Susan Canavarro

Prior to going back to college, I studied landscape watermedia painting with Richard Yip, Christopher Schink, Katherine Wengi O'Conner, Rex Brandt, Sam Colburn, and Al and Lois Need. And then at age 42 I reentered college to study art at the California State University at Chico. I was tremendously transformed by the teachings and artworks of Professors Ann T. Pierce, Marion Epting, Vernon Patrick, and Sal Casa, and came away with a new understanding of art, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1992. Immediately after graduating, I was accepted into the Graduate Arts Program at San Jose State where I received a Master of Fine Arts in 1995.

Now, after all that edification, I'm back to painting the California and Oregon coastline, working with mixed water media on paper and canvas. I try, however, to work on several different series concurrently—landscapes (beach scenes, bridges, sand dunes, water), symbols, architectonic abstracts, and/or social or political commentary paintings, and occasionally I'll do something very different like my series depicting books that I'm reading which are symbolic of my long-held desires, dreams, and interests, something different that also reflects my sense of humor; and paintings inspired by dreams. I am currently working on a series consisting of paintings and illustrations of all the cats, dogs, and birds I have taken care of over the last three years. Violet's Magic Carpet is one of this series.

I love using the simplicity of a limited palette and a minimal approach to detail in an attempt to express how I see the world-in shapes, values, atmospheric mystical light, and with an edge—that edge that separates land from sea, man-made constructions from natural landscapes. Those are the things that turn me on! But in my sunset years, I am learning to accept the luminosity of bright colors, too.

I also do pillow art, creating decorative throw pillows and pillow shams inspired by my favorite contemporary artists. Sewn by hand, making pillows satisfies a compulsive need to spend time on detail, whereas my paintings are much more simplified. The stitching gives me time to think and reflect back on my mother who earned a living making draperies and slipcovers. In this art form of sewing, we are connected. Many of my pillows also pack an ironic punch, something that is contradictory to what or who a particular artist was or that says something ironic about their artwork. This gives the pillows a subtle humor.

Over the years my work has been shown in many venues, including the Bellevue Museum of Art, Bellevue, WA; the Sidney Museum, Port Orchard, WA; the 1976 Monterey County Fair Art Exhibit; the 1991 California State Fair Exhibition; several Northwest Washington and Canadian galleries; Mendocino and Fort Bragg galleries; and of course, the ever supportive family galleries, The Quercia Gallery in Duncan's Mills, CA. My paintings are included in several private US and international collections. Recently in 2002, my paintings were accepted into several competitions and exhibitions at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center in Carmichael CA; and in Florence's annual Celebrate Arts Juried Exhibit for the past 4 or 5 years. Also, a large collection of my current and past work can be viewed on my new web site FlorenceArtists.com.

I now reside in Florence, Oregon, and I am looking forward to painting new and exciting Oregon coast beaches, dunes, and bridges, pets, and making lots of ironic pillows! I also create websites for other artists as a part of my business, FlorenceArtists.com. And I have written and published a memoir called Fragments: Growing Up Bohemian Poor In Dementia's House. It consists of illustrated short stories. It has humor, tragedy, nudity and sex. It is everything you'd ever want to know about Susan.