Susandra Spicer

Susandra Spicer returns to the Cloverdale plaza this year with “Ellipse”, a welded steel assemblage named for the double ellipse portrayed – first the ellipse of the two tall arcs, then the ellipse of the container for these arcs. The reuse of found objects has always appealed to Spicer, and she describes herself as a matchmaker of discarded artifacts that have no further use on their own. The found objects become her collected treasures, while their joining creates new lines, shapes, and negative spaces.

Spicer loves the creative moment, the spark when the shapes, colors and textures interact in their “new life form” with each other, and with the spaces they inhabit. She describes this as the “not me” part. After the creative ideas come together, the majority of time and effort is spent on engineering. This involves decisions on mechanics, design changes, how to do the joining, which display format to use, how to give this union stability, how to secure it, and what surface-finish to use. Spicer finds the whole process very engaging, and states “metal appeals to me with its strength, permanence, texture and color. I am also drawn to the color and light of plastic and glass.” She sometimes uses cultural flotsam and detritus to suggest a narrative or a representational element in a piece, while she also loves to make pieces that are solely about the experience of abstract space, line, or form.

Spicer started her artistic career in her twenties, when she practiced “art on the side” as she went about her life as a school teacher and a mother. Twenty years later, with her own children grown, she made the shift from being “a teacher who makes art” to “an artist who also teaches children.” She has been showing publically since 1985, and her work can be seen in galleries, exhibitions and private businesses around the Bay Area.

Susandra Spicer

Photo by Tedd Peterson