I am interested in the systems (galactic, solar, cultural, economic, educational, mathematical, reproductive) that provide structure for all existence. I am fascinated by the human drama—performances if you will—that unceasingly takes place within these structures, which I view as their stage. Systems are what hold us together. It's the drama, however, that holds our attention.

 

Quantum theory says, or at least I interpret is as such, that nature comes in bits and pieces (quanta) and that at the subatomic level energy and mass continuously change into each other. Similarly, in my mixed media work on paper, the graphite and paint continually trade position in primary and secondary space, vying for the viewer’s focus. The graphite drawings, curiously tucked into empty areas on the paper, are bits and pieces of our little human dramas.

 

Eventually I brought the graphite front and center. The sinuous, twisting forms that appear in both drawings and stone sculptures embody our entanglement with one another and how we wrestle with living together. These swaddling forms also reflect a desire to soothe and comfort, ease the world’s pain, wrap its wounds. But I often introduce something that interrupts the loveliness—a clumsy steel pipe, an imposing penile shape, a hand flipping the finger, a marble ring designed to engage in a death battle with a growing tree. Images writhe and contort into each other providing glimpses of who we humans are, what we’ve been up to, and (perhaps) what we might be.    ~ Susan Begy