Susan Hogan

Making garments has been a lifelong pursuit for me - from doll clothes and paper dolls as a kid, to sewing my own clothes as a teenager, to jobs in costuming for opera and film, as a freelancer in NYC.   This practice established a strong momentum for inventing earthy outfits with clay (including found materials, of course). The fluidity of the material enables openness to creative form; it’s a lot of fun to make new dresses and gowns, torsos and bodices, hands and faces for each new persona, who emerges as a surprise - a muse, an ancestor, a guardian angel, or a nature spirit.

My fifty-year career has had several distinct chapters: As a 3rd- generation woman artist (grandma at Maryland Art Institute in 1900, mom at RISD in the 30’s) I was an art student in NYC in the 60’s, moved to Santa Fe in the early 70’s, where I exhibited in both the Museum of NM and the Folk Art Museum.  Then I moved to Louisiana and earned my MFA in painting at LSU Baton Rouge before heading back to the NY area. Along with freelance jobs in theater and film, I pursued my studio paintings, which were exhibited at the Cooper Gallery in Jersey City, and the Treasure Room at the Interchurch Center, NYC, also included in the NJ Arts Annuals at the Noyes Museum, the Montclair Museum and the Morris Museum.   Bill and I relocated to Bucks County PA at turn of the millenium, where we’ve enjoyed dream studios, with plenty of space and time for me to develop my figurative sculpture in clay. I’ve exhibited this evolving body of work in many galleries and museums in the Delaware Valley: Bordentown, New Hope, Trenton, and Philadelphia.