Artist Statement 2007

I am fascinated by how fragments of memory overlap and reconfigure to form new realities. Imagine a handful of souvenir postcards from different places spread across a table. Here you see a leaping fish, there a building, or a patch of sky. Now enter the non-visual senses. How do you paint the smell of salt air, or night blooming jasmine, the go-away cry of the Grey Loerie, the sound of drums. In some way, the past always affects the present, yet it changes and is not a static entity. The two dance to create a subjective reality. How can two people experience the same few moments in the same place, and yet, when the stories are told, they have almost nothing in common.

The House and Gardens series is based on real houses and gardens I have loved. I am a passionate gardener, and yet the gardens kept near a salmon stream in Alaska, in a national park in Africa, in the prairies of Iowa, in Hawaii——all swirl together as I plan the current plantings in my backyard in Madison, Wisconsin. You will find the basil with tomatoes, but I am thinking about pineapples, and avocadoes, and orchids in an outdoor shower. Purple coneflower. The smell of fires lit to keep the wild boar out of the crops. Bears and berries. Fairy shrimp with luminescent legs skittering across the night coral. A chameleon slowly rocking its way across the yard.
I start with flat sheets of paper, and build each piece with layers of color, paper, archival glues, acrylic paints, fragments of my own prints and drawings. I sew them, tear them, patch them back together. They are crazy quilts, structures, topographic maps to travel at your own risk. For you they will invoke different thoughts and memories, subjective realities. That is how people communicate.

Susan Gardels

 

Artist Resume 2007

Susan Gardels

EDUCATION

1981 M.F.A. in Creative Writing, University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
1980-81 Randall Jarrell Fellowship in Poetry
1978 B.S. in Visual Art, with Distinction, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1978 Outstanding Senior Award in Graphics; 1974 Vilas Scholarship
1987 Intensive Training Course in Cross Cultural Communication and Language
U.S. Peace Corps: 80 hours in Kansas City, 500 hours in Lilongwe, Malawi,
Africa

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

2007-Present Artist Services Manager, The Guild, LLC, Madison, WI
2004-2006 Senior Merchant and Product Development Manager , The Guild, LLC,
Madison, WI
Merchant , The Artful Home, The Guild, LLC, Madison,
WI

1999-2004 Faculty, Kula High & Intermediate, Kauai, Hawaii
Department Chairperson, Literature and Language Arts 2001-2004
Senior Advisor 2000-2002, WASC Accreditation Self-Study Coordinator 1999

1982-Present Business Owner; Visual Artist/Writer
Sledrag Seed Productions
Developed successful art and writing based business which included creation
of works of public and gallery art, conference presentations, public
readings, visual art/writing based residencies, grant writing, fundraising,
and public relations activities for community and school organizations.
Poet-in-Residence and Featured Speaker, Iowa Governor’’s Conference on
Diversity, 1999.
Artist-in-Residence, Des Moines Playhouse, 1999.
Art Outreach Faculty, Des Moines Art Center, 1993-99.
Artist-in-Residence, Iowa Department of Human Services, 1998-99
Artist/Writer-in-Residence, Des Moines Metro Arts Alliance Programs
1992-99.
Artist/Writer-in-Residence, Iowa Arts Council Artists-in-Schools Programs
1993-99.
Artist/Writer-in-Residence, Wisconsin Arts Board A-I-R Programs 1982-87.
Artist/Writer-in-Residence, Harbor Pop-Up Mural Project, Sheboygan, WI,
1984.
Grant Evaluator for Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission (2005-7), Iowa
Arts Council (1994-99), and the Wisconsin Arts Board (1984-86).

1987-88 Project Director, Peace Corps Volunteer
US Peace Corps/World Wildlife Fund Project, Lake Malawi National Park,
Malawi, Africa

1982 Publicist, Bulletin Editor
Association of College, University and Community Arts Administrators,
Madison, WI

1980-81 Associate Poetry Editor, Business Manager
Greensboro Review, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro,
NC

1980-81 Guest Curator for Book as Art/ Works of Paper Exhibition, Greensboro
Art Center, NC.

1979-81 Instructor of Art: Bookmaking (part-time)
St. Andrews College, Laurinburg, North Carolina
GRANTS, COMMISSIONS, AND MAJOR PROJECTS

2003 - Kauai Mural Project: Three 4’’x 8’’ Outdoor Murals created with high
school students at Kula High &
Intermediate, Kilauea, Kauai, Hawaii.
1999 - Adair County Courthouse Sculpture: 12' steel sculpture funded by the
National Endowment for the Arts
and the Iowa Arts Council. Adair County Courthouse, Greenfield, IA.
1999 - I'll Make Me A Home In Iowa: Installation of painted wood sculptures
commissioned by the Iowa
Department of Human Services, Iowa Historical Building, Des Moines, IA.
1999- Celebration: Three 6' painted wood sculptures commissioned by the Iowa
Department of Waste Management. Dedicated at the State Capital in Des
Moines, IA.
1998 - Grasses: Voices: Three 12' steel sculptures commissioned by Henry A.
Wallace Birthplace in Orient, Iowa.
1998 - Safe Neighborhood Houses: Painted wood sculptures created in
collaboration with Hmong and African-
American youth at Oakridge Neighborhood. Dedicated at the Civic Center of
Greater Des Moines.
1998 - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat Stage Sets:
Commissioned by the Des Moines
Playhouse. Play opened July 1998.
1997 - Prairie Installation Project: Awarded Iowa Arts Council Grant for
Individual Artists to create ten mixed media pieces based on stories
collected about the Walnut Creek National Wildlife Refuge.
1994 - To Reconstruct A Prairie Book Project: Awarded Iowa Arts Council
Grant for Individual Artists to create
hand-printed collection of poems and illustrations based on stories about
the Walnut Creek National Wildlife Refuge. Received Iowa Designer Craft
Association Award in 1995. Received Iowa Sesquicentennial Commission Award
in 1994.
1993 - Professional Development Grant: Awarded grant from the Iowa Arts
Council to develop marketing materials for artist business.
1991 - Malawi Book Project: Developed and marketed an integrated series of
writings and mixed media works
based on visual and cultural themes from Malawi, Africa. Initial residency
in Malawi 1987-88. Return studies in Malawi in December 1991.
1986 - Yucatan Commissions: Created commissioned series of ten mixed media
works in Progreso, Mexico.
1984 - Harbor Pop-Up Mural Project: Created 30' x 60' permanent outdoor
mural and sculpture installation in
Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Five fiberglass sculptures ranging in size from 6' x
12' to 15' x 30.' Funding from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Kohler
Corporation.
1994 - Prairie Planting Installation: Created wooden sculpture installation
consisting of sixty carved and painted boards, MacKenzie Environmental
Center, Poynette, WI, in collaboration with 1984 Arts World
participants. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Dept. of
Public Instruction, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
1979 - Artist-Apprentice Grant: Awarded Artist-Apprentice Grant from the
North Carolina Arts Council to work with master writer Fred
Chappell..
1979 - Professional Development Grant: Awarded grant from the North Carolina
Arts Council to research
artist book works, fine presses, paper mills, collaborative studios, and
book exhibits in NYC.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: VISUAL ART

One Person Exhibitions: Greensboro Art Center, High Point Art Center,
Monroe Art Center, St. Andrews College Gallery, Walnut Creek NWR, Central
Life Assurance Corporation.
Group Exhibitions: Appalachian State University, Bergstrom Art Center,
Berkshire Museum, Bradford College, Drake University, Elvjhem Museum of
Art, Fayetteville Museum of Art, Franklin City Arts Council, Greensboro Art
Center, Hargate Art Center, High Point Art Center, John Michael Kohler Art
Center, Kauai Art Center, Lakeside Arts Festival, Madison Art Center,
Milwaukee Art Museum, Monroe Art Center, North Carolina Museum of Art, Polk
County Heritage Gallery, Two Rivers Festival, S.E. Massachusetts University,
St. Andrews College, State University of New York-Albany, University of
Southern Maine, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Permanent Collections: Appalachian State University, Brown University
Library, Duke Medical Center,
The Guild LLC, Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Waste
Management, Henry A. Wallace Birthplace, Neil Smith National Wildlife
Refuge, New York Public Library, Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro.