Susan Savage

Associate Professor of Art
Phone: (805) 565-6126
Email: savage@westmont.edu
Office Location: Upstairs Art Center

Office Hours
By appointment

Specialization
Painting, Drawing, Resist Dyeing, Collage

Work

Savage image 1Savage image 2Savage image 3 Passage Inside Out

Artist’s Statement

As a painter I am intrigued with the humble beauty and quiet simplicity found in common, ordinary objects. Over the past few years I have come to admire the beautiful elegance and refined delicacy that is associated with a simple silver bowl. The bowl intrigues me as a stimulating and technically challenging subject to paint. Unpretentious in design, yet complex in its appearance, I appreciate its historical tradition and symbolic evocation of purity and refinement. Crafted as a commemorative object, and often given as a trophy or prize for some notable accomplishment, the silver bowl has been tempered by fire, and its material existence stands redeemed. In this context, the humble elegance of this simple object stands as a vehicle for a continuing story of meditation, mystery, and revelation.

My images strive to reproduce the look of the visible world, yet offer something beyond mere physical appearances in revealing deeper messages of spiritual truths. As I look deeper, I am motivated to reveal something inspiring in the commonplace as I perceive and comprehend the developing relationships between the real and the symbolic. By elevating the silver vessel to a place of intellectual contemplation, I attempt to portray something that isn’t visibly in place, but can become evident if one takes the time to ponder the relationships that are presented. In this context, the vessel stands as a witness to something larger than its temporary and finite physical form. Thus, as a source for the sacred, I desire that silence, solitude, and simplicity work together to reveal something mysterious and significant about these images, even if one has no verbal explanation for them.

Education

  • M.F.A University of California, Santa Barbara, 1979
  • B.A. University of California, Santa Barbara, 1970

Selected Professional Positions

  • Associate Professor of Art, Westmont College, 2003-present
  • Assistant Professor of Art, Westmont College, 1995-2003
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art, Westmont College, 1991-1995
  • Instructor of Arts and Crafts, Santa Barbara City College, 1986-1995
  • Instructor of Art, La Colina Junior High, Santa Barbara, 1970-1979

Selected Shows and Exhibitions

  • Group Invitational Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Sales and Rental Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2006
  • Invitational Exhibition: Wish You Were Here, Postcard Auction Santa Barbara Arts Fund Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 2006
  • Solo Exhibition: “Silent Dialogue”, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 2005
  • Faculty Show: The Fine Art of Education, Westmont College Reynolds Gallery, 2005
  • Solo exhibition: Bearing Witness, Westmont College Reynolds Gallery, 2004
  • Invitational: Santa Barbara Collage and Assemblage Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, 2003
  • “Focused on the Forum”, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 2003
  • Juried Exhibition: Santa Barbara Artwalk Festival Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2002
  • Juried Invitational: “Collage/Assemblage/USA”, New Media Gallery, Ventura College, Ventura, CA, 2001
  • Invitational: “Room With A View II”, 30 Arlington Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 2000
  • Inviational: “Room With A View”, 30 Arlington Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 1999
  • “The Paint, Pastel and Collage of Summertime: Savage, Strasburg and Walker”, Frame, Santa Barbara, CA, 1999
  • Juried Show: Small Images #2, Ventura City College, 1999
  • Invitational Show: “Art From the Heart,” Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 1999
  • “Women Beyond Borders,” benefit exhibition, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 1999
  • Invitational Show: Chair-ity, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 1998
  • Invitational Shows: Cup Show, 1997, Shoe Show, 1998, Art of Dining, 1999, Reynolds Gallery
  • Juried Show: Small Images, Santa Barbara City College, 1996, 1997, 1998
  • Faculty Exhibit: 1995, 1997, 1998, Reynolds Gallery, Danica House
  • Faculty Exhibit, Santa Barbara City College, 1990
  • Elizabeth Fortner Gallery, Santa Barbara, 1981
  • Stewart Street Gallery, San Francisco, 1979
  • Santa Barbara Art Association, 1972

Selected Publications

  • Susan Savage Bearing Witness Exhibition catalog, 2004
  • Coastal Women magazine, Winter 2004
  • Santa Barbara Studio Artist’s Directory, Santa Barbara Studio Artists, 2003
  • “The Art of the Dot,” Paschal and Anderson, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985.
  • Buyer’s Guide to Contemporary Crafts, American Crafts Enterprises, 1982-84.
  • Fiber Arts Magazine, May/June 1984.