STRAIGHT TALK
with Susan Knight
Susan Knight lives and
works in Omaha, Nebraska.
Knight creates work which
plays with the boundary between 2D and 3D,
inspired by the physical
behavior of water, and various ecological issues in the
U.S.
Q: In much of your work, your pieces are informed by naturally occurring shapes and patterns in nature,
especially water. Can you describe
why you were initially drawn to water as a subject matter, and continue
to be?
A: Prior to 2002 I was a realist,
figurative oil painter. That year I
wanted to participate in a show
about rivers, a memorial show for a
dear friend. Having just seen Architectural Origami, an elegant show
of paper engineering at New York’s
Museum of Art and Design I was
inspired to cut a map of the river that divided
the town in which I grew up. I thought it was a
onetime project. But in the midst of cutting an
80” long paper map of the Grand River a slew
of ideas and memories rushed into my brain.
For the first time I drew from my personal
experiences to express myself and I was free
from the restraint of photographic references.
The physicality of cutting into paper made me
feel like Zorro. It was exhilarating to take away
from the surface instead of adding to it. My
first two series were narratives about the Great
Lakes that included catching a vicious snapping
turtle on Spring Lake, the mountains of dead
fish from the alewife die off along the shores of
Lake Michigan one summer and the predator
lamprey eel. The last piece in this first series is
set on Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula where the river ran yellow one sum-
20
Merge (2013). 40” x 40”. Layered, hand cut Tyvek & acrylic ink.
mer from the hemlock tree roots bleeding into
it. Color was added to it at a later date.
From research to clarify my memories I
learned about alien species invasions. I obsessed
about two species that are changing the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, Zebra mussels from
the Caspian Sea and the Spiny Tail Water Flea.
I delighted in repeating the wacky striped zebra
mussel patterns and the arc of the flea’s long
tail. I discovered my predilection and patience
for repetition and the love of the nuance it
reveals. I was on a mission to look for more patterns in and about water and water habitats that
ultimately morph the narratives into abstract
work.
As my concepts grew larger I began cutting
designs in groups of 40” x 50” components
which are manageable for me to manipulate
SciArt in America August 2013