Susan Shipley believes that art-making exists on a moral or metaphysical plain. The art process is activated by internal and external stimuli, triggered by an emotional tug. Stimulated, the artist reacts to external stimuli from their core. The artist reacts to the beauty found in the natural landscape and the abstract way social injustice restricts our experience, such as attempts made by the powerful domination over the land, over our wellbeing, over our time to enjoy nature. The destruction by the powerful has, seemingly, no limits. From behind a fractured curtain, the artist finds in a chaotic world. Resulting Abstraction forms from color and movement in a rushing dynamic wave that weaves across the picture plane through fractured obstruction.
Artist Biography
Susan Shipley began painting as a child, and has continued this communion between brush and canvas, and through various other media throughout her life. She also practices clinical and school psychology. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, Notre Dame, Ursuline College-Art Therapy, and obtained a Ph.D.in Counseling Psychology from Kent State University. She participates in continuing education at the Fleisher Memorial. Past involvement in the arts includes curating shows at the Cleveland State University, Lake County Arts Festival and Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center. As a practicing psychologist, Shipley has used art therapy with students, patients, clients, and the criminally insane. For Susan, art and therapy are intertwined. She notes that, “Not only does art heal, it also reveals.”
Awards & Honors
2019 Fleisher Student Show First Place in Abstract Art
2017 Manayunk Arts Festival, Philadelphia, PA Second Place
Education
Continuing Education Fleisher Art Memorial
1999 Kent State University, Kent, OH Doctorate, Counseling and Human Development
1992 Kent State University, Kent, OH M.Ed, Rehabilitation Counseling
1991 Notre Dame College, South Euclid, OH B.A., Human Resource Management, Art
Art Therapy Program, Ursuline College, Pepper Pike, OH
Professional Experience
Psychology, Art Therapist for students, patients, clients, and the criminally insane
Exhibitions
Solo
Ashtabula County Art Center, Ashtabula, OH
Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
Group
The Plastic Club, Philadelphia, PA Various shows
Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA Various juried shows
Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA Various shows
Northwest Arts Collective, Philadelphia, PA Various shows
Women's Caucus for Art, Philadelphia, PA Various shows
Art in City Hall, City Hall, Philadelphia, PA
Curated
Ohio State Hospital, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH Shows for art therapy NGRI-patients
Lake County Arts Festival, Lake County, IL Shows for art therapy NGRI-patients
Other
2019 Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, Philadelphia, PA
