SUSAN RYMAN - INTERVIEW Susan Ryman I was born late 1955 in Marrickville, well before it became a part of the fashionable Sydney’s inner west. I completed a Diploma in Art Education at the National Art School and Alexander Mackie CAE in Sydney from 1975 – 1971 and a decade later, successfully completed the Graduate Diploma in Art at Newcastle College of Advanced Education. The usual balancing act of teaching, family, working in arts administration, travelling and maintaining a visual arts practice with consistent solo, group and touring exhibitions in various NSW Regional Galleries as well as commercial galleries in Sydney and Newcastle, shaped my life. “From mid-2008 I was afforded the opportunity to challenge the parameters of my practice technically and conceptually through Post Graduate research at the University of Newcastle. Consequently, all my inescapable life experience, influences and knowledge feed a fully ripened and intensely personal visual form”.
What attracted you to the world of Art? “Probably until well into my 30’s, I was scared to the ridiculous point of knee shaking terror, of the art world at large. Consequently, I lacked any confidence to promote myself as a practising artist. This could have been a result of going through art school which was at that time dominated by teachers who believed in abstract expressionism and nil else. As such, I seem have developed a habit of scurrying home and working in a completely figurative way – all in isolated secrecy. The sheer bliss of privately making as such has always been a driving force. Now I just follow where the work takes me.”
Image on page 62 L – R Couple overall dimensions 840 x 444mm, Why go? overall dimensions 840 x 592mm,
Fish Out of Water 1,overall dimensions 840 x 444mm coloured pencil on Fabriano, hand varnished © Susan Ryman.
Issue 20 - May 2017
87