Susan Jephcott: Jazz Etc...

 Artist's Statement 2013

" I am originally from Hudson and of Scots ancestry. I have been painting and drawing all my life. I got my first set of oils at age 12. My work has gone from highly textured figurative portrait studies to hard edged symbolism, re-absorbing and personalising classical techniques and redirecting them into stark story telling. For me what connects my work is an on going battle between primitive human impulses and an unmovable destiny of myth and spirituality that forces the untamed or unwilling to do it's bidding. In my world the spirit always wins and woe to those who choose folly or greed, conflict and arrogance. Sometimes my directness will make the viewer feel uncomfortable with the sometimes political, sometimes grotesque or sexual images. I am summoning my own fears , dreams and anger to formulate a commentary on contemporary issues. The act of painting is an incantation to cause something to happen."

" Living now out in the country, in Vankleek Hill where the Scots first settled I feel very much at home and surrounded by the Celtic myths as I did when I was a child in Hudson. Kanehsatake (Oka) was just across the river and as we searched the shores looking for arrowheads and pottery shards, my game warden Father would tell me stories of the Mohawk's and the Iroquois nation. Later living in Jamaica from my friends I would hear West Indian stories, histories and legends. I am intrigued with the universality of myth and legend."

" This solo exhibition"Jazz etc..." explores how the sound of music and the images of dreams, images of ordinary things can bring other worlds together.....bring out that other spirit, sometimes sensual and sometimes right out of left field. I think people will enjoy this exhibition and maybe, I hope go away feeling a little different."