Susan Irish

What was a three year process of a lifelong endeavor ended abruptly with a registered letter stating that our leased space was sold. We had 30 days to vacate. 30 days to dismantle, sort, and purge. No time to process. This was December 2017 in the middle of the ice and snow storm, the irony was not amusing. 

We were granted a brief extension but Fabulon, A Center for Art and Education, would close. With each box packed, I felt the stripping away of my dream and my identity.   

Despite our best efforts, things were misplaced and haphazardly stuffed into any available container. So much of what I had collected was unidentifiable and irrelevant. What was I to do with all of these remnants? What was I to do with the people for whom I was responsible? 

Ideals like rest, regroup, sabbatical, and fallow were suggested but all I heard was exile. 

How can I spend any time on myself when people were counting on me? I wrestled with all these questions but no answers came. I couldn't hear my own voice. 

It was difficult to move, let alone paint, in a studio so crammed with boxes. But I had to resume teaching and slowly sorted out some spaces for students. 

I became my own student. I listened to the genuine messages of reassurance, validation, and encouragement I weave into lessons with my emerging artists. I made space for me and time to paint 

Something started to resonate.  

And then there it was the last box, my voice hidden inside waiting to be decompressed and made usable. 

Sotto Voce is Italian for quiet voice and this collection of paintings is a celebration of my voice returning.

Abstract work created in the ancient method of encaustic.

Beeswax is melted and used as a binder for the paint pigment. Each patch of color and layer of detail needs to be fused with a heat gun or butane torch.

It is a complicated process but the luminous colors make it so worth it. Hope you like what you see.

I love the instant gratification of working with acrylic paint. I have been striving for those lustrous layers I see in encaustic wax. All the things that called me as a child: marks, colors, patterns, scraping away layers and carving in textures now emerge.

My grandmother once asked me if I thought God was mad at us? The irregular and extreme weather patterns and onslaught of natural disaster caused her to wonder if we were being punished for our harsh treatment and blatant disregard for the earth. I said that I don’t know about God’s intent but I was pretty sure that Mother Nature was very pissed off.

So began a series of painting from Mother Nature’s point of view. I have tried to personify her, make her appear in the landscape, or emerge from a slice of cut tree. The gouged and scarred earth appear often in my paintings. In my quest for better understanding, I learned some scary facts about hydro-fracking. I believe this disturbs Mother the most.

I actually found an article in the local paper begging the same question so I incorporated the clipping in this work. It illustrated a warning that  if we are not careful the mountains will slide into the sea. See nuclear winter, melting icebergs, deforestation, and contaminated groundwater caused by hydrofraking.

Although my work is typically abstract, I am in awe that I live here so I must capture the beauty some how.

This man is reflecting on his life. Paired with the boy below and others not shown they create a poetic story on the passage of time. It was painted the year I turned 50 and my first born son turned 25. How could it be that he so swiftly became the age I was at his birth.

Mother Nature, my favorite superhero. This is the first painting in the Mother Nature Series.

Defender of the earth. Humans are no match for her fury. She thinks she is the exception but Father Time waits for no one. It is a race. Will humans realize what they have to lose before irreparable damage is rendered.

The origins of encaustic painting reach back to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Traditionally this medium was used to create Fayum Funeral Portraits. Since wax is a preservative and the binder for this painting method, these works have survived through history.