Susan Eileen Burnes
596 Earhart Rd.
Rogue River, OR 97537
541-582-8967
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www.susaneileenburnes.com

Pastels, Fiber and Acrylics on Canvas

Following a career as an administrator in a psychiatric hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, Susan Eileen Burnes switched her focus to art and developed the first generation of her abstract fiber artworks. She also served as the vice president of the Textile Art Alliance with the Cleveland Museum of Art. In 2001, Susan moved to Rogue River, Oregon, where her current home was built. For the last twelve years, she has served as curator of exhibitions at the Grants Pass Museum of Art.

Susan creates layers of color as pastel pigments and acrylic paint are applied over a textural base of hand stitched fiber, while forms and patterns express the basic structure of material life. Her original artwork has been featured in exhibitions, galleries and private collections in nine states and Europe.

Artist’s Statement
Inspired by the rhythms and patterns of my environment, the color fields which are my gardens, and by the wildlife with which I share space, I work to express the underlying order of life, listening intently to the artwork as it develops and informs direction. As I require the quiet, empty spaces to breathe, to dream and to create, my artwork is a realization of these natural processes. Through my art I intend to convey the experience of unity and harmony through the repetition of simple geometric forms in linear patterns.

These words by Constantin Brancusi express a guiding principle that I have pursued in my work. “Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one’s self by entering into the real sense of things.”