Susan Nowogrodzki

I grew up in NYC, the child of immigrants who survived the Holocaust. When I
was very young, my parents took me to museums and galleries, and enrolled me in the
MOMA children’s painting class, then the Met Museum of Art children’s painting class,
and finally the Art Students’ League watercolor class. I emerged with an intuitive sense
of composition and color. I went to college and received a BA in Painting, completely
unprepared for the realities of the art world of the 1970’s.
I was never comfortable living in NYC, and always wanted to live near nature. So, after
graduation I moved to Ithaca, N.Y. where I lived on a couple of communes and had
several art-related jobs (including Cornell Daily Sun cartoonist). In 1973 I moved to
Eugene, Ore. for a BFA program in painting at the U. of O. During that year I became
fascinated with the art of clay and was accepted into the MFA program in ceramics.  I’ve
continued to be entranced by the ceramic process and have had my hands (and often
more of myself) in clay ever since.  
After completing the MFA program, I moved to Madison, WI where I was Artist-in-
Residence at the Memorial Union Art Center, teaching all the ceramics classes and
learning the business of art. I traveled to craft fairs, wholesaling my work to galleries
around the country.
When I moved to upstate, NY I taught ceramics at the College of Saint Rose, Hudson
Valley Community College as well as many other institutions. My work has been
exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2011 I was invited to Gangjin, Korea to
participate in an international exhibition at the Celedon Festival. Touring the potteries of
Korea was a life-changing experience that continues to influence my work.
I very much missed having a woman mentor, someone akin to my sensibilities and
experiences. I consider my work in the tradition of women artists, those who lived with
distraction, interruption, who were able to integrate their art into their lives (as well as
the other way 'round) and to persevere through many obstacles and difficulties. In this
elemental of all activities, forming earth by hand into shapes with content, I am
connecting to our planet and am inspired by the animals, plants and life on Earth.