Artist's portfolio

My Story

Suzanne Allen Art

After over thirty years of teaching college English—literature, writing, and women’s studies—I retired and started to learn about and play with art. And have I ever learned a lot . . . I have taken classes at Marygrove College; Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, mainly with Laura Whitesides Host; Pewabic; and Roycroft Studios; as well as workshops from Robert Burridge, Candace Law, Elizabeth St. Hilaire, and Jacqueline Sullivan.

My current artwork consists mainly of acrylic, encaustic, and water media paintings, collographs, cyanotypes, assemblages, and monoprints. I love the surprise as I lift the printing blanket and look at the result. My works incorporate fragments and pieces of nature and history, such as leaves, shells, feathers, seeds, flowers and photos, textiles, advertising illustrations, maps, postcards, magazine or newspaper copy, and writing/text. I reuse and compile these ordinary fragments through collage, chine collé, texture, and color to create new patterns from old pieces. By focusing on the small pieces of a larger whole, I can explore both the beauty of nature and the complexity of history, especially women’s history.

I am a member of Lawrence Street Gallery in Ferndale, where I have exhibited at three two-woman shows: “Our Mothers’ Worlds,” “Play is the Thing,” and the newest, “Exploring New Worlds.” My work has also appeared in numerous juried shows around the metropolitan Detroit area, including the Scarab Club, Swords into Plowshares Peace Center and Gallery, the Majestic Cafe, the Community House in Birmingham, the Northville Art House, the Huron Valley Art Center, the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, and the Downriver Center for Arts and Culture. My encaustic work appears online at www.waxinthed.com.