What Is Art?

I don't know of just one explanation that I would be satisfied with. I can only tell you what it is to me. It is a deep desire to convey to myself and others what my interpretation is of what moves me. It could be conditions of humanity or something that gives meaning to life or even a statement that I might want to convey whimsically. To me it is the thought process while physically working on creating art. I like art that has imagination along with skill but that is not art to everyone. We all see the world with different eyes because we are all unique. Because it is so different to everyone there is no one satisfactory explanation. I think it is open ended. I see movement, music and expression in almost everything and try to apply an aesthetic exploration in an artistic form.

Why Do You Make Art?

My inspirations for my art work come from every day observations of people. When I see something that I deeply am moved by, the essence of a moment that I don't want to loose and can be expressed best by one sculpture, that is what drives me. It sometimes can be facial expressions, characteristics, or human conditions.
Why do I make art and what drives me to do this? Simple really, I have to. It is my way of understanding fully what I see by creating my thoughts in a physical form. I mainly do it because I have to. It is like when you are hungry you eat. When I feel things deeply I sculpt, draw or paint. I do it because it helps me understand what it is that moved me about what I was looking at. The expression "my soul is fed" seems to fit the way I feel. Second, I hope others see what I see or it moves them in some way.

I grew up with art as my father was an artist and I began seeing things through his eyes as he pointed out characteristics he was capturing. I saw models come and go where we lived. He would see an interesting face and ask them to sit for him and they would. I grew up with art all around me so I could not understand when I had children and their friends would come over and giggle to see nude paintings in our house why that was unusual. My kids saw it as normal because they also grew up with it.

Here are some examples of what took place in a few of my sculptures:

"Isolation" This sculpture is of a woman that was at my dad's retirement home and I saw her there every time I visited him. She was sitting on a sofa in the reception area clutching her purse so hard and sitting all by herself on a huge couch and she was so small that the couch consumed her as she held that purse like everything she owned was in it. She seemed so lonely and Isolated so that became the title of this sculpture.

"Sipping Through Time" was made from people sitting on a bus bench and I was noticing the difference between the young and old and how time flies. One lady was sipping coffee and it seemed that a good title would be "Sipping Through Time" How fast time goes between youth and elderly.

"Looking Good" was when I was actually at a beauty salon getting my hair done and I was watching three women that were working hard on "Looking Good". It is of one younger and two elderly women and I exaggerated what I saw.

"Noon Nap" this is one of my elderly dad when he sat in his rocking chair after a meal and unbuttoned his pants and took a nap. Many people identify with it and it becomes someone they know and they buy it.

"Answering the Door" Sometimes I do sculptures entirely out of my head, not looking at a model or picture. This particular piece won first place award in 2006 in the county competition. A young woman watching her children was developed but when I looked at it again, I just thought she needed to also be pregnant, so I made her that way. All the kids are hanging on to their mother when she answers the door. I came up with that title and made her barefoot to look like she is worn out and has one strap down and kids hanging on her as she answers the door bell. Mommy is their total security as they answer the door with her. The piece just developed this way as I was working on it with no idea what the outcome look would be.

Susan R. Kaufman

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