Susan Mandel Designs

Nightfall

SuzyQ — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:10:48 +0000

Photo: Doug Mandel

Nightfall

SuzyQ — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:10:48 +0000

Experimentation

SuzyQ — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:29:40 +0000

I've been sidetracked for two years now. I haven't left beads entirely - that would be a hellish sin - but I've been experimenting with other forms of expression. There was a story last night on PBS...discussing how in painting, one spends years mastering the necessary skills and once those are acheived one is left only with creativity. I agree, but only partially. We spend years learning, mastering, with the hopes that one day we will create the perfect vision. The problem is that when we arrive, we are off on another learning adventure. That is to say, we can never arrive. One does not stop eating just because one has grown.

It is not the destination but the journey that counts.

New in My Etsy Beadweaver Shop

SuzyQ — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:22:43 +0000

Giant Rings

SuzyQ — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:58:09 +0000

Check out my Giant Rings on Etsy!

Happy Holidays

SuzyQ — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:27:44 +0000

Good Enough?

SuzyQ — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:21:40 +0000

I often feel like I am trapped in my own distortion of reality. Do I show the world my work or do I keep it to myself?

Consider Vivian Maier. She was a photographer who packed all her work into boxes and kept it packed away for her entire life. It wasn't until an auction in 2007 that she was discovered and this was after her death.

Thank you Louise, for sharing her story with me. It brings to the forefront the question an artist faces every single day: Am I good enough? Will anyone care about my work when I am gone?

Linen & Heishi

SuzyQ — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:23:08 +0000

Arte Povera

SuzyQ — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:32:28 +0000

Arte Povera is a modern art movement. The term was introduced in Italy during the period of upheaval at the end of the 1960s, when artists were taking a radical stance. Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture, and even questioning whether art as the private expression of the individual still had an ethical reason to exist. Italian art critic Germano Celant organized two exhibitions in 1967 and 1968, followed by an influential book called Arte Povera, promoting the notion of a revolutionary art, free of convention, the power of structure, and the market place. Although Celant attempted to encompass the radical elements of the entire international scene, the term properly centered on a group of Italian artists who attacked the corporate mentality with an art of unconventional materials and style.

From: Wikipedia: Arte Povera

Discovering

SuzyQ — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:51:34 +0000

I continue to work in various ways with paper.