ABOUT
“Everything but the kitchen sink“ is how artist Susan Poirier describes the tools she uses to create her minimalist paintings. Born in Boston, MA (b. 1952) Susan still remembers the excitement and smell of her first “real” art supplies; tiny pots of oil paint accompanied by paint by number canvases of Thomas Gainsborough’s Pinkie and Blue Boy. Always involved in art in some way, Susan did not begin painting seriously until she retired from a successful career as a critical care nurse. She attributes much of her quiet minimalist approach to her experiences during those years, often caring for patients hovering between life and death. It was during this time she developed a deep interest in the mind body connection and the relationship to healing and spirituality.
Inspired by the work of artists James Terrell, Ann Truitt, Robert Ryman and Mark Rothko, Susan uses unconventional tools; cake racks, spatulas, bowls, pitchers and condiment bottles to create her mostly monochromatic paintings. With these tools she pours and drips acrylic paint and medium working with gravity to direct the paint across the panel or canvas. Uniquely, she begins by priming the surface black creating subtle color shifts as the weight of the paint flows to the bottom of the panel or canvas. In preparation for pouring Susan carrys out extensive experiments with the interaction of color and viscosity on the black surface, a process she says satisfies Her analytic side.
Susan’s work has been seen at Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, the National Association of Women Artists Gallery, New York, NY, Adam Peck Gallery, Provincetown, MA, Encaustic Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM, M. David & Co. Brooklyn, NY, on Artsy and In Nothern CAlifornia area Galleries.
Susan lives and works in Carmichael, CAlifornia.
THE SILENCE BETWEEN
The Work of Susan Poirier
Perhaps the most important and meaningful expression of Contemporary Art and contemporary culture in the first two decades of the Twenty-first Century has been embracing a long overdue recognition that art emerges from everywhere; geographically, demographically, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. This understanding and more inclusive view, along with a rejection of a more modernist and narrower lineage, has made our experience of art richer, and has enhanced our understanding of ourselves.
Certainly, the voices of women artists that has risen over the last two decades, has gained a long overdue prominence and foothold in the art world’s dialogue. Among this rise of female voices, a subset of women in their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s has started to emerge. Artists such as Carmen Herrera, Rose Wylie, Loretta Pettaway, Etel Adnan, Zilia Sanchez, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, to name but a few, have taken their place, late in life, and entered the most revered aspects of the contemporary canon. They come from all different backgrounds and from all over the world. They work in completely diverse genres and mediums, with all levels of formal training. They share, however, practices that were interrupted or delayed because of the cultural responsibilities in which they were raised. They share an unyielding and uncompromising practice, one which can only speak to a direct and profound expression of who they are. With Susan Poirier’s seminal body of work, The Silence Between, she joins the ranks of these fellow artists.
Her work also comes from a direct and an indirect lineage of artists that were interested in the spiritual aspects of light and the use transparency, who were in my opinion, too often easily classified as abstract and minimal. One can trace this interest in the inner light to artists as diverse as Vermeer, Turner, Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Ryman, Marcia Haffif, James Turrell, Dan Flavin and Joseph Marioni. Again, Poirier has stepped into this lineage because of where she comes from and who she is.
Poirier was born Boston. As a child, she traveled extensively with her family all across the United States, and only recently settled in California. For most of her adult life her primary focus was being a highly skilled critical care nurse and educator, practices that would directly influence her mature voice an as artist. The compassion, quiet strength, the sharing of calm, and a simultaneously precise and delicate use of touch, along with a public persona of inner peace with those acutely ill (the selfless day in and day out task of critical care nurse), and the acceptance that we are part of something bigger than ourselves (a secular spirituality), is at the heart of Poirier’s expression as a visual artist.
Every aspect of Poirier’s practice is deeply tuned and considered--from the depth of her cradles and the weave of her canvas, to the endless color and viscosity studies. She spends months refining her approach and materials until the moment where she pours the medium with the same precision, delicacy of touch and faith. Her pouring happens in a moment after hours and months of preparation and contemplation, akin to the Zen Buddhist practice of acceptance of release and control, emptiness and fullness, and is an extension of some of the same gifts that made her such a brilliant critical care nurse.
It was the great Louis Bourgeois who said the first lesson of being an artist is to make who you are. Certainly, in The Silence Between, there is no doubt Poirer has emerged as a fully mature artist by doing just that.
I had the great fortune of watching Poirier create this body of work this past summer at the Judy Pfaff Residency Program in Tivoli, NY. Any questions about her level commitment and resolve and can be answered by her choice to fly cross country at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic to make work she believed in and felt compelled to create.
The Silence Between is partially based the integer 108 (for underlying narrative reasons) and would be best experienced installed all together, though each painting stands on its own. Seen as one immersive experience is overwhelming, similar to viewing Rothko’s masterwork Chapel in Houston. On first appearance (as in the case of all great monochromatic paintings), the nuisances, color shifts, and touch appears mute. The smaller studies reveal themselves through their greater shifts and are more accessible in re-production (the curse and gift of the most advanced and beautiful monochromatic work) than your first encounter with the larger work, which demands viewing in person.
If one slows down, looks, breathes, the paintings’ infinite sensitivities reveal themselves, creating a meditative and impactful experience through a quieting of oneself, bridging the space between painter and viewer, a providing a deeply profound silence between--a deeply profound gift.
Michael David
Painter, Curator, Educator
2-1-21