Suzannah is a mother, artist and farmer, and lives on Gringai land on the banks of the Dooribang (known now as the Williams River) in New South Wales with her partner, two boys, a dog named Ringo and a flock of sheep. After two years of getting over the shock of small-scale farming and riverbank rehabilitation, she is making art again.
Originally from Wingham NSW, Suzannah’s work continues to reflect the landscape of outback South Australia where she lived for eight years working in regional arts development. While she is beginning to paint the green surrounds of her riparian environment, it’s the warm tones of the Whyalla and Port Augusta region that continue to dominate. The main areas of influence being Douglas Point (north of Whyalla) and the drive between Whyalla and Port Augusta. Suzannah refers to this area as, 'the space in between'. Here you would find her on the side of the road taking photos or doing some drawings. You may ask, why would you sit on the side of the road? 'I start at point A and finish at point B and hope that in between I will see, be revealed, transform. It doesn't but it’s this hope in the space between that propels me, even if I know I will only find my unhappy or happy pile of crap still waiting for me at the end. It’s the space of the possible….the music blaring, the warm wind through the window, the rolly between my lips….its 45 minutes of possibility and hope'. Moving in the grand expanse of this space is an act of psychological reflection and it manifests in her art through the plains, the mesas, the Myall trees, and the edge of the Flinders.
Living on a river, also reflects that sense of beginning and end, and here Suzannah finds herself at a different phase in life...as the growing past echoes louder and runs past faster, like the river that flows past her back door. Night time on the river, is the time for reflection. The day of working on the farm and running after children slows down and ends in the silence of the night, and in the darkness the landscape is transformed into a ghostly wonderland. When the moon and stars are out, the light of the universe is reflected in the river, like the sky turned inside out. The sound of evening creatures and the gurgle of water bounce in the deep cavern of the river and we are alone and small in the cosmos. Suzannah is finding her work leaning into this landscape as she grows with it..that psychological landscape of the night on the Dooribang. She cannot depict a landscape unless she has lived it, so it has been a while coming, but it is. We shall see what emerges.
Suzannah won the Grindell’s Hut Residency, and has been a finalist in the Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, the Basil Sellers Art Prize, the Waverly Art Prize, the Burrinja Climate Change Biennale and the Whyalla Art Prize.
www.suzannahjj.com