We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Susan McLaughlin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Susan below.
Alright, Susan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is always my most current project. All the ones before the current one, no matter how successful they may have been, simply just lay the groundwork for my current project, whatever it might be. These antecedents function as the artistic springboard from which I dive into the abyss of my new blank, white canvases.
Currently I’m working on Artist, Model, Muse. It started out as Seeking the Muse. I actually was doing just that-seeking my muse-while doing the paintings, until I realized that I myself am the muse (at least for me). I’ve been working on this particular project for two years now. I had the misfortune of beginning it at the start of the Covid outbreak. On the macro level the pandemic affected the entire world. On the micro level it had a serious impact on my work. Because I had no access to figure models I started standing in front of the mirror in the various poses that I needed and then painting myself. My goal was to find my elusive muse, and while doing so explore the life of the working artist I know best-me!
So that I had a feeling of connection to rest of the human race while self-isolating, I applied to, and was accepted for, an online master class taught by a well-known California artist and critic. Our assignment was to produce a show-ready body of work consisting of at least 18 canvases by the end of the six-month class. This was an impossible task for me, given that it generally takes me at least two months of steady work to complete a single painting. In an attempt to meet this rather daunting quota, I decided to radically alter my customary style. As a time-saving measure I eliminated the usual detail from my work and replaced it with abstract shapes combined with some of my customary figurative elements. The instructor raised strong objections to my mixed-style idea. She further discouraged me by saying that any painting project about painting itself was too inbred. Finally, she labeled my project “solipsistic,” because she felt the work was all about me. (On her last point, she was actually sort of right, because my search for my muse is necessarily about me.)
My current body of work, Artist, Model, Muse, is incredibly meaningful to me because I was able to complete it in the face of adversity. I am extremely proud that I have converted these metaphorical lemons into artistic lemonade.
You can view this work at my upcoming solo show, Reach for the Moon, this November and December (exact dates TBA) in the Gallery at the Library in Delray Beach, FL. The exhibition is being curated by the well-known South Florida artist Lee Berlin.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
After prowling the sleepy hollows in the Connecticut woods as a child, drawing and painting all things natural, I advanced to prowling the hallowed halls of New York City academia, drawing and painting all things human. Although I earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MA in Studio Art from New York University, I received something even more valuable from my school in the woods–a deep reverence for all things natural. The synthesis of these two different paths has led me to my creative credo-reach for the moon. Still prowling and reaching, I am extremely happy to find myself here, smack in the middle of the 21st century zeitgeist.
John Torreano, former Director of the Graduate Painting Program at New York University and my painting teacher there, wrote in an analysis of my work:
Ms. McLaughlin’s paintings show authority with brushwork and she maintains a consistently assertive and convincing quality in both style and image. She moves nimbly across subject matter, context and medium, in order to present a coherent artistic vision….Her current work is a mashup between Rene Magritte and Giuseppe Acrimboldo.
When reviewing my paintings, the well-known NYC curator Ethan Karp wrote:
“Ms. McLaughlin’s paintings appear to be wonderfully obsessive and subversive as well as beautifully made.”
How could I not be a “canvas rebel” after that critical judgment?
I am most proud of my ability to draw, which I honed while an illustrator working for the New York Law Journal. I believe that sets me apart from those painters of today who choose not to employ the classic discipline of drawing, but rather apply paint by pouring, splashing, scraping, and so forth. I am also proud of my compositions. Though complex, they are tight and so well balanced that they look good no matter which way the canvas might be oriented.
In recent years my work has been exhibited in museums such as the Monmouth Museum, NJ; the Bonnet House Museum and NSU Art Museum, both in Fort Lauderdale, FL; and the Arnot Art Museum, NY. My gallery exhibits include M.A.D.S. Gallery, Milan, Italy; Aqua Art Miami; ArtExpo, New York; Art Basel Miami; 3rd Biennial of Contemporary Art of Argentina; Municipal Gallery, Newtown, CT; The Box Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL; Martha Gault Gallery, PA; Armstrong Gallery, GA; and Dacia Gallery, New York City. I show regularly at the Broward Art Guild in Fort Lauderdale, where I have won multiple Best in Show Awards. I will also be showing at the Amsterdam (Netherlands) International Art Fair next summer.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
Even though I think NFTs are pretty silly, I wouldn’t mind selling one for $69,000,000, like Beeple did this spring. Notwithstanding my general disdain for the NFT concept, I created a collection of them and dropped it on OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace. I call the collection When Art Collides. In it, using Photoshop, I combined portions of my own paintings with thematically-related old masters. I had a pretty strong feeling that when the two artists collided beautiful new art would be created. I felt that because the old masters and I all like to draw, the combined art (in the form of digital paintings) would be harmonious-and, at least to me, they are! To compete with Beeple, I priced my NFTs about $68,998,000 less than his.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part about being an artist is the actual work of painting itself. For me, there is nothing as exciting as taking a blank canvas and watching it slowly and laboriously come to life as an expression of my innermost thoughts. The process of painting is a world unto itself. It isn’t exactly fun-at least not for me; I don’t understand what other artists mean when they say they are “having fun” with their work. For me, painting is a huge challenge to get the paint in the right places and the articulated details drawn correctly. But when I do get it right, I allow myself a little smile. That smile gets a little wider when a critic or gallerist confirms my feeling that my paintings are good. But it is the widest when a viewer declares that my paintings make them happy!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://susanmclaughlinart.com/
- Instagram: susanmclaughlinart
Image Credits
Portrait of Susan McLaughlin by Tom Schmuki