Artist Locale: Washington, United States
Subject Matter: unconventionally “art-worthy:” Industrial settings, burned trees, textures in stone and patterns made by bark beetles
Medium: Watercolor on paper
About this Piece: “Where to?” records her oxymoronic impression of a mountain highway with oil tanker cars on one side of the road, and the ever-declining snowfall of that mountain environment. She has watched her local glaciers shrink and burned-over forests increase over her lifetime. She moved from painting joyous wilderness landscapes to burned-over ones to large portraits of individual burned trees. Her fabric installation “State of the Forest,” based on 15 years of painting burned trees, is currently part of the Environmental Impact II tour from 2019-2024.
Artist Statement: Suze Woolf’s subject matter is unconventionally “art-worthy:” industrial settings, burned trees, textures in stone and patterns made by bark beetles. She studied ceramics and printmaking at the University of Washington. An early adopter of computer graphics, her career included graphic and computer interface design. Though known as a watercolorist, she explores a wide range of media from painting, paper-casting, artist books, and pyrography to installation – and sometimes all together.
Artist Bio: She has curated a large traveling exhibit, juried competitions for municipalities and artist organizations, as well as contributed fundraising work to arts and environmental organizations. She has received grants, stipends and exhibits from organizations such as Artist Trust, Shunpike, The Entrada Institute, Zion Natural History Association, the Museum of Northwest Art and the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, and taught workshops for public schools and universities as well as independent art schools. She has been artist in residence in Zion, Glacier, Capitol Reef, North Cascades and Great Basin National Parks. She leads a plein air group weekly for 6 months of the year and participated annually during Zion’s plein air invitational. She was a test artist resident at the Grand Canyon Trust’s remote Kane Ranch. She has also been an invited resident at art colonies such as the Banff Centre, the Vermont Studio Center, Willowtail Springs, Jentel Foundation, Mineral School, Playa Summer Lake, and Sitka Center for Art & Ecology.