Tess Mosko Scherer

Artist Statement My work examines how material can hold the subtle traces of human experience. Working primarily with handmade and altered paper, drawing, and stitched elements, I investigate the relationship between surface, gesture, and memory. Torn edges, incised marks, and mended seams become both physical structure and metaphor, suggesting the tension between fragility and resilience.

Central to my practice is an interest in liminal space—the quiet threshold between interior reflection and outward form. Through slow, deliberate processes of marking, cutting, and stitching, the work accumulates layers of time and attention. The resulting surfaces invite sustained looking, offering a contemplative space where presence, absence, and transformation quietly coexist.

Brief Bio Tess Mosko Scherer is a Phoenix-based mixed-media artist whose work explores material, memory, and contemplative practice. Working with handmade and altered paper, drawing, and stitched elements, she investigates themes of liminality, transformation, and the interior landscape. With a career spanning more than four decades, she has worked as an artist, gallerist, curator, and arts leader. Mosko Scherer has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the City of Phoenix for arts programs serving individuals affected by trauma, and continues to support artists and communities through her leadership in the arts.