BIOGRAPHY
Sue Strande was raised in Wisconsin but has lived and worked in downtown New York for most of her life. She has done semi-performative photographic, installation and film work in her past and holds an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Sue has also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was accepted into L’ecole des Beaux Arts by Cesar Baldaccini. She currently works in oil, acrylic, buon fresco, and watercolor.
Sue's work derives from analyzing fragments of the everyday world: Body Art, Creative Movement and Dance have informed these aesthetic choices in relation to figuration. Most of her work is done as both figurative painting and landscape painting but she also derives satisfaction in making portraits. Many of her works are scenes of classically styled nudes in minimal landscapes painted in oil, acrylic, watercolor and Buon fresco media while the look of the work and the way that the paint is manipulated has evolved through the process.
She attempts to trigger mutual memories in viewers that surface in her experiences and actions in such pastimes as the Synchronized Swimming Exhibitions she performed as a teen. She has received funding from Art Matters and Artists Space and has had a solo exhibition at The Vaana Raatihuone Kultuurikeskus in Turku, Finland. She is a lifetime member of Artists Equity.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My art has evolved around my practice. I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. My mother attended college at the Layton School of the Arts in Milwaukee and had me draw daily from live models by the time I was three. Most of my work is done as both figurative paintings and landscape paintings but I also derive satisfaction in drawing and painting portraits. Many of my works are scenes of classically styled nudes in minimal landscapes painted in oil, acrylic, watercolor and Buon fresco media while the look of my work and the way that I manipulate paint has evolved through the processes of painting watercolors and portable frescoes.
My work derives from analyzing fragments of the everyday world: Body Art, Creative Movement and Dance have informed my aesthetic choices especially in relation to the figure and figuration. Survival has been a frequent theme in my work. As a child, I found photographs my father took with his Leica when he helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp that showed mountains of nude skeletal bodies and these disturbing images often have affected the way I interpret the world. In my work, I attempt to trigger mutual memories in viewers that surface in my experiences and actions in such pastimes as the Synchronized Swimming Exhibitions I performed as a teen.