sculpture, paintings, monoprints, paper collage

click on any image to see more of that project

sculpture – recent work
sculpture – family
sculpture – tribes
sculpture – stories
sculpture – couples
sculpture – characters
paintings 2008-2010
paintings 2004-2007
paintings 1999-2003
monoprints
paper collage
from the archives

susie mendelsson

As an artist I have always been intrigued by representations of the human figure and am particularly drawn to the work of outsider artists. Though the sources of my imagery are often autobiographical, my work communicates universal concerns and emotions. Despite myself, an element of humour often makes an appearance too!

"Most of the materials I use in my work have been discarded: unwanted dolls, magazines that have been read, items from second-hand shops, lost toys. These objects embody their own past and private history which has been abandoned by their owners. I then enhance and draw this past out by reconfiguration and distortion. Perhaps it is this act which allows me to take back control – something that I had very little of as a child."

I first trained as a graphic artist and then spent many years as a painter (I got an MA in Fine Art in 2001). When I moved to Suffolk in 2010 I made an unexpected diversion into sculpture and have been making three-dimensional work ever since.

I've exhibited widely over the years – both across the UK and abroad – but now I've stepped off the treadmill to focus on creating new work.

I was born and brought up in London to Jewish parents who both came from Germany. My father was a refugee who came to England on the Kindertransport, just before war broke out. My mother is a survivor of the Holocaust who came over to England once the war had ended.

I have two grown-up sons: one is a theoretical physicist and the other an actor. Having lived in many parts of the UK, Canada and Israel, I am now happily settled in a small Suffolk town near the river.

Most mornings I exercise and some mornings I dance in our front room. I meditate, then walk by the river. After breakfast with my other half I enter the studio until supper.

 

more about susie