Susan Black
 
 

Statement


I moved to San Francisco in 1996 with my husband and my son. Born in New York City and living in suburban Connecticut, I had pursued a demanding 20-year New York-based career in public relations and corporate communications after I graduated from Connecticut College in New London with a BA in Literature.

Once in California, I stopped my PR and corporate work, but after having made my living for so long using words, I found that the Bay Area's light, scenery, attitude and whole way of life awakened in me a desire to communicate in visual terms. Some classes at the Sharon Art Studio in Golden Gate Park, plus my attempts to teach myself, confirmed my resolve. I enrolled as an art student at City College of San Francisco in early 2003, and have been drawing and painting continually since then. I remain a City College student, and also take private instruction.

My focus is watercolor, both alone or in combination with dry media. I describe my style as "recognizable abstraction." I seek simplification. I want to distill my chosen subject, emotion or thought to what I feel is its basic sense -- preferably in a way that would not occur to anyone else. For that reason, I most admire artists and poets whose work expresses their independence, especially Winslow Homer and Emily Dickinson.

I belong to the Marin Arts Council, the Marin Society of Artists (board member), the Marin County Watercolor Society, the San Francisco Women Artists and the Art Guild of Pacifica. My work has appeared in local, regional and national juried shows since 2005.

 
 
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