Susan Mulcahy has been a practicing artist and educator for over 45 years. Originally from Buffalo, she received a B.F.A. from Daemen College and an M.F.A. from Wayne State University, Detroit. She now lives in Nashville and is Professor Emeritus of Art, Votlunteer State Community College.
Nashville area exhibitions include: Frist Museum; Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University; Belmont University, Leu Gallery; Cheekwood Museum; Parthenon Museum; Zeitgeist Gallery. She has also exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Arts; Cincinnati Academy of Art; Schuwirth van Noorden Gallery, Maastricht Netherlands; and B Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY; as well as a permanent installation at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Statement:
I believe that spirit is not outside the physical but buried deep within it. Art, in all its forms, can be a means to get in touch with that spirit.
My abstract images are an exploration of the mysteries of life. In poetry, it is in the things that are not said, that truth lies: the space between the lines, the underlying rhythms and structures. My images operate in much the same way. If my audience is touched, it is through their own exploration.
I am often asked where these images come from. I would have to say that, through the act drawing, I find them. I don't have a vision in my mind as I begin. At most, there is a kind of conceptual or emotional direction in which I move. If the drawing becomes too self conscious, I put it aside until I am able to respond to it in a more honest way.
Fundamental to all my work is a philosophy that the process of art is analogous to living. It is an activity bound by time, molded by opportunity, choice and experience, and marked by failure and success.