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Susan Saunders
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Susan Saunders
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I have always
been moved by the proximity of beauty and decay and the place where our
human efforts encounter the forces of nature and begin to deteriorate
back to their original elemental forms. My observation of this process
inexorably working and undoing human progress (or what passed for
progress) has had an affect on my sense of beauty. It seems that things
in a state of dilapidation are revealed to be what they truly are.
Mold, insects, delicate plant tendrils; small, powerful elements of
change slowly destroying and creating, I try to show my recognition of
this in my paintings.
My new
work involves peeling paint, inspired by old windowsills. Chipped
layers of windowsill paint reveal an unclear history and engender
questions that cannot be answered. My paintings recreate the randomness
of the process of painting one layer over another, covering something
up, having the earlier paint become visible again. The way the color
works in proximity to the next color and the next, the colors acting on
each other. So I have finally found a way into an abstract work process
that then allows me to paint a figure in imaginary space without being
specific. This work also called for a tremendous change in the scale of
my paintings which went from four to twelve inches to four feet and
larger.
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