso while grounding compositions in principles of dynamic symmetry.
The butterfly emerged in 2016 as a recurring symbol—a visual metaphor for the spiritual transformation I had lived. My first solo exhibition, held at Artspace on 45 Coramba, marked a public return after decades of quiet evolution. During the 2020 Plunge Festival, I exhibited at Breimba Lane Exhibition - Plunge Festival and founded The Society of Spiritual Artists—an online forum creating community for those exploring the intersection of art and spiritual enquiry.
Today, my work centers on "the everybody": an archetypal, over-simplified figure that serves as witness, projector, and compositional device. Drawing on the metaphysical principles that reshaped my life, and the artistic lineage of Klee, Kandinsky, and Hilma af Klint, I seek to visualize a reality unbound by time, space, or the illusion of a separate self. The digital medium—with its forgiving, pressure-sensitive adaptability—has become essential to this practice, allowing me to distill complex visions into elemental forms without abandoning figuration entirely, and opening pathways to integrate sound and motion.
My website, thecloudgallery.org , founded in 2014, represents my ongoing commitment to building community among artists exploring the inexpressible—that which lies deep within each of us, waiting to be listened to and trusted.
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