Tina Suszynski

“The musician and her instrument are one. As a ceramic sculptor, when I am asked to conjure a violin and its player in my mind’s eye, I envision the artist curled around her beloved instrument, merging with it, lost in the sound she is creating. With that in mind, I have built a female torso that holds the violin at her chest, within her heart. The ripped clay edges represent every artist’s struggle with the need to fully surrender herself to her art while the refined curves reflect her achievement as well as the beauty of the instrument and the music.” After I finished my piece, I was online reading about accomplished female violinsts when I came across this quote about Hilary Hahn and was struck by how it reflected my sculpture so perfectly: I can really picture her heart tearing as she pulls her entire being into making the notes come into existence... When I began working in clay in the late 1980’s, I started out on the wheel, like most new student of clay. I immediately gravitated to handbuilding, as my day job made it difficult to get back to a pot in time to trim it. A sculpture at heart, I was smitten by the endless possibilities available to the handbuilder, and I have never looked back. When I came to the Denver area, my work grew from very small to quite large, inspired by the open, dry vistas of the West. I wanted desperately to collect the water flowing from the gutters of my home and to make something dramatic that would not be lost in the western landscape. I found over time that as I was creating the vessels to catch water, it became much more of a search to define the feminine form in line and gesture. I am drawn to the torso as a container and the beauty inherent in every curve of our imperfect bodies. I enjoy the humor and warmth of human awkwardness. I love the world of clay, the feel of the material, and the warmth of the community.”

Tina Suszynski was born in Philadelphia and raised on a barrier island in southern New Jersey. She had her hand in the arts at a very young age, becoming a student of local artist and art educator, Cheryl Crews, through elementary and high school and winning various student awards and commissions. She graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania with a B.A. in International Studies, having spent her junior year studying in Paris, France. She went on to obtain a Juris Doctorate from Loyola University of Chicago. While practicing law in Chicago in the late 1980’s, Tina began to take ceramic classes in the evening and was drawn back in to the world of art that she so dearly missed during her years in school. When her second child was born in 1997, Tina decided to stop practicing law so that she could devote more time to her family and her art. Over the years, Tina has taken figure drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago, figure sculpture classes and many workshops from such renowned clay artists as: Peter Durst, Robin Hopper, Eric Jensen, Jun Kueko, Stephen Mickey, Paul Soldner and Lana Wilson. Tina moved to the Denver area 10 years ago with her husband and their three young children. Her work has been included in many exhibitions over the years, both in Chicago and Denver. For more information about Tina’s Sculptural Ceramic Vessels, visit www.tinasuszynski.com.