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About the Artist
Susan Champeny started out as a painter, but over the last 6 years has shifted to sculpture and public art projects. She works with many types of clients: city municipalities, a community health center, art studios, cultural and educational institutions. She creates murals, mosaic, and recycled materials sculpture. Her goal is to create wonder and surprise in the viewer, while promoting the creative reuse of materials such as plastic, cast resin, metals and rubber.
Household Gods is her most recent sculpture series, begun in February of 2010. While visiting the town of Oceanside California, Susan encountered a laundry bottle so worn by the waves that it looked like a prehistoric carving. This began an exploration of plastic containers in a series of sculptures and community workshops at street festivals that year. In 2011, she received a grant from the Worcester Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council to bring the sculpture-building workshop to after-school programs.
A graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art with a major in Printmaking, Susan was a commercial artist for 20 years art directing magazines. This skill set has led naturally to her guiding community participation and group art-building projects, which has become a key component of her artistic style.
Her business plan is based on three principles: create, have fun, and travel.
Public Art
2011
Household Gods: an interactive Totem-based sculpture made of recycled plastic laundry bottles and fasteners, displayed as part of Worcester’s juried Art in the Park sculpture show.
Hang Up Your Creative Laundry: fourth annual interactive temporary sculpture installation in collaboration with Saori Worcester Weaving Studio, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center, as part of the Art in the Park program at Elm Park in Worcester. Over 300 adults and children participated in the creation of the artwork.
2010
Light City: commissioned by National Grid and City of Worcester. One of five artists selected to paint murals on 7-foot high CFL light bulb sculptures to promote energy efficient lights.
2009
The Sense-Able Bridges Project: Commissioned by the City of Worcester to create concepts to enhance the pedestrian experience of five railroad underpasses surrounding the Union Station inter-modal Transit area. Working with a team of engineers (LEI engineering) and a light artist (Leni Schwendinger), created designs and budgets that showed how the five senses could be applied to public artworks, including mural, mosaic, sculpture and light.
Chair Arch and Red Totems: One of 18 artists selected to create sculptures for the Art in the
Park Sculpture Competition in Worcester, MA during July through September 2009.
Hang Up Your Creative Laundry: The second annual interactive temporary sculpture installation in collaboration with Saori Worcester Weaving Studio, the Worcester Art Museum, and thePleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center, as part of the Art in the Park program at Elm Park in Worcester and funded by the Greater Worcester Community Foundation. Over 300 adults and children participated in the creation of the artwork.
2008
The Welcome Words Mural: A 300 square foot mural in the lobby of Great Brook Valley
Health Center, Tacoma Street, Worcester MA. Created the concept through execution on-site,
including workshops for health care professionals, patients and community.
2007
Wayfinding Prototype for City of Worcester: A grant-supported project for public art depicting
the spirit and history of Worcester, rendered in mosaic tile. Erected as part of the Wayfinding
Initiative, a signage and navigation system for the City of Worcester. Collaboration with the
guiding committee, cultural institutions, fellow artists and fabricators was highly important.
Awards
2011
Totem Island: a grant from the Worcester Arts Council for a 2-week after-school sculpture
building and installation of Laundry Bottle Totems at the May Street School, Worcester, MA.
2008
The City Celebrates: A grant from the Worcester Cultural Council to create a series
of paintings continuing the theme established in the 2007 Wayfinder Public Art project.
Group Exhibits
2006-2009: Worcester Windows: ongoing display of vacant storefronts throughout Worcester.
2007: Windows, Work and Leisure: paintings of Worcester, at the Stanley Kunitz house.
1998: States of Mind: with ArtXII, UMass Medical Center School Lobby Gallery, Worcester.
1997: Twelve by Twelve: ArtXII group show, Paradis Art Gallery, East Douglas, MA.
1997: Structure and Nonstructure: with Gail F. Hormats, Paradis Gallery, East Douglas.
1996: Shrines: group installation with Art XII at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester.
1995: Self Portrait: large-scale installation with ART XII, Center for Crafts, Worcester, MA.
Solo Exhibits
2010: Fishing the Reef: 20 species of fish in Hawaii, Prints and the Potter Gallery, Worcester, MA
2008: Mills of the Blackstone Valley: Paintings on location, Alternatives, Inc., Whitinsville, MA
2007: Wandering: series depicting roadways at the Lincoln Council for Aging, Lincoln, MA
2006: Near and Far: paintings of the Puna District, Hawaii at One Love Cafe, Worcester
Getting Abstract: abstract works, First Unitarian Church, Worcester
Along the Way: roadsides of Worcester County, Booklover’s Gourmet, Webster, MA
1997: Vanishing Landscapes: First Unitarian Church, Worcester
1996: Worcester Views: First Unitarian Church, Worcester
How it Was: Blue Moon Gallery, Chagrin Falls, OH
Autumn Harvest: Borders Bookstore, Framingham, MA
1995: Mills and Abandoned Buildings of Worcester County: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Traveling Show: Borders Books and Music, Tacoma, WA and Portland, OR
Natural Light: watercolor paintings at Borders Books and Music, Chestnut Hill, MA
Watercolor Views: Shrewsbury Public Access Connection, Shrewsbury, MA
1994: Second Series: paintings at Borders Books and Music, Peabody, MA
1993: First Show: watercolor paintings at Borders Bookstore, Framingham
Subject Matter
urban demolition : mill buildings : scottish highland cattle : construction equipment : happy homes : abstract drawings : families at the beach : kids at the farm : comic books : hawaii : volcano : raccoon butterfly fish : abandoned buildings : mimosa and pine : oxford milling company : mount wachusett : ocean sunrise : roadways : hiking : rain forest : coral reef : baldface mountain
Education
1982: Massachusetts College of Art in Fine Arts, BFA in Printmaking
1975-1977: Wellesley College, Chinese Language Studies
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