Susan Obermeyer Strauss
Born, Aspen CO USA 1961

My ancestors gave me a rich heritage, filled to the brim with creative genes, ranging from painting, dance and music. (You could say I’m double bred to create).

As a child I grew up gazing for years upon my Grandfathers painting which lined the walls of the family-house. They ranged in technique from tempera dry brush, watercolor and thick expressionistic oils. His paintings rich in color where my first deep immersion into discovering his language of color. Many of his paintings revealed rich brush strokes and I imagined the order and rhythm in which he experienced creating his work. Since he had passed on I have always known him intimately through taking time to have relationships with his work. Like many kids I had a big imagination and experienced connection with a mystical universe. As I grew up I became interested in shamanism and Native American cultures.

In college I had a passion for several subjects, History, Art and Cultural Anthropology. Between The Evergreen State College which made access to Native Americans and their cultures easy and The San Francisco Art Institute which nurtured both my studio skills and my intellectual creative processes I came away both fulfilled and hungry at once.

Next I began to travel and my artwork became an ex-tension of my realizations and insights into humanity and our environments. I began to distill what is essential and core to the human experience beyond time and place. Focusing less on social circumstances and the human drama and more about how human transformation occurs. In 1994 my dog ran away to a neighbor’s art studio that turned out to be master printer Craig O’Brien. He’d worked with Rauschenberg and several other great contemporary artists. Craig pushed me to be experimental and to take risks as well as to feel the ink. I gained exposure to many professional artists through observing them work with Craig. This experience still informs my print making and painting. I became impassioned about creating subtle depth. In 1999 I began studying the work of Steven Young and Virginia Satir’s Human Validation Model. In this work of healing others, and our selves I became aware of state specific learning.
I began painting in a meditative state. My intention was to experience the state of Luminal space. And later on whichever state best informed the piece of art being created.

”I could say I’m living a dream but it’s more like a Disney movie on Acid”
My husband and I, one of our four son’s and a dear friend all live on a small farm surrounded by wild places in the high desert of Colorado. I live with a sense of a magical universe, enjoying an abundant garden and extremely surreal pets including our clown boxer, Himalayan cat and our new foal. My studio is in my home; So on painting breaks I play with the animals take walk in nature or work in the garden. My life is truly blessed I live in a state of joy. I have the good fortune of showing both Nationally and Internationally. This makes the world a place filled with friends globally.

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