NANCY SUTOR

“Photography is an accepted illusion but the way it can subvert reality leaves an ephemeral space for the imagination to inhabit.”  Lucy Lippard

The garden and the cycle of the seasons are a constant and evolving impetus for my work. Trees throughout the year, the compost pile, the history of the natural sciences, the moon, the plants become subjects. The tangible aspect of the natural world along with its mysteries and metaphors are things that sustain me.

Shadows and silhouette, light and transparency, the literal and the enigmatic, visual perception, memory and time passing, all play into my artwork. Photograms and hand applied emulsions give way to digital images with drawing always in the periphery. My low tech approach to artmaking includes ritual and performative aspects, rites and commemoration all ground and connect us. Celebration engenders gratitude.

 Growing food locally, water issues, composting and other issues of sustainability are all part of the subtext. It’s about community whether in the roots and fungal networks beneath the soil or the ways we get along in our personal relationships, our towns, the world and cosmos. The work is about beauty but it doesn’t stop there, beauty is an opening to the spectrum of experience, the light and the dark. An invitation to repair our relationship to the natural world.

Nancy Sutor studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a studio artist, curator, activist. She continues to explore the natural world in her studio, her garden, and the larger community. She is involved with the Village of Agua Fria, and regenerative farm, Reunity Resources. Over the years she has exhibited  in museum, gallery, and artist spaces and has been involved with guerilla gardening, street art, and performance. Teaching has been a near constant activity until recently. Her work is in the New Mexico Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum, Deutsche Bank, Chicago Art Institute, and Fidelity Investments among other museum, corporate, and private collections.

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"In the Garden" | Trend Magazine