Susan Bockman – Sienna Jewel River Rocks

Description

As a partially color blind visual artist, my work has historically emphasized texture, shape, and the relationship between positive and negative space. I am particularly drawn to minimalism and the contradiction between lines and formed shapes that exist organically in nature, and those that are fabricated in industry. Only recently has color emerged as a more prominent feature. The themes of community, social responsibility, and civic engagement have occupied enduring places of importance throughout my life, and inevitably started to permeate my creative process. My current work examines the belief that the most minuscule action, when combined with other minuscule actions, can be impactful. I began exploring this idea as it related to our social responsibility to each other during the Covid pandemic. I sought a visual approach to convey the smallness and futility I felt in my sole actions, juxtaposed with the larger goal I hoped to achieve when those actions combined with actions of others. Pointillism (dot painting) as a technique works to symbolize unity, cooperation, and cohesiveness, much like the cells we are made of, and serves as a palpable reminder of our individual significance to a collective action.