Susan Eisen’s work reflects her response to the natural world and to its layers of relationships and interconnections. She is inspired by the dry riverbeds of deserts with their carvings of wind and water, their layered outcroppings where people, animals and floodwaters have left behind ancient fragments. Being immersed in nature - in her garden surrounded by old trees, at her retreat SpiritSong, or on vacation at the ocean's edge - it nourishes her and renews her profound sense of connection and awe. Susan’s human relationships provide another lens through which she focuses and which subtly inform her work.

In the studio, intuition guides me as she lets the work flow through her hands. Her clay is hand-built by pinching and paddling, imprinting and layering. Susan creates openings to expose interiors allowing patterns of light to move through them. In the ongoing Navigation Series, boat forms emerge during times of personal transition. Large open Vessels seem to fly out of her hands after a deeply moving interaction with another person.

Working with Monoprints color is the impetus as she layers pigments and textures onto rag paper. The spontaneity of this process excites her.

In contrast, her mixed-media Assemblages force their way out of her slowly, sometimes mirroring significant life experiences, often weaving together old and newer parts of her life. Juxtaposing various materials enlivens her and draws out surprising new ideas.

Collaborations with composers and choreographers have led to extraordinary generative experiences, culminating in dynamic interactive public performances.

The strength and solidity of bronze has offered Susan another way to connect and transform diverse materials. Working with bronze was a new challenge and her became a beginner again. Her first bronzes, The WomanSpirit Series, came directly from the inherent gestures of the earlier Ancient Vowel Series. These elemental figures in clay and bronze - witnesses, guardians, angels - embody for her the union between the forces of earth and spirit.

Susan’s passion is to communicate and share, through her work, her sense of reverence for life's extraordinary wonder and beauty.