Susan Blake works in several media including photography, painting, collage and ceramics. Blake’s ongoing interest in geometric abstraction and sensuous form comes to the fore in her hand-painted ceramic work in which she uses the vessel form as a jumping off point for exploring of color and pattern. Although she relishes that her vessel works call to mind a multiple of anthropological and art historical associations, she deliberately leaves their meaning open to interpretation. In Chicago, Blake has exhibited at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, The Hyde Park Art Center, Columbia College A+D Gallery among others. In Denver her work has been shown at RULE Gallery, Redline Contemporary Art Center, the Arvada Center, the Pattern Shop Studio and Hinterland Art Space among others.
Education
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Department of Painting and Drawing
Columbia College, Chicago, IL, School of Photography
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, MA, Art History, emphasis in modern and contemporary art, University Fellow
BA, Art History, Minor Geology
Experience
Taught art history survey courses, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
Arts Writer, Chicago New Art Examiner and other publications. Wrote feature articles, exhibition reviews and art catalogs
Arts Researcher, St. Martins Press. Worked on “Who’s Who in Art" and “Who’s Who in Design” reference book series
Independent Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Specialized in photo illustration. Clients included Lehman Brothers, Grubb & Ellis and Argonne National Laboratory among others
Statement
My work involves combining painting with ceramics. I am interested in the vessel as a surface upon which to expand my painting beyond two dimensions. My painted vessels unite sensuous form with the hypnotic rhythms of pattern and illusionistic elements of perceptual abstraction.
My ceramic work is about the tension between form and surface decoration. Whereas my patterns are systematic and precise, my hand-built forms are deliberately generic, more organic, a bit wonky and shy away from perfect symmetry. My vessels reside in a sweet spot between applied and fine art. Instead of glazing my pots, I paint them with acrylic, spray, marker and/or enamel in order to nudge my work out of the realm of “functional ceramics” and into the domain of sculpture or art.
I think of my pots as both sculptures and paintings. Nonetheless, the idea of ‘vessel’—as a container or conveyance—remains important in my work. That is, I view my painted vessels as ‘personal artifacts’ that contain my desires as well as the sum of influences on my art, especially that of my studies in art history and geology. For me, they are vehicles for connecting to and recognizing past cultures without appropriating or commenting upon them
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