About Susan

A strong interest in color, texture and form has led me to explore the use of clay in combination with other materials including, asphalt, wood, glass and antique tile bands. My background in painting and ceramics is interwoven into the wall reliefs which I have made over the last many years. These pieces have been influenced by a number of sources but perhaps the most dominant one has been architecture. As the President of the Friends of Terra Cotta, a preservation organization that has been devoted, for 40 years, to protecting historic architectural ceramics, I have examined, photographed, researched and written about clay in architecture for over 35 years.

 

Many of the exceptional buildings I have studied have helped to foster my love of geometry. Building units – whether bricks, roof tiles or hexagonal pavers – and the repetition and variation they make possible, have played an important role in my work.

 

I have executed a number of commissions during the last 25 years. Four were public projects and the others were for private clients or site-specific installations. As a counterpoint to these I began to explore a series of small geometric works. This led to an extended investigation of the rectangular ‘brick’ form. Created in wooden molds, or using an extruder, I have been carving and assembling these forms in numerous ways.

 

As work on several brick projects continued I also began to focus on more organic forms like ovals, circles and shield forms. These newer wall reliefs are inset with small glazed shapes to add variety of scale and contrast to the works. The possibilities of clay are extraordinary and I have found great pleasure in exploring it’s potential as both an outdoor and indoor material.