Photo: S.I.Witt
Ilkley Library presents:
'Seachanger - Wave Weaver’ exhibition
by Sussi Louise Smith.
April 4th - June 1st, 2022, meet the artist on Monday 11th at 4 pm for storytelling and introduction to the paintings.
In April 2022 Ilkley Library welcomes Danish artist and author Sussi Louise with her exhibition 'Seachanger - Wave Weaver'. The title is taken from her latest book of poems. Like the book, the exhibition is a marriage of words and pictures, some from her published poetry, others entirely new. It is inspired by Ilkley’s surrounding nature and the sea pounding inside her.
Most of the paintings and poems were sketched while Sussi ‘safe-distance-walked’ the moors and straggled along the River Wharfe. These creative endeavours are an expression of Sussi’s ever-growing affection for her found home here in England. As she says: ‘To me, Ilkley has a unique vibe, a geographical calm which I find immensely inspiring. And Yorkshire people are just the best. What you see is what you get, I love that’
But as its title suggests, the exhibition is not just about land and life in and around Ilkley. It is also about the sea and the sights, sounds and smells of the oceans that surround any land. It is a fusion of themes that lock the land with the sea. As the award-winning author Carmen Marcus says of Sussi’s fusion:
'The sea in this collection is no passive soma to life's challenges, it surges, submerges, rocks and grinds the soul just as it does with stones, remaking it smoother, stronger. You will emerge from this body of words changed, joyful, remade.’
Sussi is well known for her Scandi-noir humour, commitment to breast-cancer awareness, and straight-talking water-loving ways. She is also a proud ambassador of the research charity ‘Blue Mind’ and shares its dedication to promoting the healing powers of water in any setting. Her work integrates her love of the sea into art and writing. She paints in her trademark colourful naïvistic style and reviewers of her writing praise it for being fearless and to the point. As one critic observes: ‘Sussi is a true weaver of word magic, the kind that takes up space under your breastbone and reveals the wonder of the world around you.’. Her creativity reflects this theme: it is a synesthetic endeavour, and expression of her multi-sensory perception of the world, where colours and sounds (and sometimes smells) are experienced as words and shapes.
All Sussi’s art, whether in words or pictures, can be accessed using the hashtag #SussisHappyArtProject. Sussi exhibits across Denmark & Britain, and she uses this platform to create more awareness about the profound impact of art on quality of life and healing. And as she says: ‘There is always hope. And chocolate. Just a bit. Not enough for the sugar-police to track you down.’
We are very pleased to have Sussi Louise share her new work with us here in Ilkley Library.
BIO:
Sussi-Louise is Danish-born and bred. Her early life was spent close to and on the blue waters of the seas around the island of Sjælland. She now resides in Wharfedale and combines her enduring love of the ocean with the calm, tranquillity and rugged beauty of Yorkshire’s Dales and rivers. A career in Danish academia overlaps her work as a creative artist and writer, especially of poetry. Exhibitions of her work take place on both sides of the North Sea. Sussi’s arts express a unique fusion and imagery of the land and the surrounding seas, in words, pictures, emotions and people. The Danes love their salt and Sussi is a self-confessed salty-liquorice monster. The stuff is hard to come by, but luckily the community of Danes in the area help each other out.
Instagram: Sussi.Louise
Twitter: SmithySuzy
Blog: www.livsmalerier.blogspot.dk
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