Susan Arena, Current Faculty

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is about the pain and anxiety of what it means to be human. I use the human figure in a way that is somewhat humorous and quirky, but also as a way of speaking about things that are deadly serious. I use humor to talk about tragedy.

I draw from my own life as a source of stories that enter into a dreamlike and symbolic world. My work is about the hero’s journey. My work comes out of what it means to occupy the body of a woman, and specifically the body of a MOTHER. I see a lack of contemporary artwork expressing the pain, and sometimes horror and humiliation, of being a mother. Motherhood is a profound experience that creates joy, but also a lifetime of fear and dread. In my work, I aim to reveal and conceal truths- to leave the viewer with a sense of mystery, but to conjure something they know intimately and have seen before- if only in their dreams or nightmares.

The paintings I am showing here are from a series called “Being/Becoming.” As a mother, a sister, a daughter, teacher, a wife, I think about the different roles we play--in our own story and in the stories of the ones we love. In each of the paintings, I try to be very specific to the people in my life, the elements of an emotional journey, while also open to the possibilities of people finding something that touches them or just makes them smile. I am inspired by varied sources such as Egyptian myths, masks, sea shanties, nursery rhymes, tattoo art, early American native painting, feminist theory and world religions.