Sudie Rakusin
I began as an artist working originally in oils and pen and ink but, over the course of my nearly forty-year career, I have broadened my exploration of different media to include papier mâché sculptures, miniature paintings, and painted, mosaic-tiled furniture.
Currently, I am producing a series of large, 3-dimensional paintings that draw upon my classical training, but also satisfy my desire to use bright colors, build in layers, and incorporate found objects. The paintings in this series signify a departure from my previous work in that they have irregular shaped borders and are enhanced with papier-mâché elements to give them more physical depth, surprise, and whimsy than I previously have achieved. I am testing the boundaries of what a painting is while also testing the boundaries between artwork and viewer, between human and animal, between inner and outer, and between the natural and built environments.
My art has been widely reproduced in books, magazines, and calendars. Under the moniker Winged Willow Press, I have published four children’s books in my Dear Calla Roo…Love, Savannah Blue series, and two coloring books for adult womyn, The Coloring Book for Big Girls and The Second Coloring Book for Big Girls: Spirits and Goddesses. I have published color note cards of my paintings and two blank journals containing my pen-and-ink drawings. I live with my Great Danes in Hillsborough on the edge of a meadow, where I derive inspiration from my gardens and the surrounding forest.
