2010 Art & Language, Lloyd Gill Gallery, Weston-Super -Mare U.K. May 11-June 5

Statement

Susan grew up in southern California. After high school, Susan went to Cal Berkeley to study German and art. Susan then left the USA for Hamburg in 1962 and attended an art school until 1965. She wanted to leave her home to see the world and all the things it offered. After a few years, she was married and had two children. They lived in several European countries, plus a few years in New York. Susan worked as a graphic designer and illustrator in all of these places, with the exception of 13 years in Italy as an international saleswoman for the Middle East. When Susan retired in 2002, she began to draw and paint again. Her subjects are portraits, self-portraits, Madonna’s, nudes (male and female), erotic cartoons and landscapes. Susan’s technique is varied: oil, acrylic, tempera, watercolor, pen and ink. Her work is on paper and on canvas.

Text for Susan’s motivation for the ciao ciao series
The first drawing was the female figure wearing lingerie ( “I am too old for you”) . It is a sort of self-portrait and here Susan is complaining about a lost love who told her ‘I was too old for him’. So, as sort of declaration that Susan was still attractive and furthermore to challenge younger men who often court older women, Susan added the text to the drawing. Susan liked the “cartoon” idea, so She continued to draw others, using the same formula.
During the same period, since Susan was alone and wanted to meet a new man, Susan signed up for a chat-meeting web site. This became a frightening experience because the contacts were cynical, rude, infantile or evasive and in almost all cases, frightened of meeting a flesh and blood woman. They preferred a virtual contact via “messenger” and web cam, obviously with erotic connotations.
The entire experience disgusted her and the idea of seeing a frightened stranger on the computer screen trying to have some sort of rapport with her was awful.
So the theme of the series (20 drawings) is the superficial communication between men and women on meeting/chat web sites and the impersonal greeting “ciao ciao” became the title . Each work starts and ends with this text and has various clichés according to the situations that arose.

CV

Born 3 November 1942 Los Angeles; California

1960 –graduated from Tustin Union High School

1960-62 University of California Berkeley , studied German language and art

1962-1965 studied graphic design & illustration Hamburg, Germany

1966-1968 graphic consultant in Milan, Italy, advertising and illustrations

1968-1970 graphic designer in New York for music publishers, fashion illustration

1970-1972 graphic consultant Rome , project for FAO United Nations Food Authority

1972-1986 Holland, illustrations and contributions to Dutch gardening magazine and large projects for European Union nuclear measurement authority in Mol, Belgium

1986-2002 Parma Italy, 3 years English teacher, then international saleswoman food machinery

2002 December, retired and returned to art, painting and drawing

since 2003 various exhibitions and prizes of artwork in Europe (see section: shows)

Susan presently live in rural area on the Oglio river in the province of Cremona. Italy where she has her studio and a large garden.