Susan hanssen

Susan Hanssen has been an award-winning painter for several years, and she is well known in South Florida for her unique and exciting work. She is primarily a figurative painter, using the figure as a conduit to make a narrative that is both a metaphor and a literal story. Her images can be haunting, and at the same time, full of whimsy.

Most recently, she has transitioned from paper to large canvas, giving her work more impact. Generally, she works in a series with several paintings centered around a particular theme. She had a solo show at the Coral Springs Museum of Art that celebrated her sheep series and a retrospective of her work in Fort Lauderdale. Susan has twice won medals at the American Watercolor Exhibitions in New York.

 Susan is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, American Watercolor Society, and the Florida Watercolor Society. She has taught numerous workshops across Florida and New Mexico. Prior to pursuing her dream of painting, Susan’s first career was in advertising after graduating from Syracuse University. She and her husband recently made a move to Palm Coast, Florida

Artist’s Statement

My paintings reflect my experiences, feelings, and thoughts. For the most part, the ideas I work with are life’s conundrums, personal conflicts, and issues that we all share. The enjoyment is in expressing them in an unexpected way.

 I am a figurative painter. One figure I’ve incorporated in a series of paintings is a young child named Prudence. Her identity is hidden under the shadows of a large military hat, theatrical white makeup, and exaggerated red lips. She is child-like in her costume, naïve to her surroundings, and a figure I can manipulate to create a visual metaphor. It wasn’t until I did a number of paintings in this series that I recognized this little person was in many ways a metaphor for my life: the innocence of childhood, a youthful vulnerability.

 Frequently, I use animals, costumes, and other symbols to support the narrative. There are recognizable symbols of strength and innocent toys of play. Recently, I started working with birds. Birds as a metaphor, a nagging annoyance rather than a thing of beauty.

 My challenge is to entertain with an image that isn’t familiar. To express a thought or an experience that is shared between the artist and the viewer in an intriguing, somewhat quirky visual.

Links

www.Susanhanssen.com