The painting I’ve been working on over the last week. A wound or a rose depending how how big an optimist you are.
30 by 30 inches, acrylic on panel.
The painting I’ve been working on over the last week. A wound or a rose depending how how big an optimist you are.
30 by 30 inches, acrylic on panel.
SUSAN CARR
who are who and what do you do?
I am an artist, At a graduation at my school some years back, Pat Steir said “Artists are creators of culture”. And that has always stuck with me, that as artists we have a responsibility to be societies voice, dream and imagination. My hope is to be such a voice.
I paint in oil and use other media such as spray paint, oil sticks and enamel. I enjoy being in the middle of a painting but the beginning can be rather daunting. For me, the beginning of a painting feels like jumping out of an airplane;energizing but scary. I also create in collage. Collage is helpful in that it serves to elicit new forms that I can potentially use in paintings.
Who or what inspires you?
My children, odd color combinations, fresh air, sonic youth, half forgotten dreams, curved branches of tall trees, a good laugh, the sea and its returning, a roll of the dice.
What themes do you pursue?
The musicality of a painting, the linguistics of a painting and all of the meta-languages in between and quirkiness. This is a tall order and I think it will take the rest of my life of working to crack these ideas.
Why Art
Because art is where I dance, it is where I tell myself my own story and listen to yours, create my own myths that help shape ideas of how I see the world. Art is everything I do. Art everyday.
Name some Artists you would like to be compared to.
I am not ready for that yet, maybe when I am ninety!! I will tell you who I have been looking at and thinking about lately. First and foremost Phillip Guston. Then there is everyone else such as De Kooning, Amy Sillman, George McNeil, Hans Hoffman, Robert Ryman, Forest Bess and all of my amazing, talented painter friends on FB!
Images from REACH FEST: A Collaborative Exhibition: @Wistariahurst, Holyoke, MA. #art
http://wistariahurst.org/events-2/featured-event/
About REACH
REACH invites local and national artists to show in a multi-city exhibition of contemporary practitioners working in a variety of non-traditional formats. REACH promotes visibility, aims to bridge the arts and spaces in neighboring cities, encourages collaborative experimentation, and invites community members to participate in experiencing an array of contemporary art practices that are exhibited in a variety of traditional, nontraditional, and underutilized spaces throughout participating cities
(Source: mjbest.squarespace.com)
Time lapse video of dripping red paint.
(Source: mjbest.squarespace.com)
Al Held, “Alphabet Paintings” at Cheim and Read (547 W 25th St., Chelsea, NYC)
In 2009 I was contacted by the Crystal City Business Improvement District. They were interested in using images from a recent solo show I had just had at the Arlington Arts Center (https://www.arlingtonartscenter.org/) as part of their Art Walls project (http://crystalcity.org/artful/art-walls). The idea of the program is to introduce art into areas of the city, adding color and interesting for Crystal City’s guests, residents, and employees.
My solo show became the public art installation, Supernature. It was a show of small paintings, the largest of which was 18 by 18 inches, the majority of them 10 by 10 inches. Imagine my shock when I saw my 10 by 10 inch paintings (like the ones above) blown up to 10 by 10 feet. When I first saw them I stopped my car in the middle of the road stunned, not a smart thing to do in Arlington.
Aside from shear scale, the explosion of color on an otherwise dull concrete underpass was needless to say, really exciting. It is still located 12th Street South in Crystal City.
Just about a month ago I was again contacted by the Crystal City BID to see if I would allow portions of my work to be used in signage for the new Arts Underground (http://crystalcity.org/artful/art-underground). This new space is a venue for galleries, studios, interactive exhibits and activities, performance and classroom spaces
http://mjbest.squarespace.com/news/2013/3/28/art-underground-arlington-va.html
diptych, each panel 30 by 40 inches. #painting. Not necessarily finished, I need to live with it for a while.
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
The Sick Rose, 1794
William Blake (1757-1827)
El Anatsui, Ozone Layer, 2010 @BrooklynMuseum
(Source: mjbest.squarespace.com)
Philip Guston’s Line
Philip Guston, “Shoes” (1972), oil on panel, 11 x 14 inches
There is still a story to be told about…
