Elizabeth Yanish Shwayder was born in Saint Louis but has lived most of her life in Denver. She started out as a painter and studied with Angelo di Benedetto, Frank Vavra and Roland Detre.
In 1959, Shwayder was part of a group of artists and community members who founded the “Community Art Gallery.” They rented a house in Cherry Creek and had monthly exhibitions where local artists could exhibit and sell their artwork.
Shwayder then turned to sculpture, teaching herself how to carve wood and then learning to weld from Wilbert Verhelst. Her first arc-welded sculpture was shown at the Denver Art Museum in their juried exhibition, “Own Your Own,” shortly after it was made. Shwayder never looked back, creating metal sculptures for the rest of her career. Her sculptures have been shown in galleries all over the United States and in England and Italy.
53 Pages
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