SUZANNE WRIGHT CRAIN

The River of Life, a collaboration with “Living Water"

The River of Life series is based on the logarithmic spiral that is pervades the natural world. A rose initiates its shape by water folding over on itself. This folding over is the spiraling action of the golden mean, the sacred spiral and fractal pattern that forms the building blocks of all life. Through movement and painting, I explore the gesture of this fundamental pattern, taking it into infinite possibilities of expression.

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By consciously painting with Living Water - water from unpolluted springs, wells, rivers - I am attempting to create a dynamic within each painting that invokes a sense of curiosity about life. The link between Living Water, the paintings, and the Living Water of our own bodies, allows for an interplay in the fluid dynamics, creating a felt sense of resonance with the work. The images in The River of Life suggested themselves to me through the initial flow of water onto the linen/canvas. My task was to interpret these suggestions and bring them out through the application of color. When working in Wales, I became very ill and soon afterward, experienced a water healing in London. This experience led me to an understanding that the water that flows through all creatures is the primary carrier of the soul. For me these paintings have the feeling of “Water as Ancestor.” These paintings reflect my experiments with water. The choice in this series was tap water or Living Water, and the use of Living Water has made all the difference.

Suzanne Wright Crain’s fine art background includes sculpture as well as printmaking and painting. She is perhaps best known for her bronze portrait of the late Isamu Taniguchi, installed in Zilker Park, Austin. She attended the Elizabet Ney Conservatory and the San Antonio Art Institute prior to earning her B.A. in art from Incarnate Word. Ms. Crain is a teacher of Continuum developed by the late Emilie Conrad.