We recently connected with Susan Woods and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Susan, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I have always been taught that learning the craft of an art is the best avenue to take, as one can build upon this knowledge. I am a classicist in this subject. Once a craft is mastered, one can be more independent in what one makes/creates. I started as a classical piano player until my later teens decided that I could not play another note. However, this training was the basis of my pursuit of the visual arts. Mainly, I am a sculptor. Though, I span the 3-dimensional world from Fine Art to Functional Art/Design. My path of learning my craft(s) came from attending art schools that only taught art. For me, this was important to be introduced to the many techniques and processes of experimentation that I have continued to seek. By studying the figure and perfecting the eye and hand co-ordination, I have been able to have a foundation. This is a kind of tradition. By studying abstraction in its many forms, I have become comfortable making a variety of sculptural creations. By experimenting with the mixture of both, I have had the luck of discovering new ways of using common materials in unique ways.
Without having the confidence of ones’ craft, certain freedoms of expression cannot be achieved.
Susan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been an artist since a child, starting with classical piano at five. Morphing into the visual arts as a teenager, sculpture quickly became my main interest.
The craft of sculpture lends itself to many businesses. From the beginning, I took the practical aspects of sculpture-making, to build small businesses that supported my studio and private life. I taught plaster mold-making privately and in art school, workshop situations. I cast peoples clay sculptures into plaster and bronze. I co-owned and operated a bronze foundry. I had a crate making business, was a metal fabricator for high-end designers in NYC, a sculpture technician, and finally started a makers-design business that I called, Aswoon®, that earned its trademark in 2008.
Aswoon® became very successful by attending international furniture/design fairs. As an experimental sculptor with a large cache of honed skills, I had the luck of coming up with some very good ideas/art-design that caught the eye of many magazines/media and tradespersons, and business blossomed. The main lines of design were manufactured from upholstery springs and bent poplar plywood, both common materials. Being materials available to all, I decided to have some of the pieces registered & numbered as copyrights to protect against imitation. The original art works became a commercial success. I sold to many parts of the world.
I enjoy experimenting with materials and it was extremely fun making furnishings that were sculpture and yet, as seating, very comfortable. When making a new piece in the studio, everyone entering had to test the seat, including the UPS man! As there are all sizes of people, I wanted to make seating that was as universal as possible. Seating is a difficult subject in the modern sense as lines are simple and sparce. Setting the angle of the seat is crucial. I thoroughly love making things for the home including lighting. I have made several versions of chandeliers, the most popular being the Molecular Chandelier, which I sold through the NYC store, ABC Home and Carpet, for a long time. Now I make custom pieces through the sales from the studio.
My early work as a fabricator, my extensive knowledge of materials and the years fulfilling custom work through the trade and private clients, gives me a comfort level in creating pieces I might never think of on my own, which challenge my techniques and vision. I love making custom work.
My fine art continues. I like the mixture of serious play and that of more craft-like activities. For me it exercises my creativity.
I guess what sets me apart from many artists/sculptors is my abilities learned through curiosity and from the many great teachers I have had when going through art schools. I went to many schools and had such luck learning from talented teachers who were also professional artists. Each had some special knowledge they were able to share. From all, came voices I was able to ingest and unite. Because of the practical parts of this knowledge, I was able to piece together a living and remain in the studio mostly full time.
I also like people and this is crucial in creating custom work.
Many visitors have come to the studio in groups or tours from many areas of the earth, including school classes. I love this as I want to show and explain how wonderful it is to lead this alternative life as an artist/maker/functional-art-designer.
Ideas coming from clients, from interior designers, architects or private clients are most welcome. It is a collaboration I relish. Choosing me, one receives a wide realm of conversation about the proposed project. My background is wide and my creative interests, too. My classical background, including figurative sculpture, along with the experimental and adventuresome nature of my vision(s) and skill are a mix that few artists possess. Simply try me and I am sure you will be very pleased(!)…and me as well(!)
I have had the good fortune of receiving commissions for private homes, commercial enterprises and public spaces, such as Lincoln Center in NYC and Newark Liberty International Airport, in NJ. I am able to work with multiple partners, manage large projects and budgets, and do so with calm progression and under ethical terms. Experience has taught me.
Coming to Tucson from Brooklyn, NY during Covid, I am still trying to meet people and establish myself here. However, it is through others who bring me to larger perimeters or distances, or into larger spheres, I am specifically hoping to meet, even if it is a local project that helps me learn more about the area or increases my knowledge of skills.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being able to be curious and having the skills to make something creative is very satisfying. I love making my work whether it is of my own accord or a commission coming from the outside. Completing a work of any kind that stretched my capacities and is successful in composition and subject matter is a wonderful feeling. Seeing my skills and abilities to express something grow, is very rewarding.
Being and artist or a creative allows growth of a different manner. It allows one to answer a question personally. It allows one to study a subject for however long or short it takes for an answer to come forward. There are unending perimeters, no boundaries set by others. The playing field is open. The rules are set by the maker/creator/creative type.
I love my studio. It is a place of peace and quest. It is a place of contemplation and of doing. The world is left outside, meaning, my interpretation of what is happening socially or politically is a free reign I can speak of creatively.
It is enormously satisfying to see a body of work complete. It is great to sell ones work out of the studio because someone relates to it enough to purchase it and live with it.
There are many, many reasons I chose to be an artist and live the alternative lifestyle. One is freedom of many sorts, mostly the freedom to study what I want and react creatively.
Rewarding is the learning of others before me that impress what I am able to do as a result of studying their work and lives. There are traditions from all over the world that impress me.
All in all, I am completely happy with my choice, even in the more difficult of times.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Alternative modes of education are probably what I think of first, whan I think about the American Educational system that, for most Americans, is devoid of real creative education, whether this is in the arts or any other fields.
Unfortunately, the industrial religions use religion to control education, which is counter-productive. We have also reached a political point where our national fabric is disintegrating, a subject I really do not want to get into right now. However, education that teaches how to answer questions in full sentences, how to answer them individually, how to study, to be free to study, is one answer to the question of creating creative people who enjoy their field(s).
Real classes teaching art, music, science- all fields that encourage growth is important. After school programs encouraging creativity in all fields is important. Society needs all careers to be creative. This means that education needs structure for skill-making and creativity for creative-making.
Respect for all careers starts with education. All careers are interactive, even in the most mundane of activities. We rely on each other to fill in the gaps.
Prejudice is another problem that inhibits creative thought. The whole pendulum swing around this subject is an essay in-itself. But. Prejudice is a killer and a maker of counter-action. It is a war. Unfortunately, the makers of war use a huge amount of money and effort to be creators of incredible inventions. Best would be spent on the needs of everyone for a creative and peaceful life.
There are greater possibilities through communication if one thinks of the earth as one society working together, educating the various societies through their own traditions, in their individual manner. Many societies think of creativity in a different manner than the
American one of selective education for the selected (few). Industrial Education is also not the answer.
If children were taught that their creative play mixed with a discipline toward their societies’ tradition was good, maybe this would help.
There are many parts to this question, though, peace, tolerance, communication, open education for all that includes creative encouragement along with gentle discipline, might be a start.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aswoon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sus_woods/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=aswoon%2Fsusan%20woods
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww5_UuVo7mk
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUTUWLaUm7k&t=53s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDee0pl6biA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG6mvZqrBnY https://youtu.be/UhJ2p5gldNg
Image Credits
Kris Graves, The Rockwell Group, Kronos Photography