Susan J Goldman
Squaring the Flower II, #30 2019, screenprint, 32 x 32 inches.
“Color whispers to me. It comes from deep inside me.”
Susan J Goldman is an artist living and working in Rockville, Maryland (USA). Her approach to color is intuitive, and her approach to printmaking is interdisciplinary. Susan’s bold, layered and elegant work is created with screenprint, relief, monotype and digital printmaking processes. She also works in three-dimensional digital print applications for collaborative dance performances.
Currently Susan is working on a project titled "Look Again: Five Centuries to Five Seconds”, presented by the Printmaking Legacy Project ®. This interview project organized by Susan Goldman re-examines what comprises a print, how it and the process of art making has changed, and how hybrid printing methods and a specific interest in how photographic techniques have affected artistic exploration. Susan is also working towards the exhibition: "Black & Blue: New Prints in the Time of Covid” at Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD in March 2021.
Are there specific associations towards color in your work?
My most recent series of prints, "Squaring the Flower", is an installation of twenty-four 32" x 32" screenprints. Walking past rows of prints arranged into one grand composition, I am referencing both friezes of antiquity and the ever-changing rhythms of improvisational jazz.
"Squaring the Flower" bridges the worlds of ancient and modern art and music. My challenge has been to transform a still-life form of a flower in a vase into dynamic and modern imagery. I am seeking to create balance between decorative Victorian art, as characterized by ornate shapes and patterns, and modernism, with its bold forms and bright colors. Shifting the 19th century two-point perspective into a single-point perspective, aerial perspective by flattening the image and seeing it from above, is the genesis for the "Squaring of the Flower”, which has become in-depth exploration of color on a large scale.
Squaring the Flower II, #1 2019, screenprint, 32 x 32 inches.
Squaring the Flower II, #5 2019, screenprint, 32 x 32 inches.
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
Screenprinting, woodcut and monotype are very effective for my process of image making. Using these mediums, I can generate multiple matrixes, as in an extensive library of circles, targets or rounded floral ornamental designs. Inking up my monotype plates, blocks or screenprinting colors, I intuitively and spontaneously layer, overlap or vanish imagery easily. Intricate filagree abut blocks of solid color. The process of exploring color and composition is unlimited. My compositions are generated by the act of printing.
“Color, as the primary element, really dictates the direction and always guides me.”
How does color represent or support the mind space of your work?
Color whispers to me. It comes from deep inside me. As I work along developing my prints, combinations of color arrangements will suggest what to do next. As I have matured in my art life, I contemplate ideas before I start. When I was younger I would just react to whatever was in front of me. I wouldn't have a a complete idea in mind. Now I don't want to repeat myself. I meditate and listen to my heart and soul and body. I learn from art history and how artists have expressed concepts. I respond intuitively to ideas I am exploring. Color, as the primary element, really dictates the direction and always guides me.
Squaring the Flower II, #21 2019, screenprint, 32 x 32 inches.