View original article at: http://www.textileartist.org/susan-beallor-snyder-interview-manila-rope-sculptures/

 

With well over a decade of experience in producing hand fabricated jewellery designs, Susan Beallor-Snyder is a sought-after goldsmith. As her work has continued to evolve, Susan recently shifted her focus to creating natural manila rope sculptures.

Susan is also an accomplished photographer, using the Manhattan skyline as inspiration at an early age. She now splits her days between New York, Atlanta, and Maine, and devotes her time to art, family, film and television production, and holistic living.

In this interview, Susan Beallor-Snyder discusses her career as a classical goldsmith, the support she received from her parents early on, as well as the emotional and spiritual connection to her work.

The action of it

TextileArtist.org: What initially captured your imagination about textile art?

Susan Beallor-Snyder: I have been interested in textiles my whole life. When I was nine, my grandmother taught me to knit which occupied much of my time. I knit scarves and crocheted rugs for my Trolls. Vera, a designer of linens in the late 1960s inspired me to think about studying textile design. In the ’70s I loved doing macramé and hook rugs and always had enough string or wool wherever I went to play Jacob’s Ladder with my sister and friends. My great aunts worked in the dress business at 1400 Broadway in New York City’s garment center. My mother’s grandfather became a tailor after he escaped from Russia in the late 1800s, so growing up was full of textile experiences.

I have explored various media over the years and when I began to work in manila rope in 2011, I pondered over the thread between my very different bodies of work. Leading up to my rope sculptures, I was creating hand-fabricated, high-karat gold jewellery using the ancient techniques of the classical goldsmiths from the early Roman and Byzantine era. I alloyed pure gold to 22 karat to create the formula most closely used by ancient goldsmiths and drew my own wire. I found great pleasure in drawing wire. It’s a simple task but I loved the action of it and enjoyed using it in my work. I have a website devoted to my jewellery. I began to experiment with knitting and weaving techniques using wire, but when the price of gold went sky-high in 2008 I felt that my creativity was being limited by the cost of my materials and I knew I had to find a different medium to express myself.

I went back to school for professional development and my professor, knowing I was a goldsmith and that I worked with wire, introduced me to the artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, whose work inspired me to use rope to create a project in which we had to use multiples of inexpensive material to create a woven piece. I chose manila rope because it was a plant material and I would be able to express the emotions that I wanted to convey in this piece with its rough natural texture.

After I created my first piece titled “Inner Struggle,” I vowed never to make another one. The rope was rough and the shards stuck into my fingers; it was difficult on me physically as I had to lumber over the piece moving back and forth in order to create the underpinnings to hold it together. At first I saw this as a deterrent and dreaded the thought of repeating it. After a gallery owner saw the work and encouraged me to do more, I began to contemplate making this work and realized the pain I experienced in creating these sculptures was equal to the pain and emotion that I was striving to manifest in the finished pieces. I did create more and have been exhibiting them with great interest from viewers and collectors.

Focus on something three-dimensional

What or who were your early influences and how has your life/upbringing influenced your work?

I have been an artist as long as I can remember. For me it’s who I am, not what I do. I was fortunate that my parents supported and encouraged my creative nature. I was born and raised in Manhattan and one of my earliest memories of studying art was at the Museum of Modern Art. Although it was a very long time ago, I still recall the various experiences I had there and one of my pen and ink drawings still hangs in my parent’s home.

My mother is a gourmet cook and working in the kitchen with her growing up was a creative outlet for me. I love to work with my hands and all through my life cooking and art have always gone hand in hand. Food is a great source of inspiration for me. The colors, shapes, textures, aromas -all inspire me. Learning to cook and use hand tools to create delicious and beautiful dishes to nourish my loved ones and myself has been a joyful gift and blessing.

Growing up I was surrounded by great museums in a great city and saw great diversity on the streets. The sights and sounds of the city gave me so much inspiration. I saw vast wealth and devastating poverty on the same block.

Having no ability to draw but wanting to create art, I studied Package Design and Photography at the High School of Art and Design. I had been accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology to study Advertising Design when I was overcome with crippling anxiety and had to withdraw. As my health improved, I spent much of my time taking photographs by day and developing and printing at night. I went on to work in television news documentaries and spent some time in the editing room.

In 1987, I moved to Los Angeles for my husband’s work. Once in Los Angeles, my inspiration to photograph left me and I stopped shooting for many years. I worked in film production until we had children and then focused on food and health to work on my own mysterious condition of chronic fatigue and insure the health of my family. We moved several times over the years and my life was consumed with raising my kids, running a busy household and trying to overcome fatigue.

Once my children were both in school, I decided to go back to creating art and pulled out all my supplies from art school. I set up a studio for myself but it was about that time that we were going to move again; this time back to New York. I was overjoyed and immediately ordered a 92nd Street Y catalogue. As the movers were packing around me I sat and looked through the catalogue for classes I could take. Since drawing was not my strength or desire, I decided I would focus on something three-dimensional. I settled upon a jewellery-making class. I didn’t really care for jewellery at the time but I figured I would learn to solder and make table sculptures. Little did I know that a classical goldsmithing class would capture my heart and set me on a path of creating one-of-a-kind, handcrafted 22k gold jewelry for 14 years.

I sold my work privately and in galleries in the US and internationally. In 2008 the price of gold skyrocketed. I was at a turning point because I also wanted to exhibit my work and no one wanted to exhibit jewellery. I pulled out my old negatives from the ’70s and ’80s and started to exhibit them. I needed to create a current body of work but now, living in Atlanta, didn’t offer the same opportunities to shoot on the streets as New York did so I made the decision to focus entirely on the rope work.

A vessel for the work

What is your chosen medium and what are your techniques?

My current body of work is created with natural manila rope. My technique is what I call free-weaving and I use the rope in different thicknesses and a wire cutter. I work on the floor and create as I go. I don’t sketch studies or create maquettes for the work. I have an idea of size and shape and begin the work. Sometimes I work for days only to realize that something is not working and I pull it apart and start over. Although this doesn’t happen often, it allows me to see what doesn’t work which is sometimes more important than what does.

The work is spontaneous and intuitive. I get lost in my thoughts and the work just flows. When I am stuck in a particular spot, I step back and watch the work and ask where it wants me to go. I feel like a vessel for the work to come through. This work is very emotional and spiritual and it can’t be rushed or forced or it just doesn’t work.

What currently inspires you and which other artists do you admire and why?

The textures and shapes and colors in nature inspire me. I am inspired by what is going on in my life and the lives of others. The struggles and the victories are all important inspiration for my work. My favorite artists today are artists whose work I love and whose life stories inspire me to follow my passions. The story of the Impressionists like Monet, Manet, and Renoir fighting against the Paris art establishment helps me to forge ahead and stay true to myself.

Tell us about a piece of work you have fond memories of and why?

The very first piece I made entitled “Inner Struggle” is one that holds a special place in my heart. It was the first piece I made in this body of work and was also a turning point for me as an artist. This was the first piece that was conceived by having a purpose in mind; to express personal emotions. It was the first piece that was autobiographical in concept.

This piece opened up a whole new world for me creatively and for me this is just the beginning.

Corporate and public settings

How has your work developed since you began and how do you see it evolving in the future?

In the beginning, my work was dependent upon the framework that I constructed to hold the piece together. The pieces were more dense and complex. I am now experimenting with less of a structure underneath the piece. I am evolving to a much more deconstructed method although I continue to create large-scale installations for corporate and public settings.

I am working on a multi-media installation. The exhibition would express emotion as an experience for the viewer as they walk through using the rope as well as sound and video.

What other resources do you use?

I post my work on my website, Instagram, and Facebook.

Learn more by visiting: www.SusanBeallorSnyder.com

Susan Beallor-Snyder is a formidable artist who creates exquisite sculptures made of rope.  Yes, ropewww.susanbeallor.com. Her work is rich, deep and profound and I simply love it.  However, working with rope is no easy trick.  Susan says it can be physically and emotionally painful, but what a result!  Here’s our cool chat…

“… When I am creating a piece, which is usually motivated by a time of my life, I immerse myself in those emotions and sometimes they are sad or frustrated or angry or joyful feelings, but when I am creating the rope, because I love creating my art, even if I am in a dark place, I am also content and happy to be doing the work …”

MICHAEL: Susan, when I first looked at your website, I thought, “Yes!” Where has she been?  Rope Sculpture. Who knew?  How on earth did you get involved with such a thing?

SUSAN: Hi Michael, I’m excited that you’re excited.  I’ve been around a long time making art, but I wasn’t doing rope sculpture.  I began this body of work in 2011 after several years of soul searching.  It was a time in my life when I felt overloaded with family obligations that made it difficult for me to make my art a priority. It was important for me to be able to merge my emotions with the work in a way that I had not done before.  A professor at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta where I took some classes for professional development introduced me to the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz and I was drawn to her large scale woven pieces she called Abakans.  I had originally wanted to use willow and this piece was going to be a sphere of willow with a barbie doll trapped inside that represented how I felt at the time.  My first piece, called “Inner Struggle” was the final result using natural manila rope.

MICHAEL: Wow. Natural Manila rope?  Why that kind of rope?  What’s so special about it?  Do you actually get it from the Philippines?

SUSAN: People ask me all the time why natural manila rope and I explain that it comes from the fiber of the Abaca plant and is native to the Philippines. I buy it from a distributor in the United States in bulk and usually order 1000 feet or more at a time of each gauge.

I love that natural manila rope is a plant material from the earth and that it has been used for thousands of years. As a classical goldsmith, I am also drawn to pure gold because it comes from the earth and was used for thousands of years. When I work with natural materials that were used in ancient times, it makes me feel closer to a time long ago that maybe I had experienced in past lives. I feel that the rough texture exhibits deep emotion in a way that another material would not. I have experimented with other types of rope and was not happy with the results.

MICHAEL: As a material, rope has so many metaphors and natural narratives attached to it. Is this part of your attraction in using it as art?

SUSAN: You are correct and yet when I began I didn’t see it. In the beginning, I was focused solely on the rope and the emotion.  After creating the first piece, I thought that I would not do another.  That first piece really spoke to me yet even so, on the surface, I told myself it was not something I wanted to pursue. The rope was rough and the shards stuck into my fingers.  It wasn’t an easy, comfortable process to create these pieces.  It was after a period of months when a friend  wanted to show the work as a featured artist that I had to dig way down to explore what it was that made me discount the work so quickly.  What I discovered was that the pain in creating the work was equal to the pain that I was trying to express visually.

Over time, I have found many metaphors and narratives for these pieces; some shaped like a woman’s uterus, purely coincidental or subconscious? Hanging oneself with rope? Titles like, “Tied Up In Knots?” Weaving rope or any thread is “Women’s Work,” another title.  This body of work has been a reflection of the inner struggle I have had balancing work and family.

Holding onto my identity as a woman and an artist amidst all the expectations has been a challenge for me and this body of work allowed me to create the work and express the feelings all at the same time.

MICHAEL: I’m trying to figure out how to view your works. Are they sculptures or installations or both?

SUSAN: Very perceptive again, Michael. As a matter of fact, they are sculptures wanting to be installations. What I mean by that is they are individual sculptures, but all have a story and the series started out wanting to be an installation, but time and space didn’t allow for it. I have a large scale installation in my head and I am just starting work on the maquette. Instead of just looking at works of art, the sculptures become an installation which becomes an event.

MICHAEL: I would imagine that your rope is much more malleable than paint.  No?  I understand that they’re sculptural, but could you also be painting with rope?  I love the photos on your site that show these works hanging adjacent to paintings.

SUSAN: I’m having some trouble with this concept.  Malleable in the sense that it can be held in your hand and moved around, but it is not really that malleable in general especially the thicker it gets. Paint is much more fluid and can go places and be manipulated in a way that the rope cannot.

I sometimes feel restricted with the rope because there are times that I want one strand to stay in a shape and unless I add something to harden it, it cannot stay unless it is supported in some way. I have been experimenting with materials to harden the rope so that I can create very simplistic forms without all the foundation – a deconstruction of the rope. I think of Matisse’s line drawings or Picasso’s Deconstructed Bull or even Alexander Calder’s work in wire.

This concept of painting with rope reminds me that when I began, my very large piece entitled Crossroads which is about 17 feet wide, I started that piece in a different way than I had the previous pieces and as I worked I recall saying out loud that I feel like Jackson Pollock with rope.  I was freer with the way I worked the rope.  I allowed the foundation to be more like a drawing and then went in after to secure those shapes so they would hold together instead of using the informal warp and weft that I had previously started with.

The rope is a line and the line is like drawing or painting. With regard to the rope sculptures shot in a setting of other art and furniture, I enjoy seeing the work in an installed setting. It is pleasing to my eye to see the composition of the rope sculpture with a painting or other art and furniture. I like to see how the different colors and textures and forms in the photograph work together. It becomes an interior design vignette.

MICHAEL: With rope sculpture in mind, what’s the difference for you between art and design?

SUSAN: Specifically with rope sculpture in mind the difference between art and design is probably the same as it is without specifically talking about my rope sculptures. However, I need to play this out a bit. I looked up the definition of art and design in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, something I don’t think I have ever done before and it was a surprise to me that both were defined it in a way that I agree with.

I’m paraphrasing, but basically Art is something created with imagination and skill that is beautiful or that expresses important idea or feelings. The definition of Design is to plan and make decisions about something  being built for a specific purpose or something such as a plan.

After reading these definitions, I think that my rope sculptures fit into both categories.  When I think about a piece I want to create, I think about it from several angles; What do I feel?  What do I want to express? What do I want it to look like? How will I make it and that includes any technical issues I need to consider.  So, in fact, I am designing a piece of art. The difference for me is that the art of the rope sculpture is about the feelings, emotions and the craftsmanship; the design is about the way the piece will look.

MICHAEL: Rope is so interesting because people can either die by it or be rescued by it.  It’s very dark or very light.  I mean, the history of rope alone! Rope can trap things or sustain them. I would imagine you could have a great or not so great day depending on what you’re creating.  No?

SUSAN: Everything you are saying is true about rope and in my work I do think of all those things, but mostly because others have said them or shown them. My husband likes to joke around by making believe he is hanging himself with the rope and others have suggested to me ways in which they would like to see me create rope pieces with paint or inserting other types of materials into the sculptures. People send me images of rope lighting and rope decorations.  In terms of your last question about my having a good or bad day depending upon the rope, my response would be this … When I am creating a piece, which is usually motivated by a time of my life, I immerse myself in those emotions and sometimes they are sad or frustrated or angry or joyful feelings, but when I am creating the rope, because I love creating my art, even if I am in a dark place, I am also content and happy to be doing the work.

MICHAEL: I understand.  Who buys your work?  It’s tough enough getting people to buy paintings, but I would think it’s even harder to get people to consider buying your work – unless they’re quite sophisticated.

SUSAN: My collectors are men and women who have been drawn to the work for different reasons and appreciate the texture, its complexity, the thought and story behind each piece and the overall aesthetic. The admirers of my work are quite varied.  Many young people have told me that they hope one day to be able to afford one of my rope sculptures. I have found that those who are more knowledgeable about art and its history enjoy my work, but in addition many who are not art aficionados find it reminiscent of a time in their lives from their past.  The most common are those who are connected to sailing or the water.

MICHAEL: Finally Susan, Does your work have a message?  What do you want people to take away after seeing it?  And what’s the point of art anyway?

SUSAN: I create these rope sculptures with the desire to express the emotions that I feel in a visual way. My hope is that others will have an experience looking at them and I don’t want to limit their experience by telling them what each piece is about, but I find that viewers want to know what a piece represents so I tell them.  I find that it allows the viewer who may not have thought past the surface aesthetic of the piece to realize that they are free to think about the piece in a more complex way whether to relate to my own emotions or create new stories of their own.

Interacting with the viewer and admirer of my work is one of the most enjoyable parts of creating this work. The conversation between me as the artist and the viewer has challenged me to think deeper into the meaning of the work and I have learned a lot about these pieces that I hadn’t thought of consciously.

MICHAEL: Excellent Susan.  This has been a lovely chat and I love your work.

SUSAN: Thank you Michael for this wonderful opportunity to talk with you about my work.

Check out Susan Beallor-Snyder at www.susanbeallor.com.