Personal Statement
My sketchbooks are like visual curiosity cabinets where I record the world as I experience it. My creative practice is the instinctive, visceral, or playful work inspired by curiosity. I collect and experiment with materials, using different media to explore different narratives. I work in ink, chalk, charcoal, print, paint, textiles, second hand clothes, yarn, concrete, peat, stone, and found objects.
I am drawn to organic forms that reflect natural forces, landscapes, and the human figure. In experiments with soft sculpture I shape, manipulate, sew, plait, rip, and wrap cloth and yarn to create cords and organic shapes. I enjoy the bodily feeling of these creations, almost part of the human animal. Outsides. Insides.
I play with contrasts. Using cement and knit I examine the seemingly antithetical forces of hard and soft; masculine and feminine; past and future. The second hand knitted blankets or garments hold stories. The layers of different materials become layers of memory, like layers of archaeology. From past to future worlds, what survives, the materials, the stories?
I am inspired by artists that use their work to interpret or highlight the imperceptible forces that surround us like time, space, our minds, death, love, or spirituality. Leonora Carrington’s art. Kate Bush's song lyrics. Aldus Huxley’s Doors of Perception. I want to unearth the connections between these forces and how they relate to religion, culture, identity, and folklore. I find that the use of the number three in folklore hugely influences my work; the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Gods and goddesses of Past, Present, and Future. The various mythologies and folklores of three spinning witches or fates. Birth, and Life, and Death.
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Curriculum Vitae
BA (Hons) Fine Art (1st) | University of the Highlands and Islands | Shetland | 2023
Waddered Community Exhibition | Hymhus Shetland | July 2023 - September 2023
Vision 23 Degree Show | UHI Shetland | June 2023
Gaada Brigði Collaboration | Gaada, Shetland | May 2023
A History of Shetland in 100 Sites course | March 2023
Shetland Collective Group Exhibition | Dunblane | Dec 2022 – Feb 2023
Drift Group Exhibition | Summerhall, Edinburgh and online | Sept 2022 - Oct 2022
Vision 22 Exhibition | UHI Shetland | June 2022
Lipperin Group Exhibition | Bonhoga, Shetland | March 2022 - April 2022
Jamieson and Smith Competition Prize winner | Aug 2021
Reconsider Wool Exhibition | Da Gaddery, Shetland | Sept 2019 - Oct 2019
Bonhoga Open Exhibition | Bonhoga, Shetland | Sept 2019 - Nov 2019
Wool Week Exhibition Prize winner | Shetland | June 2019
20x20 Group Exhibition | Auld Haa, Shetland | June 2019
Vision 19 Exhibition | UHI Shetland | June 2019
Tutor of Whalsay Watercolour Workshops | July 2018
Aairvhous Cafe Exhibition | Whalsay, Shetland | June 2018 - July 2018
Whalsay Heritage and Community Centre commission | June 2018
Poem 'The Artist' published in "My Time" poetry book | March 2018
Bonhoga Open Exhibition | Bonhoga, Shetland | Sept 2017- Nov 2017
Recycled Art project | Whalsay school, Shetland | June 2017
Whalsay Play Park wall panel commission | May 2016
Brae Up Helly Aa 'Bill Head' commission | March 2016
(Fourth child born in April 2012)
Featured in article ‘Exposed Roots’ in “Shetland Life” magazine | April 2011
Tutor of introduction to drawing classes | Shetland | March 2011 - June 2011
Bonhoga Touring Exhibition | Shetland | Jan 2009 - Feb 2010
Poem 'Da Hill' published in "Bards in the Bog" book | Oct 2009
Creative Writing 1 and 2 courses | Aug 2009
(Third child born in June 2009)
Group Exhibition | Da Gaddery, Shetland | Dec 2008- Jan 2009
Visual Studies module in Contemporary Textiles degree | 2008
NC Art and Design | 2007
(Second child born in Sep 2005)
Book illustrations in "Whalsay Waves" project | Aug 2004
(First child born in Dec 2003)
HND Social Sciences | Aberdeen College | 2001
Da Peerie Shop Group Exhibition | Shetland | Sept 1999 - Oct 1999
Poem 'Walking By' published in "The New Shetlander" magazine | 1998
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Paula Rego Quotes
"If you put frightening things into a picture, then they can't harm you. In fact, you end becoming quite fond of them."
"Art is the only place you can do what you like. That's freedom."
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“Sketches always have more vitality than paintings because you're finding things out through doing them.”
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FAQs
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For concrete sculpture care instructions click here ​
For info on 'Da Lairds Witch' see my blog - click here​ and scroll down
To visit the Whalsay Heritage and Community Centre's website click here
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I hope you have enjoyed my online galleries, for some more ramblings and more of my creative practice, please follow me @susanpearsonart on Instagram or Facebook.
Links below...
