Susan Thacker

I was a writer before becoming a painter, but I drew as many pictures in the margins of my paper as words on the page. Painting liberated me from a linear narrative structure. Some stories simply have no ending; others have many.

My paintings are visual allegories of the personal, political, cultural and moral questions I have regarding our time on earth. In the aerial series of paintings, I distance myself like a bird flying overhead, to see if there?s a pattern or some grand design as to why people converge or disperse.

In the aerial series, I like to tell just enough of the story that the viewer makes up the ending.

Education:

1974 BA U.C.L.A. (Writing)

1999-2004 Otis College of Art and Design

Grants/Awards:

2006 Artist-in-Residence, Big Sur

Exhibitions:

Over and Above, Studio Arts Gallery, Laguna Beach, Ca., 2010; Our Struggle: Responding to Mein Kampf, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, Ca., 2010; Exhibition, Studio Barndiva Gallery, Healdsburg, Ca. 2010; Found Object Sculpture, Fine Art Base Gallery, Sand City, Ca. 2009; Group Show, Ventana Inn, Big Sur 2009; Exhibit, The Phoenix Shop at Nepenthe, Big Sur 2008; Open Studio Monterey, Monterey, Ca; 2008; Group Show, Studio One, Big Sur 2008; Group Show, Unitard Gallery, Downtown L.A. 2007; Solo Exhibit / New Works Anderson Miguel Fine Art Gallery, Healdsburg, Ca. 2006; Big Sur Artist Residency Exhibit, Carmel, Ca. 2006; Red Light/Green Light, Lauryn Taylor Gallery, Carmel, Ca. 2005; Miniatures, Studio One, Big Sur, Ca., 2005; Evolution: The Process of Abstraction, Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, 2004;

Home Is Where the Art Is, Solo exhibit Los Angeles, Ca. 2004; Juvenilia, group exhibit, The Gardner Stages, Hollywood, Ca. 2004; Bridgin\' The Gap, a group show, The Glasshouse, Pomona Ca. 2004

Teaching:

Otis College of Art and Design

Boys and Girls Club of Venice

YMCA, Westchester, Ca.

SCI-Arc (co-Founder of Kids-Arc (Architecture for Children)