As an intuitive thinker and trained geologist Susan is interested in melding the unknown with the known to explore stone on several levels. Her geologic designs are carefully researched and accurately illustrate geologic terranes, while Susan’s abstract work is filtered through her geologic mindset and plays out as interwoven stone tapestries. As an artist she creates each composition with an eye to the color, contrast, and texture; but the geologist-on-her-shoulder is looking deeper into the stories the materials tell.

Susan’s opus sectile mosaic is created from a variety of earth materials that are inlaid into 2- and 3-D art work. The work is material-driven with the stone being an essential part of the design. She is inspired by its veining and banding while being equally stimulated by understanding its formation and discovery. Susan especially enjoys juxtaposing elements that are not found together in nature. It can take years to accumulate the ideal rocks for a new work of art, but there is magic when the right balance of materials is unearthed!

Susan pioneered the techniques used in her art work which has been described as ground breaking. She is completely self-taught in cutting, polishing, and inlaying stone. When Susan started in 1998 she was unaware of the opus sectile or pietra dura art form, so she started experimenting with various “self-engineered” techniques. Susan drew pen and ink patterns, cut out the paper pieces, and taped them to stone slabs. The pattern pieces would slip after getting wet and cuts were crooked. Patterns were continually redrawn to account for the errors. Ink smeared and sometimes ruined porous stone. The $125 blades for her new water-fed diamond band saw would break unexpectedly and give Susan, and her pocketbook, a start. She had no mentors, no books, no YouTube videos, or instruction of any sort, but Susan did have one thing that never faltered: passion – complete unadulterated passion! Susan knew that she had to do this work and still feels this way.

Gradually her techniques were perfected and she progressed from cutting stone by hand to cutting with a computerized high pressure waterjet machine. The process of transforming a boulder into slices, then polishing and precision cutting the slices into umpteen pattern pieces that jigsaw together can take hundreds of hours. Susan challenges herself by seamlessly piecing together small slices of rare material so they create a larger “canvas” from which to work. Because of the inherent challenges of this work, she has several pieces in progress at one time. Susan finds that there are always more ideas than time, and as she is developing one art work, another interpretation of the same theme emerges.

Some themes that continue to inspire Susan include the cosmos, geologic time, primordial landscapes, and layers within layers. Recently she has created some art reflecting her interest in the power of the geosphere and the existential threat of volcanism to the biosphere. She is also dedicated to geo-conservation and has created an additive sculpture promoting it. Susan hopes that her tactile art elicits appreciation, stimulates curiosity, and leaves the viewer in awe of our earth’s mysteries.