Susan Loeb

Susan Hightower Loeb is a contemporary watercolorist, using this traditional medium in an unorthodox way to represent the residue of presence. Blurring the boundaries between drawing and painting, her method of mark-making mirrors the social disintegration she is commenting on. Through her paintings she has developed a relationship between absence and presence, between physicality and ephemerality. Her artistic process is equal to the dwindling, dismantling, and degrading social situation in New Orleans. She combines observation, memory, and the presence of the subject in strongly stated images that embody her emotional response to the place she called home.

         Susan’s formal art training was classical and traditional.  She was taught to draw and paint from direct observation, using oil paint as her medium.  Her early work was a recording of the beauty in her visual world. Eventually she experienced a restlessness as she noticed problems in her community and searched for ways to deal with them through her art. She returned to school, earning an MFA from Vermont College, Norwich University. It was during this time that she began using photographs as a visual reference for her work.

         New Orleans is disappearing. Population shifts to suburbs began the diaspora years ago. Already below sea level, the City sinks more every year. The City and its levees are left unprotected by the disappearance of wetlands. The demolition of public housing mis-placed people. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and its subsequent flooding, further reduced the population. Susan continues to record images of the city and its people. She currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, having moved there after losing her home to flooding following Hurricane Katrina.

Education
2003 | MFA in Visual Art, Vermont College, Norwich University, Montpelier, VT
1965 | BA in Education, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA

Selected Exhibitions
2007 | From Bennett Street to Green Street II, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainsville, GA
2006 | Bridge Show 2006, The B Complex, Atlanta, GA
Persephone’s Spring: Return from Exile, group show of New Orleans Women Artists in the visual medium, Carroll Gallery, Newcomb Art Dept., New Orleans, LA.
THREE: Karen Edmunds, Cynthia Scott and Susan Hightower Loeb, Isaac Delgado College Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Arty Gras: A Celebration of Louisiana Artists, The Warehouse, Washington, DC
2003 | The 8th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2001, 2003 | Group Show, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT
1989-2005 | Faculty Show, Fine Arts Gallery, Metairie Park Country Day School, Metairie, LA
2000 | Associated Women in the Arts Exhibition of Louisiana Women Artists