For the past 25 years I have been scrutinizing my collection of hats to investigate the relationship between space, form and pattern. The feathers, fabrics and forms of the hats have inspired ways of drawing--dots, dashes, squiggles and lines--giving me a wide visual vocabulary of mark making. The work grouped the hats in ways that depicted deep space, shallow space, different viewpoints, as well as combining different ways of describing the hats‚ volumes. The hats‚ patterns and textures were drawn from direct observation. Different bodies of work alluded to landscape or portraiture, though all were still lifes.

After years of investigating the hats representationaly, I now find myself interested in the flat, abstract patterns the hats suggest, lines which become thicker, thinner, straighten, abbreviate and curve. The pattern contained by the lines in my new work morph into odd shapes. There are areas where a density builds with an accumulation of lines and shapes that activate the space on the picture plane. There‚s the idea of volume as the pattern goes around the form, suggesting another kind of space. What the pattern changes into and how the space shifts may be unplanned and unpredictable.

I am working in pencil, gouache and acrylic paint, which are very forgiving as I make adjustments and changes while developing each work. Clarity is my goal as many layers accumulate, and with clarity the intention of each work becomes apparent.

Besides looking at hats I have been inspired by looking at textiles and architectural ornamentation, and particularly the geometric patterns on the surfaces of Mexican ceramics and architecture, and the bright colors of the painted facades of colonial Mexican towns.

born: 1953, South Bend, IN

education

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA, 1979
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA, 1976

selected publications

Catalog essay by Dr. Liane Schneeman, Still Alive-Contemporary Still Life, Rockford College.
Catalog essay by James Yood, Self Portraits Then or Now, 1986.

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Susan Frankel New Work:Corbett vs Dempsey Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
Heat To Toe: Hinsdale Center for the Arts, Hinsdle, IL, 1996
Susan Frankel Paintings, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL 1990

selected group shows

Art Connections 5: George Segal Gallery, Montclair University, Montclair, NJ 2009
Still Alive-Contemporary Still Life: Rockford College, Rockford, IL 1991
Past Perfect Future Indicative, 50th Anniversary Show, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Self-Portraits Then or Now: curators: Mary Jane Jacob, Ray Yoshida, ARC Gallery, Chicago, Illinois