Fish out of water. The technical definition is sharper than the saying — a person in a completely unsuitable environment, somewhere they don't fit, somewhere the air feels wrong. We've all had those days: the meeting we weren't ready for, the room where the language and the rules and the rhythms feel foreign. This T-Shirt is for the version of you that walks in anyway. Soft, lightweight, quietly on your side — a reminder that being the only fish in the room sometimes means you're the one who got there first.
Deanna Schweitzer is a self-taught visual artist whose eye for systems, placement, and pattern has shaped a creative practice rooted in deep observation of the world around her. Born into a military family, Deanna spent her childhood as a third-culture kid — moving across the country, carrying her pencil and sketchbook like a first language wherever she went. Art classes in high school and college became spaces to explore and expand; the real education happened in the quiet hours of looking, noticing, and translating what she saw into line and form.
Deanna's work spans an extraordinary range — from large-scale environmental murals and public art installations to pencil portraits, intuitive abstract pieces, and intricate decorative arts. Her designs have graced elementary school hallways and community spaces. She has drawn sharpie tattoos for fundraisers and created paintings that found their way to the Iowa State Fair. Whatever the medium, her recognition of pattern and her instinct for where things belong give her work a visual intelligence that is entirely her own.
Perhaps the most remarkable thread in Deanna's story is the one woven by the universe itself. A childhood friend of Kate Shu since kindergarten, the two lost touch for decades — until Deanna and her husband bought a home in Iowa City and discovered, quite by accident, that their next-door neighbor was Kate's grandmother, Alda. For years, Deanna was Alda's neighbor, her watchful presence, and one of the trusted eyes that kept the Hightshoe family connected to the woman they loved. Some friendships are planted young and bloom exactly when they're needed most.
"Beautiful art is the most sincere form of abundance." — Deanna Schweitzer
About this T-Shirt:
A Kate Shu Collective exclusive, available only at the Monarch Shoppe.
Fish out of water. The technical definition is sharper than the saying — a person in a completely unsuitable environment, somewhere they don't fit, somewhere the air feels wrong. We've all had those days: the meeting we weren't ready for, the room where the language and the rules and the rhythms feel foreign. This T-Shirt is for the version of you that walks in anyway. Soft, lightweight, quietly on your side — a reminder that being the only fish in the room sometimes means you're the one who got there first.
Deanna Schweitzer is a self-taught visual artist whose eye for systems, placement, and pattern has shaped a creative practice rooted in deep observation of the world around her. Born into a military family, Deanna spent her childhood as a third-culture kid — moving across the country, carrying her pencil and sketchbook like a first language wherever she went. Art classes in high school and college became spaces to explore and expand; the real education happened in the quiet hours of looking, noticing, and translating what she saw into line and form.
Deanna's work spans an extraordinary range — from large-scale environmental murals and public art installations to pencil portraits, intuitive abstract pieces, and intricate decorative arts. Her designs have graced elementary school hallways and community spaces. She has drawn sharpie tattoos for fundraisers and created paintings that found their way to the Iowa State Fair. Whatever the medium, her recognition of pattern and her instinct for where things belong give her work a visual intelligence that is entirely her own.
Perhaps the most remarkable thread in Deanna's story is the one woven by the universe itself. A childhood friend of Kate Shu since kindergarten, the two lost touch for decades — until Deanna and her husband bought a home in Iowa City and discovered, quite by accident, that their next-door neighbor was Kate's grandmother, Alda. For years, Deanna was Alda's neighbor, her watchful presence, and one of the trusted eyes that kept the Hightshoe family connected to the woman they loved. Some friendships are planted young and bloom exactly when they're needed most.
"Beautiful art is the most sincere form of abundance." — Deanna Schweitzer
About this T-Shirt:
A Kate Shu Collective exclusive, available only at the Monarch Shoppe.
