ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is a visual conversation between my subconscious, imagination, and what I have observed. The conversation is made manifest in charcoal, paint, paper, glue, tape, and pencil. It is a conversation about who we are and what we might be as individuals and as a “herd”. I do extensive preparations to the paper surface and I plan the drawing before I begin. I am always surprised by how the conversation transpires and what evolves through the dialogue out on to the paper. Am I the cow? Are we the herd? It is an ongoing conversation. I am looking and listening to the to see what will come.
(Be) still (and) listen (to) see (the) sounds (of) nature
BIO
After completing her B.A. at the University of North Carolina, Suzanne Tanner studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and earned her M.F.A. in painting and drawing from Tulane University. She also completed her Teaching degree at the University of West Florida in Pensacola and afterward spent years teaching art in various schools and at the Governor’s school for Gifted in the Visual Arts students in Charlottesville.
In addition to Tanner’s vigorous studio practice and her large-scale charcoal paintings often of dogs and cows, Tanner has written and designed two children's’ books using her unique torn paper collages to illustrate them. These have won great praise in such papers as the New York Times Book Review. She has work in many public and private collections, including the Battle building at the University of Virginia’s Children Hospital.