Susan Strassberg

sstrassberg@gmail.com

Susan Strassberg works in ceramics and sculpture. Her art is very personal and is deeply informed by her passions and her past. She is fascinated by the infinite range of forms that are found in nature. She captures nature's grace and fluidity in her works, which are often accentuated with stones, sticks, bark and other items from field and forest, conveying the vital forces of creation. As she works, the interplay between her creativity, the energy of the medium and the sequential emergence of form dictate a final piece whose identity only reveals itself when these factors have fully expressed themselves.

Susan is also both influenced and haunted by the Holocaust and uses her art to express her feelings about the horrors that befell humanity during this period and as a memorial to those who lost their lives. Her father was a Holocaust survivor, as were many of the people whom she knew during her early years. The pain, loss and spiritual desolation that hovered just below the surface of these people, coupled with their tremendous strength, life force and determination to reconstruct meaningful lives are themes that she explores in her sculpture.

Susan began her artistic endeavors with painting. She initially worked with oil on canvas but soon became fascinated by encaustic. As her artistic identity emerged she expanded into the three dimensional forms of sculpture and ceramics. The creation of forms that define space, but just as importantly encompass negative, unfilled space, fascinates her. In addition, Susan revels in the unforeseen contributions of the firing process, which adds its own identity, expanding upon Susan's emphasis on the natural development of form. Susan's creations are of two types; those that are purely aesthetic such as her fruit and figure works and alternatively her creations based upon practical objects such as vases, teapots and bowls. In all that her work, whether its inspiration is sheer beauty and joy or to make items used in the home more evocative and compelling, she brings the same intense focus upon the organic creative forces of nature and the pure joy of exploring the expressive dimensions of her chosen medium.