Portrait of Susan Hostetler
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Susan Hostetler

Drawing, Painting, Sculpture / Installation, Visual / Media

About the Artist

Susan Hostetler Eco-Artist influenced by travels and nature After earning her fine arts degree in painting, Susan Hostetler started her overseas travel setting up a hand papermaking mill in Friedberg, Germany in 1985.  Her work in Germany led to exhibitions at the Gutenberg and Klingspor Museums.  Her move to Barcelona, Spain, changed her palette and imagery due to the light, fauna and flora of the Mediterranean regions. Whether working in gouache and mixed media on handmade paper or working three dimensionally with clay, Hostetler has always been inspired by nature.  From her New York City studio Hostetler traveled to Africa, Europe and the South Pacific gathering further inspiration for her works. Hostetler's work hangs in permanent collections, including large, multi-panel site-specific commissions for the Federal Reserve Bank, as well as special commissions for the INOVA Schar Cancer Center, US Committee for UNIFEM, Four Seasons Hotel, Deutsche Bank, Dunn & Bradstreet, Readers Digest, Fidelity Corp, and several others.   Selected for the Arts in Embassy Program, by the US State Department, she was also chosen by the Smithsonian Institute for its SITE Traveling Exhibition. Hostetler added hand papermaking as a skill with awards from the Russell Siebert and Tiffany Foundations to study with Twinrocker Handmade Paper in Indiana, where she made custom papers for artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. As an art educator, Hostetler has worked in Washington DC museums and schools.  She was honored with the Robert Rauschenberg Power of the Arts award for innovation in teaching art to students with learning challenges in 2012.  Still active in the DC Art Education chapter of the National Art Education Association, Hostetler was a member of the first Executive Board, 2012-2014. Susan Hostetler exhibits both nationally and internationally.  Her works have been featured in the film, “You’ve Got Mail”, the  TV series, “Beverly Hills 90210” and in publications including the Washington Post, Boston Globe Magazine, MetroLife Magazine (Washington Post), Frankfurter Rundschau and the New York Hotelier.  Hostetler’s studio is in Washington DC.

Susan Hostetler website http://www.susanhostetler.com

Featured Work

Photos

wall installation comprised of graphite wall drawings, stenciled silhouettes , 3-D clay birds.
commissioned by the American Physical Therapy Association, I was asked to respond visually in a specified space to their motto: Move to Soar. The building is their new headquarters in Alexandria, VA. I used 65 clay birds, in a variety of colored pigments, in an ascending flight formation spanning a 26'x12' wall space.
responding to the impact of climate crises on bird migrations, this is a small group (13) of blue birds migrating in formation; comprised of clay and pigments.
in this piece I used a new material (steel) to showcase the bird forms in flight. These birds are somewhat contained by the "cage" but with the sides open, there is the possibility of flight. The dilemma for the avian world is the climate crisis that restricts their normal patterns of life: migration, feeding and nesting. We have lost over 3 billion birds since 1970.
portrayal of flight patterns and sound patterns of birds.
The vocalizations of birds are portrayed through the abstract graphite markings. The birds are flying around as they do when freely conducting their lives all around us - even in urban areas.