When Susan Hoenig could no longer create earthworks outside, she brought nature inside.
By: Hilary Parker
Taking inspiration from the Bauhaus artists of pre-World War II Germany and the makers of the famed Nazca Lines of ancient Peru, Susan Hoenig’s animal relief paintings merge seemingly contradictory movements separated by thousands of years and miles. Other traditions, such as the totem poles of Alaskan tribes and even her mother’s pottery, are subtly referenced. The resulting combination is both comfortably familiar and strikingly unique.
Like the Nazca Lines, her works depict animal creatures some real, some imagined carefully crafted with attention to texture and detail. Just as the thoughts that led to the creation of the giant stone works so many years ago is forever a mystery, sometimes Ms. Hoenig herself isn’t sure how or why she chooses to embellish some animals and leave others more true-to-form. In keeping with the Bauhaus tradition, her architectural bent is present in the geometric figures and shapes that comprise an owl’s eyes or offer an image of feathers on a gosling’s back.
While the Nazca Lines are massive (some stretching more than 1,000 feet across), Ms. Hoenig’s animal relief paintings are small enough to hang on a wall, such as they do in the Arts Council of Princeton’s conTEMPORARY Arts Center where they are on view through May 18. And, unlike the Bauhaus school, Ms. Hoenig is not constrained by functionality she’s perfectly content for people to enjoy her pieces simply for art’s sake.
"Some are more realistic, some are my interpretations," Ms. Hoenig says. "I embellish them with a certain feeling I have for them." Many of her creations, such as a brightly colored wood duck, are inspired by animals she encounters during her walks with her dog in Griggstown, where she resides. Some, such as her snake-turtle creation, are simply her own artistic musings. She gleefully tells the story of a young child who asked if turtles like that really exist, and says she hopes her pieces will help people realize "that in art you can really do anything."
She may do anything when it comes to art, and Ms. Hoenig has also done nearly everything when it comes to art. After studying art at Bennington College in Vermont, she went on to the University of Iowa in Iowa City to pursue a master of fine arts degree in painting. A summer trip to Arcosanti a town pioneered by Paolo Soleri in the Arizona desert as a way to merge ecology and architecture forever changed the course of her own artistic history. There, working on the experimental town that began in 1970, she internalized the principles of using natural elements in built creations.
"It broadened my perspective," she says. "I didn’t just want to stay in my studio anymore. There’s a difference between creating a sculpture and putting it on a pedestal and art that really relates to its environment."
She soon switched her emphasis at the University of Iowa to the multi-media department and began to work with found items in nature to create her works. Sticks and fallen trees were moved to create "ecological sculptures," and circles of rocks were carefully placed to create mandalas and circles reminiscent of those she had previously only drawn in her sketchbook. She and her husband, artist John Shockey, were married amidst her Earth Energy Lines earthwork in Wayland, Mass., and attendees planted a ring of bulbs around the stones, a nod to the artistic union.
While she enjoyed making the large-scale earthworks, including stone creations in Mexico and throughout New England, there came a time when family responsibilities Ms. Hoenig and Mr. Shockey have two adolescent daughters, Gwen and Alice made it difficult to continue venturing out of the studio into nature.
Ever resourceful, Ms. Hoenig brought nature into the studio, which led to the inception of her animal relief paintings. After taking morning walks alone or accompanied by an assortment of children and/or pets, she crafts the forms out of burlap and stuffs them before embellishing with acrylic paints. Some pieces, such as her series of moths, emphasize color; others, like the soft-shell turtle, focus on texture and lines, a nod to her former earthworks.
A former art teacher at the Waldorf School of Princeton, Ms. Hoenig still works at the school part-time and looks forward to doing children’s workshops on her animal relief paintings. She and her husband have already passed along their love of the arts to their daughters, who both enjoy painting, and Ms. Hoenig is hopeful that people of all ages will learn something from her "whimsical but serious" works at the Arts Council.
"I want people to realize that beauty can just be found anywhere," she says.
Susan Hoenig’s Animal Relief Paintings will be on view at the conTEMPORARY Arts Center, 301 N. Harrison St., Princeton, through May 18. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For information, call (609) 924-8777. On the Web: www.artscouncilofprinceton.org

