Seeking new challenges in the art world and beyond
As an artist, athlete and entrepreneur, Jeffrey Swider Peltz is truly a renaissance man. Never content to simply repeat the same things that have brought him success in the past, he is constantly looking for new challenges. While competing for the United States on the national speedskating team, he was also pursuing an art degree at Wheaton College in Chicago and launching UESAY Apparel, his own clothing line.
“I like projects that enter new territory for me” he told us. “Where I can source skills from the past as well as learn through new challenges I have to tackle.”
He says his passion for taking on new challenges was why he was excited to work on the two pieces he created for Baird Center, Courtside and Courtside Remix. Already a respected muralist with works gracing Chicago’s Logan Square and Wheaton College as well as locations in Palestine and Mexico, the pieces for Baird Center tested him in fresh and thrilling ways.
“I have worked on large murals and some canvas pieces smaller than these ones,” he explained, “but I’ve had to use all my know-how and that of others around me to figure out how to build these massive canvases.”
An elite athlete who competed at the highest levels of international sports, it is only natural that the fire that drove him to be the best athlete has followed him into his artistic career. When tested during the creation of Courtside and Courtside Remix he found energy in pushing his boundaries.
“In sports you don’t always know what your limit is, so you keep training and pushing yourself until you get there,” he said. “You have to be creative to push your limits–finding new ways to train and improve–and that’s a significant I feel between art and sports.”
What he thought would be the approach he would take at the start of the project ended up turning into something completely different and forced him to find unusual solutions.
“At first I was thinking we were going to do a mural on a wall which is something I’m a little more used to,” he stated. “But then we needed to try to find a way to make something big like a mural but able to be moved from one wall to another depending on interior design needs down the road. That was a big challenge and, now, a challenge completed in my artist career.”
Courtside and Courtside Remix are part of the We Energies Foundation Art Collection located at Baird Center. Jeffrey Swider Peltz is one of the thirty-three artists, most from Milwaukee, Wisconsin or with special ties to the area who have works featured in the collection. You can discover more about the artists and their works at https://bairdcenter.com/art-collection/.