“You must open yourself to communing with the desires of the paint and flow with it.” — Susan Dworkin
Susan Dworkin has been experimenting with colonial painting techniques for fourteen years. Her current endeavor is adapting vinegar painting from its traditional use on flat wooden surfaces to other mediums. Historically used as a means of making common and inexpensive woods appear to be more valuable materials, such as metal, Dworkin experiments with the technique to create unique abstract compositions.
To date, she remains one of the pioneers in this venture, continually exploring and adapting the technique via artist board, foam core, metal, paper, glass, and mirror. “The nature of vinegar paint produces a multilayered spectrum of color that combines elements of impressionism, surrealism and lyrical abstractionism, explains Dworkin. “To work with this medium you must open yourself to communing with the desires of the paint and flow with it.” Her paintings are suggestive of rich landscapes and fantasy realms that allow the viewer to formulate their own personal vision. In one of her previous lives, Dworkin was a private estate gardener in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and finds color inspiration from those gardens and settings, as well as her many travels. She has lived in Lexington, Kentucky since 1989.
2017 has been a busy year for Dworkin, with solo exhibits at The Bar Complex, and the Hunt Morgan House, Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation, both in Lexington, Kentucky, and for the month of September she will have another solo show at the John G. Irvin Gallery, also in Lexington. In April 2018 she will be part of a group exhibit at ArtConnects in Lexington.
Dworkin has work in private collections in Lexington, KY, Chicago, IL, St. Petersburg, FL, and Tryon, NC.
Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky
Education: BA, Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI
Social Media: www.facebook.com/DesignsbyDworkin
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.