Susan Kay Johnson

Artist Statement; Susan Kay Johnson
Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the human figure, first with the faces and then the whole body as forms of expression. I first started working from photographs and then to direct observation. When I went to school at the Chicago Art Institute I took many classes in figure drawing, painting and sculpture. I became very interested in the human skeleton and muscle structure, as well the skin and facial features. The gesture poses made me interested in the underlying structure of the human figure. How we articulate movement, as well as how we hold long poses. I have created a series of life size figures in clay ,then mold making and cast in resin, clay, hydrostone and bronze .Then working with color and patina’s. Each piece takes me around 2 years to make. A very long process. So from the molds I take fragmented pieces in different materials before the molds are destroyed. So I play with the fragments in new ways in a series of human emotion and transformation. In making sculptures I am aways fascinated in the transformation of the materials from one stage to the next. Just like life and death . Every thing is always chan