Artist's Statement Susan Livada, 2002 Eight years ago, when I began painting my "Large Fruit" series, I did not know why I wanted to paint fruit, just that I did. Although I continue to add to that series, I also began painting lighthouses and tablescapes. By the time I added farms and farm animals, I realized there was a common thread. The most important thing I am in my life is a mother to my four, now grown, children. Giving motherhood all my attention, I pursued the job of nurturing wholeheartedly. Large and loving, my family of origin is also extremely important to me. I now realize that my series' topics are connected with nurture, family, and home. Fruits and vegetables are what mother nature provides for food; lighthouses are a voice in the night singing "home"; my tablescapes depict warm and comforting settings of meals or desserts; the farms and farm animals reflect man's most primal relationship to the earth. Color, brushmarks, looseness, and composition are all important factors in my work. I love to see the subtle variations of color that are in real life, and then exaggerate and be playful with them. I strive for a "painterly" result - allowing the viewer to almost see the process: the brush strokes, the juiciness of the paint, and sometimes the canvas (after all, I'm creating a painting, not a photograph!). Line is much less important in my paintings than form. When I start a painting, I position the shapes on the canvas using a quick rough sketch. Then I just dive in and paint the mass rather than the "outlines" of objects. My compositions tend to be bold and rather solid, with large masses, often seeming to burst past the edges of the canvas. I love to paint on a canvas that is already full of color. My favorite technique is to work on top of my old paintings, allowing tiny bits of color to poke through. When I don't have an old painting to use, I make an underpainting, layering colors almost randomly on a white canvas. Sometimes these colors inspire me in unexpected ways, allowing me to be more playful and loose. If you look closely you can sometimes see bits of previous paintings showing through a finished piece! This technique is very satisfying because it gives me the feeling of working through confusing chaos (a sketch on top of "random" colors) and seeing the new painting come slowly into focus.