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Sometimes a painting goes on for many years ,
says Willie Suzuki about his contemplative process of painting and
then repainting. In Suzuki’s dreamlike interiors, peopled primarily
with females, architecture dissolves into abstraction. A floor becomes
a pool; a wall gives way to light. The artist makes no attempt to simply
represent the model in a concrete situation but rather allows his unconscious
process to dictate the image. What began as a painting of a figure
in a shower might develop into a tricycle in a thunderstorm. In a sense
the painting is a sort of conversation between the artist and the image,
bouncing about as it goes along.
…the process remains a mystery to me. My work usually begins with
simply a gesture, a scene or an intriguing pattern of light and shadow. Rarely,
however, does the painting proceed to the envisioned end. It seems as though
it has a life of its own, wandering, changing, disappearing, re-emerging, and
finally resulting as a surprise…Willie Suzuki
At times reminiscent of the dissolving images of Monet, Suzuki’s luxuriant
brushstrokes and use of color lead us away from the commonplace and into an environment
where foremost, the beauty of light is exalted. The paintings and drawings are
filled with a sense of spiritualized sensuality where meditative figures are
not so much the object of the narrative, but more an element or point of rest
in a radiant atmosphere.
Suzuki’s pensive black and white lithographs and drawings are more literally
concerned with the figure, whether in stillness or in the embrace of love. In
all areas of endeavor the technique is masterful and the intent somehow very
pure. With almost 19th Century delicacy, a sensitive face emerges from the mist
in one print while Cleo, a favorite model sits sturdily with hat in an inkwash
drawing.
Willie Suzuki, master draughtsman, painter and lithographer, mentor and teacher
to many, taught painting and drawing at El Camino College Art Department for
40 years. He currently resides in Torrance, California with his wife Gerry.
SUSANNA
MEIERS
Curator El Camino College Art Gallery
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