"The patience of the moment, what you need to form a letter or make a brushstroke or play a note, lengthens to the patience of an hour, and then a day, a year, and then, ten, twenty, thirty. I have come to see that it is only by stepping outside of the counting of time that work truly grows."
FROM SUSAN'S BOOK, ART LESSONS: REFLECTIONS FROM AN ARTIST'S LIFE
FROM SUSAN'S BOOK, ART LESSONS: REFLECTIONS FROM AN ARTIST'S LIFE
photo by Kevin Harkins, Harkins Photography
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In 1978, I began my life in the arts at our kitchen table with pen, ink, and a growing collection of instructional calligraphy books. My love of words, nurtured through my study of English Literature, was the foundation that grew into a fascination with letterform, design, and expressive mark-making. A series created after the birth of my first child led me to the handmade book as I sought a more personal and intimate home for my thoughts and images. My first books contained calligraphy and text. I slowly transitioned to wordless ones, first with photocopier imagery and then with natural materials. My most significant body of work is the ongoing (since 1992) Spirit Books which express my reverence for both the book and nature.
I make art as a way to respond to the world around me and connect to something larger than myself. I write to understand the process. I speak to share my passions—for the book as an object, for the possibilities of bookmaking to enrich our lives, and for the complexity and joy of being an artist. |
