Peripheral
eries
agazine
Special Edition
Contemporary Art
Peripheral ARTeries meets
Sylvia Sussman Lives and works in Berkeley, California USA My art is inspired by nature. My childhood, spent in Washington State, has influenced my contemplative attachment to the landscape, playing in the woods- my attachment to trees. In my Berkeley garden I plant and care for trees. Over the years, my work has referred to the weather and the sky, to wetlands, mudflats and grasses, ponds, fields and trees; more abstractly to the way in which landscape can affect our emotional states and lift us into a wider sense of being in the world and a place where time is space. My use of the horizon as a structural element speaks to the role it plays in our sense of space. I paint in layers of oil on unstretched canvas and oil on paper. I like to see the rough edges of canvas or paper as part of the work. I have also used watercolor, pastels, acrylics, sumi ink. As a printmaker, I use both monotype and intaglio processes. I regularly draw from the figure; figures sometimes appear in my paintings. Drawing has become more and more important in my process; I use twigs and sticks to draw with ink or into paint, and thick graphite as a way to draw into paint. I place myself within a tradition of abstraction which draws upon organic rather than geometric form; sometimes my work directly refers to nature and sometimes focuses on forms taken from nature. A quote from Theres Rohan referring to my online exhibition,“Meridian StudioVisits” (12/2014-3/2015), which she curated, puts some of my more recent work succinctly: “Undoubtedly, Sussman’s new work is still inspired by the natural world but she lets us in only peripherally as now her focus revolves around the form – aesthetic form.” My most recent series refer to the way in which trees form portals as well as to my experience of trees in varying weather and atmospheres, singularly and as forests. I contemplate their forms as calligraphic marks. My response to nature has been a source of excitement, reverie and comfort. I draw upon this response. I am affected by the environments of my life: what I stare at, what I move within. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator
http://sylviasussman.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. You have a solid formal training and after your studies in Painting at The San Francisco Art Institute, you attended several workshops in Printmaking and - more recently - in Chinese
peripheral.arteries@europe.com
Hello Sylvia Sussman and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would like to invite our readers to visit
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