SUSAN FINSEN
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain one when [s]he grows up.”
Attributed to Picasso, this observation reminds me keep searching for my spontaneous five-year-old self.
I’ve worked in many media: ceramics, printmaking, painting, and photography. My current devotion to clay hand-building provides wonderful opportunities for play and spontaneity. My work process has a push-pull between minimalist and complex surfaces, and between managed and organic forms.
More than any other medium, clay is the most elemental and connected to my childhood joy of creating. Cup forms made using the Japanese kurinuki “hollowing out” method have a special appeal as it produces unexpected organic forms and surfaces. I hope others will be drawn to the tactile and playful nature of my work, and that it leads to their engagement with it physically and visually.
Film, clay, glaze, paint, linoleum, graphite, crayon, oilstick, collage, gel, glue, string, wire, paper, marker, mylar, ink, pixels, and a few I've forgotten. As an artist I'm a mark maker using many of these tools.
My painting process is a combination of intuitive drawing, conscious shaping and layering, and the search for my spontaneous 5-year old self.
Marks are made and covered up, and imagery is created, erased, and re-imagined. Color, line, shape, plane, and found or created collage materials, arrange themselves to express what I see, remember, and invent. I have no idea what the painting will be at the start. Each begins with crayon/paint marks, and then a conversation between my arm, eyes, feelings, thoughts, and the painting takes over.
As a photographer, my eye selects views, structures and angles. Once captured, I modify the image using editing software as drawing tools.
I play with the shapes and lines, and alter exposure, color, contrast, surface, light and other elements to find the mood, energy, and connection with the viewer I want.