Sue Katz may be of small stature, but that doesn’t hold her back from making art of all sizes. Her appreciation for both nature and structure shines through in her work, which range in size in her most recent exhibition from a small 5”x5” photo to a towering 84”x42” encaustic-on-metal piece. This larger work, Now and Then, is a diptych – two 42” square pieces hung together that are both full of squares.

Pattern is the theme of this show of twenty works from the past thirty years. All the work is related, in that the primary structure, the construct, is pattern. “I like art that has organization to it, some kind of pattern or structure underneath the color and objects,” Sue said. With her favorite color being rust, the tones of each work echo the variety found within nature, leaning heavily toward shades of tan, rust, black, and white.

Sue’s artistic journey has taken her across the US, from growing up in Ohio, to studying ceramics with renowned artist Peter Voulkos at UC Berkeley, to teaching ceramics in New York, and eventually migrating to Colrain, Massachusetts, with her husband, Michael in the early 1970s to raise their children.

Rural life in Colrain was a change of pace for Sue, but even as she started and ran a daycare for children, she continued with creating utilitarian ceramics until 1984. Sue learned of encaustic art during a paper-making course, which began her journey working with wax. Enjoying the flexibility of the medium, she recently shared, “I like the fact that it was so soft and fluid before it dried. It sets sort of quickly, but then you can blow your hot gun on it, and it could heat up again, so you can reposition it.”

Sue’s outdoorsy nature has led her all over the world, from hiking in Croatia and Budapest to visiting unique rock formations in Turkey and New Mexico. Her love of nature is not only reflected in her work, but throughout her home as well, which is filled with birds nests, rocks, and other items she’s collected from the outdoors.

Recently she made a piece called Birds Nests that Fell at My Feet, which was inspired by several synchronous occurrences on this theme. In addition to the oak trees that line her driveway shedding their acorns and gall each year, she had birds’nests literally fall to her feet three times. The first happened at a graveyard in Cambridge. As she walked with a friend, a birds nest fell down right in front of her. Another instance happened when she was in Cameroon, Africa, working for the Experiment in International Living. “I was walking under this big tree with this big windstorm and about a hundred birds nests fell down from this tree, and I brought one home with me.” Then once again, it happened in Tucson, Arizona, where a nest fell out of a dead Saguaro Cactus. When relaying this inspiration, Sue laughed and said, “I guess I pay attention to where I’m walking and what’s at my feet.

We celebrate Sue, a colorful and lively presence, as she leaves NEW. She was one of the earliest members. I know I won’t be alone in missing Sue’s contributions to our group, but I am excited for her as she enters this new phase at age 86.

For more information, visit her website: http://www.suekatzart.com/

Written by Donna Hamil-Talman, a member of New England Wax