Drawing Petals
By Karen Swikata
The work of Susan Melikian Steinsieck caught my eye when I first saw it linked from the NY Arts Magazine Web site at www.nyartsmagazine.com/sue.
The site begins with a short slideshow of details from Steinsieck’s striking drawings, skinny white sea stars fading into bold, Easter lilies outlined in black, while instrumental jazz lightly resonates. On the main page of her works on paper section, her pieces are involved and spiritual through the colorful biomorphic shapes of For the Cello, and in the layered composition of Chilly Winds.
Her drawings are a collection of natural objects in compositions that unfold like memory: some elements figure prominently, while other objects are hidden and revealed through layers of rich, saturated color. The pieces represent some kind of transcendent mystery in which life, death, imagination, rebirth, and the individual all take their places in a symbolic plane.
Steinsieck says, "I’m just trying to be honest. I’m trying to connect the world outside my body with that inside. You can’t do it consciously. I’m observing things so that I can see them more clearly, not render them. I’m trying to draw poetry."
Her work involves layers of glazing, marking and reglazing on ceramics and multi-media drawings, most recently on 300 lb. paper use graphite, oil pastel and other more "humble" material. In her most recent exhibits, drawings were displayed archivally framed or simply attached to the wall with pins.
Steinsieck said her art is "a process of covering up and letting things emerge. I’m in there," she said. "My work is really about my life, how it changes and how drawing reflects that change. This latest exhibit and the time spent in Valencia, Spain was great support. Right now I’m staring at a huge drying piece of paper done in Valencia."
Before working as an artist she tried her hand as a jazz singer, performing in Manhattan clubs, in Europe, and as a vocalist with Benny Goodman’s septet. Her artwork reflects the affecting, exciting quality found in good jazz music. The choice of working in the paper arts, an ephemeral medium that is prone to preservation problems, also resonates with the improvisational element of jazz.
Glass artist Toots Zynsky curates "Pentimento," a show of Steinsieck’s works on paper and ceramics made before, during and after Valencia. It will be on view at Broadway Gallery, 473 Broadway, opening April 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. "Pentimento" means to remove an upper layer of paint to reveal hidden paint beneath.
She seemed to glow over the telephone about her time at Colore Elefante gallery in Spain. During her month in "relaxed world of light and air," she enjoyed a night of big band jams and "absolutely extraordinary days" of working when botanical illustrator friend, Ippy Patterson, came to visit.
One piece in particular was especially transformative for Steinsieck, a drawing still in progress in early March. She is working on a 48" by 30" piece of paper, larger than she usually chooses. With this enormous paper, she is creating a history of Valencia, describing the landscape and markings with natural objects, including flowers, both "alive and dead."
"The shape of a dead petal is interesting to me," she says. She describes one flower drawing she has repeated four times, depicting the various stages of the flower opening on top and the petals falling off and down. She has since flipped the drawing, altering its perception, so that the petals appear to float up.
She remarked about unhappiness before she left for Spain: "The way I coped with it was by drawing," Steinsieck said. After her trip, her perspective changed. "The petals are floating up now."
