"Susan Amons: Ferae Naturae: Wild By Nature: New Monotypes"

Carl Little, Art New England

"A GRADUATE of the Massachusetts College of Art, printmaker Susan Amons has been a frequent resident at the Women's Studio Workshop in New York and the Vermont Studio Center. Based in Biddeford, she has had numerous one-person shows in Maine and has appeared in group exhibitions throughout the northeast. Her Percent for Art commissions include murals in five schools.

"Amon's first solo at Élan consists of twenty-five or so prints from the past three years that reflect her ongoing fascination with wild creatures, including herons, crows, sandpipers, snow geese, lynx, and caribou. She uses a variety of techniques, including monotype, drypoint, and transfer/chine collé. Cutout Mylar shapes are inked, printed, and reinked as color layers are built up. Amons frequently works in a large format, joining several sheets to create wall-size pieces that bring to mind Asian screens. Her small-scale pieces, such as the three "chocolate lynx" drypoints (each measuring 12 x 18"), are equally appealing.

"The birds in Contentious Crows III (2005) fly about or perch on a twisting branch; one can imagine their cacophony. Stately and alert, great blue herons stalking the shallows for minnows (called "schoolies") appear to float on the water, their plumage a darker blue than the patterned sea. Other animals are accompanied by ghost doubles--like afterimages--lending dynamism to the friezelike presentation. The decorative quality of many of these works takes nothing away from their stunning presence.

"A sketchbook displayed in a glass case speaks to Amon's close study of nature. She lives on a peninsula where she observes wildlife firsthand; she also camps in the north woods in late summer, adding to her repertoire of animals. Such intimacy sustains the authenticity of her vision."

Art New England, Oct/Nov 2005

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