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Susanne Stephenson
This piece is vessel 10 inches square and 4.5 inches deep.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Susanne Stephenson has been an artist and educator in Ann Arbor, Michigan for over thirty-five years. She began teaching at Eastern Michigan University in 1963, a few years after completing her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Susanne has exhibited both nationally and internationally since the beginning of her career, including two early appearances the Ceramics National at the Everson Museum. Her work is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Museum of Decorative Arts (Prague), The Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse), American Craft Museum (New York City), Victoria and Albert Museum of Art (London), The Detroit Institute of Arts, Loket Porcelain Museum (Czech Republic), Crocker Art Museum (CA), Cranbrook Museum of Art (MI), Downey Museum of Art (CA), Mint Museum of Craft and Design (NC), Ariana Musee (Geneva), George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (Toronto), Foshan/ Nanfeng Museum and San Bao Collection (PR China), International Ceramic Center (Denmark), Benaki Museum (Athens). SusanneÕs commitment to the international community in particular includes forging connections between China, Korea and the United States. Susanne and John both travel extensively in Asia. Susanne and John are also both members of the International Academy of Ceramics.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT OF WORK
Recently after a workshop in Hawaii my abstract landscapes became more influenced by volcanic craters. In my work I have handled this through the use of paper in the slip. After firing the slip becomes rough and dense with liquid color in the cracks. The images I deal with in the plate, bowl or vase form is fragmented and abstract. The craters become condensed and I try to express a very large image concept in the relatively small space of the pottery form.
The impact of the material clay on my ideas is important because of its plastic and tactile qualities. It helps me pull out the physical and gestural possibilities in my work. To get the full implications of gesture there is a need for three-dimensionality. The energy expressed in the flow of water in nature is an example of gesture. To contain this idea of landscape in bowl or vase requires an understanding of gesture. Personally it seems irrelevant to me to pursue the gestural with paint and canvas. For me the canvas is rigid and confining. I am not interested in creating an illusion of space. The clay form for me is a gesture, which carries color in the thickly applied slips. This is the means of my expression.
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