Susan Armington

Artist Statement

I am interested in the intermixing of ways of seeing things - within the world as well as myself. I explore how differences interact, how they remain distinct, and at the same time, how they come together to synthesize a larger, or deeper whole.

My art embodies this, bringing together different media - paint, papers, text, graphite - to create a larger whole. I create maps of place, such as Minneapolis Navigational Map, which is made of city views from different angles mixed with writings by city residents in various languages about their lives. I imagine downtown Minneapolis as a swirl of shifting views and conversations happening all around as the river passes eternally through.

I also create "Map Portraits" of individuals in the Twin Cites. Each mixed media painting is made of a person's own maps and writings. Alchemy and I is a self-portrait of my roots, from New Jersey to the origins of western civilization in Mesopotamia. The Physicist shows a Japanese physicist made out of his own maps - of Japan, upstate New York and Minneapolis - and the physics papers he is reading. I also work in 3-D collage, in works such as Elegy, a "text in space" that brings together different experiences of loss including the loss of a neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis due to the creation of a freeway.

My artwork extends into the community where I create and lead projects such as Talking Suitcases^TM that use the power of art to create deep conversations about life among people of diverse backgrounds. I am a teaching artist, active on the MN State Arts Board and COMPAS rosters of Artists in Education.