Susan Stover

Susan Stover is a San Francisco Bay Area artist who creates paintings and sculptures that explore themes of cultural identity and mythology. With the study of ethnic patterns and of utilitarian and sacred objects in non-western cultures, her work embraces ritual, tradition, and meditation through repetitive labor.

Susan received a MFA from California College of Art in Oakland, California and a BFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her paintings are in many private collections and in 2016 was commissioned for several pieces for the American Ag Credit headquarters in Windsor, CA. Her work was featured on the cover and in the lead article of the Surface Design Journal Winter 2016 issue and has been included in The Art of Expressive Collage by Crystal Neubauer, Studio Visit, and Gathering Clouds – A Magazine of Contemporary Art. She teaches workshops in her northern California studio, other locations in the U.S., and internationally.

 “My paintings and sculptures often recall an ethnic sensibility and geometric organization. I am interested in the objects made by non-Western cultures and how they are tied to identity, status, religious beliefs, and mythologies. Adapting processes that are traditionally used in the production of textiles, I use materials and techniques that refer to a collective history with the completed painting and forms revealing themselves in the making. Pattern and repetition are an integral part of the work as I dye fabric, melt wax, embed fibers, and construct surfaces. I am intrigued with how repetitive labor, such as stamping, stitching and constructing, can be transformational and meditative. I choose these methods because it connects me to people in other cultures who work in the same way. Because of these interests, I continually explore my own ties to history, culture, and the arena of contemporary painting and sculpture.”