Susan Strand-Penman
Ceramic Artist
More about me...
I grew up in a very small, rural village in northern Wisconsin. I left that place and went to a larger and somewhat less rural Wisconsin college and got a degree in art. I loved everything about the experience including the long hours in the studio, the comradery of the other students, and the guidance and knowledge shared by the professors. I even traveled into Minneapolis and Chicago to look at architecture and visit museums. It was all great fun while it lasted.
Ceramics escaped me shortly after graduating. I found myself busy building a home and a family and soon working with my husband to build a small business. I spent many joyful years occupied with the family business and domestic life. My family and I enjoyed spending time hiking, gardening, and watching the local wildlife. I did not think of clay until my daughter was entering high school. Suddenly I started thinking back to my college days and all the time spent in the ceramics studio. I felt compelled to work with clay again.
I was not exactly sure what I wanted to make when I returned to clay. Many of my technical skills had declined, and I was frustrated trying to make functional vessels that actually functioned. I started making little figurines that were dressed in woodland garb and held little birds and flowers. It was obvious that my many years of domestic life were influencing the work I was creating.
In my current work I am interested in telling stories. I am focused on highlighting the historically intricate relationship between humans and their natural environment. I strive to create work that portrays joyful, haunting, and precarious moments in time.