News Release
| 9/24/08 - ARTIST TALK with Master Printer SUSAN HOVER OEHME |
| ARTIST TALK with Master Printer SUSAN HOVER OEHME
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 6 pm
atK. SAARI GALLERY
837 Lincoln Avenue
ARTIST STATEMENT:
As a Master Printer, working with numerous artists in many different fine art print workshops, I have had the unique opportunity to be not only a witness but also a collaborator to the creative process. I have been privileged to work along side very talented artists and see them in times of challenge, when ideas don't come, and in moments of virtual rapture when what they are producing takes them to artistic uncharted territory, at least for them personally.
When I moved here to Steamboat Springs directly from New York City in 1996 to become the new director of Riverhouse Editions, I felt that I needed to put down my own paint brush for a while. After really settling in to the town, getting married to a wonderful man, buying a home, having a son and working very hard to make Riverhouse a great print shop, that turned into quite a few years. During that time I was constantly working with artists, or visiting Chicago and New York to work at Fine Art Fairs and see new galleries. Looking back, I now realize that somehow, this time away from actually painting was partly a necessary thing for me. It allowed me the time to finally find my "voice" and assimilate all the varied ways of working that I was so lucky to be exposed to.
For the first time in my career, I feel that this new body of work, which is just really beginning, is mature and focused. Try as I often did, I can not sit down and make a landscape, although I was trained in that and occasionally wish I could just do that. When I DO sit down to work, my biggest struggle is with all my preconceived ideas about how something should look. I play little games with myself, attempting to remove my thought process and let my hand and the paint itself make the marks. This isn't to imply that I don't think about the work, but during the actual drawing and painting I want to keep myself fluid. On the best days, I get "into the zone", just as an athlete would. The pieces I am most pleased with have a fresh quality combined with areas of "history" where one can see the sometimes long process of arriving at the end product.
I work with all sorts of water media, (inks, watercolors, gouache) in combination with other things that typically would resist water, such as crayons, Elmer's Glue, and Acrylic mediums. I am visually drawn to things that have a variety of textures and surfaces, and that can be found in this new work, especially the Bhutan series..
In April of 2006, I had my first one person exhibition in 10 years and from that, was invited by Bill van Straaten to show my work with his gallery. This was a wonderful opportunity and became a turning point for me, and after each subsequent show I was more inspired to get back into my studio. That's what it's all about in the end: just making art; sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it's great.
For more information:
K. SAARI GALLERY
837 Lincoln Avenue
Steamboat Springs, Colorado 80487
(t) 970.870.0188 |
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