Abstract Expressionist at MAC:Artistic work inspired by women who’ve suffered
Mesquite Arts Center is hosting artist Susan Harmon and her work this month. Harmon is an artist and professor of art. Her art is informed by literature about women who have suffered trauma and their hope to survive. She is an abstract expressionist painter who works large and exhibits her work in universities and art galleries both nationally and internationally. For more information on her work, visit susanharmon.org.
What brought you to Texas ?
My husband accepted a position as chair of the art department at Howard Payne University about seven years ago and we also accepted art positions at Central Texas College, Fort Hood campus.
What drew you to the arts and specifically painting?
I began professional art classes at the age of 7 at The School of The Art institute of Chicago as I am from Chicago. I won my first award at age 8, a $50 oil paint set and from that moment on I was a painter.
Where do you find your inspiration?
All of my work is informed by literature about women who have survived trauma with a focus on their healing process.
What was your first ever creation?
My first painting, oil painting was, of course a still life at age 7, flowers.
Do you remember what it felt like to have your work shown to the public for the first time? When and where was this?
The first time was at age 8, over 55 years ago, in Chicago at The Buckingham fountain and I won that award. Exhibiting has been my way of life since.
How has it been different or helped your artwork having taught others?
I am passionate about art, period. I love to teach it, talk about it, make it, and display it. I am not sure it has helped my artwork by teaching art to so many wonderful and different types of students but my hope is that I have helped many who knew nothing about art or have never been exposed to art appreciate and understand it.
What can people expect to see in your exhibition at Mesquite Arts Center?
This exhibit is with my husband, art professor and artist, and oldest living son, Stephen, who is a poet, painter and lecturer of English at Texas State University. Our work is abstract expressionist in nature, but that may well be the only common thread between the works. My work, as I said earlier, is informed by literature with emphasis placed on emotional mark making and color. I incorporate sand, string, yarn, felt, discarded drawings and oil and acrylic paint and chalk pastel onto canvases that are not framed. Most of these works begin with words written over the entire canvas and then this skeleton is covered up with emotional mark making, often allowing a few words to remain. They are to be hung like tapestries on the wall. Some are sewn together as wounds may be.
What do you hope people get/feel when they see your work?
Emotion! Some kind of feeling, whether sad or happy.
What has been one of your proudest pieces so far?
That is difficult to say, but I am proud of The Colors of Texas, a 60-foot mural commissioned by the city of San Marcos. I am proud of my five artworks recently chosen to be made into costumes for the play, Trojans 2, informed by the “ME TOO” movement at University of Central Oklahoma, but I may be most proud of my recent 24-foot triptych artwork called “STREET PEOPLE,” informed by a documentary made my late son, James, about the homeless in Austin.
Who are some of your favorite artists?
CY Twombly is my favorite at this time, Joan Mitchel, Helen Frankenthaler, Anselm Keiffer, Rothko, Basquiat.
Are you currently working on anything new? If so, describe it.
I recently completed a painting called “8 Minutes”, informed by a mass killing in a mall. Three teenage boys killed 273 people, all ages, in 8 minutes. It is 10 feet long on ungessoed and unframed canvas. I have embedded plastic, string, oil paint, drips of paint … layers and layers of paint. I finished a piece called “My father taught me well” recently, informed by the Rachel Jeff’s story about the sexual abuse of her father and Mormon leader, beginning at age 6, it is also 10 feet long with embedded materials and oil and acrylic paint.