Susanne Arnold
Susanne Arnold's work has been exhibited at galleries and museums regionally, nationally and overseas. Solo exhibitions include the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (1985), the Portsmouth Museum (1997), 1708 Gallery and art6 Gallery. Honors include a 1995 National Visiting Artist Residency and Exhibition at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, Laurel, MD; two Virginia Museum of Fine Arts fellowships and grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation. She received graduate degrees in painting and art history from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has taught at VCU and the University of Mary Washington and has directed galleries at universities and art centers across Virginia. An artist-in-education with the Virginia Commission for the Arts since 1993, Susanne presents workshops in encaustic (hot beeswax and pigment) technique throughout Virginia.
Regarding her latest exhibition, "Earth Bones, Studio Explorations in Stone, Wood, Clay and Wax," Susanne states: "As an artist, I am constantly reinventing myself through intense studio experimentation. For the past several years I have focused on making small experimental sculptures out of beeswax and salvaged discards from my garden and neighborhood, as a means to push the boundaries of my creative ideas, encaustic medium and process. My art has always embodied ideas and images both ancient and contemporary...But it is my physical connection to my materials, and to nature itself, that gives voice and commentary to these images of loss, pain, transformation and renewal."
Above: Metamorphosis: Ariadne, 2007, wood and encaustic