Sue Patterson
“An object is not so possessed of its name that
one cannot find for it another which suits it better.”
Rene Magritte, 1929
Artwork is a way of processing, of testing my assumptions, and an ongoing experiment with how meaning is crafted, or found. I find pleasure in investigation, and enjoy work that is generous without being easy. My studio life is not the navel of my universe but rather the editing room and the kitchen; part anthropology, part chemistry. I have a habit of spending a lot of time outside the art world, for economic reasons, to maximize my own capacity, and out of curiosity, but also to remind myself that creative thinking can be exercised anywhere, not just the art world.
I believe that there is no one fulcrum upon which perception rests. I often use language as part of my visual vocabulary. The writing works as another built or found journey, acknowledging yet another level of complexity. Sometimes it is mortar, sometimes it is brick. I like the density of poems, their particular accuracy, and the absence of rules that insist on meaning that must accumulate in a straight line. I associate pleasure with discovery. The generation of discovery, for ones self, or for a viewer, is harder than it looks, and harder to sustain.. I do not expect that the writing exists separate from the work and in most cases the two are developed side by side. One act is the measure of the others.
With thanks for the writings of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Mark Turner, and a planet of creatives who challenge us daily.
All artwork with the exception of that done collaboratively © Sue Patterson. All writing my own unless noted.
Photo credits to either Aaron Igler, Will Brown, or myself.