Schumer began painting at age 5 and continued through high school. She was an abstract expressionist early on, being chastised by her elementary school teachers for her drippy non-realist work. In college her practical nature asserted itself and she became a lawyer instead of an artist. In the following years she collected art, wishing all the while she had painted what she collected. Finally, in 2000, she reconnected with an old friend, artist James Koskinas. He sensed her long suppressed desire to create art and asked her why she wasn’t painting. Schumer answered she didn’t know. Koskinas brought her several pieces of wood, acrylic paint and a few brushes and said, “Paint.” Schumer hasn’t stopped painting since. She and Koskinas joined forces and moved to New Mexico from the Bay Area, California, in 2002. They paint companionably together in their Santa Fe studio, a modern day Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner.
Since reengaging with her art Schumer has studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California and with artists Robert Burridge, Mira White and Edward Gilliam. Her paintings immediately resonated with viewers. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and in Europe and is in many private collections.