Susan Martin

Region: South

I find my subject matter everywhere: in the images of the commonplace, the everyday, rather than the exotic or the perfect. It is a fascination with patterns that drives my selection of subject matter, rather than the subjects themselves. By eliminating the context provided by background and examining a subject close-up and enlarged, the resulting composition can be viewed abstractly as a complex arrangements of colors and textures with inherent aesthetic value apart from its representation of an object or place. The resulting in-your-face compositions are intense. Their busy patterns and bold colors demand attention, but the chaos of the subject matter is organized and clarified through the painting process.