I work on canvas and panel and enjoy building and cultivating visual fields inhabited by low-relief shapes and patterns that are to varying degrees, submerged within layers of translucent color. I want to make paintings that have a strong, physical presence and also convey a sense of discovery and intimacy upon closer viewing.

Inspiration comes from diverse sources including features of the  natural landscape, aerial views, observations of ever-changing light and atmospheric conditions, and marine phenomena. Compositionally, I have tendencies toward specific placement, inscription, organic and glyphic form, boundary-making, and personal notation.
  
A preliminary sketch on the blank canvas with chalk and then with undiluted, heavy body acrylic paint becomes a foundation for further development. My process is physically direct, and I try to stay attuned to what the painting wants to be. Sudden, intuitive decisions to augment certain areas and pare down others are often pivotal. The finished painting gives me a sense of having arrived at a place of reconciliation between the world of ideas and memories and the world of physical matter.

In speaking of the unfolding of the soul, the poet David Whyte has remarked: It's always a beckoning uncertainty. In some ways, it's more like a gravitational pull: You never arrive there. You simply feel yourself come alive in that magnetism. This is why I make art.

Susan Parker
July 5, 2016