Susie Silver - Aloft Raleigh
2100 Hillsborough street, Raleigh
10-4 Monday-Sunday
Jan. 15-April 15, 2018
“I eliminate all or most realistic imagery from my paintings. My goal is to give my viewers a pervasive sense of calm and to offer a moment of escape from our everyday “noise” when they engage with my work. I focus on the manipulation of many different media while immersed in the process of creating. Pieces are actively layered with media such as ink, watercolor and acrylic, and constructed over time through multiple working sessions. The inspiration for my imagery, and for this layering process, comes from the natural movement of liquids, rock formations and aerial views of land and water. I use minimal tools in the process of creating pieces often using my hands, fingers and even my breath to guide mediums around the working surface. Spontaneous and unplanned moments occur in every piece, which is exhilarating and challenging to me.
After years of dormancy, I have finally revealed work that is authentic and genuine. As I moved into my professional teaching career (2003), the artist side of me started to dwindle. Educators strive every day to inspire our students to find their own personal voice in their artwork, but educator-artists often struggle with finding that very voice in our own work. I found myself at an aesthetic crossroads, feeling that I was supposed to make realistic art, as that was a great deal of what I was required to teach. I started many pieces that have never been finished and at times I was paralyzed by indecision and the pressure to be a realist. I placed a false reality on myself as a realistic artist. As a result, my authenticity and creativity suffered. However, over the past two years, I have revisited my original artistic influences like Georgia O’Keeffe, Wassily Kandinsky and Frank Stella, and have opened up again to the mindset I established over twenty years ago that successful art does not necessarily have to be realistic. The subject matter, style and media of my work are now my confident choices, not decisions that I feel were made for me. I get lost and feel freed in the process of creation and media manipulation.”