Meet: Susan Greer Emmerson, Pat Paxson, Shany Porras

Susan Greer Emmerson

Susan Greer Emmerson makes art about natural disasters: meditations on the loss of home and community and our changing climate. Experimenting with materials is central to her practice as she uses Tyvek (a plastic paper) to create sculptural wall collages, drawings and paintings. Her wall sculptures depict disheveled, broken surfaces where Tyvek painfully peels away like paint or skin, exposing a raw inner core. Everyday objects become precious; their bits and pieces are incorporated into the work and become signifiers of the lost reassurance of a safe and intact home. A former surgeon, she also has a collection of work focusing on the human body and its seemingly mysterious anatomy. Her art brings the human narrative and a subtle bit of humor to some very serious subject matter.

Pat Paxson

Pat Paxson creates images that fuse contemporary experimentation with spontaneity, layering, and abstraction. They build on her long term interest in people, their moods, personal space, dreams, memories and interpersonal relationships. Her process of making work is at the heart of its meaning: there is a strong connection between the spontaneity and layering of dreams and memories, and the spontaneity and layering of her work. This interest, combined with a deep interest in improvisation, leads to development of pictorial ways to indicate personal and interpersonal energies in terms of energies of lines, marks and colors. The work is also informed by her interest in meditation, music (playing the cello), and psychology.

Pat’s new series, ‘Outer Worlds from Inner Windows,’ stems from the ideas of what we may find, see and know about ‘outer space’ from our comfortable ‘inside windows’. Inspired by Stephen Hawkins book ‘A Brief History of Time’ and his thoughts about Us (the human race) sending various ‘objects/ explorers, materials, sounds out from our earth into space, these new paintings express wonder at what may be accessible to us from outer space, intertwined with Pat’s ongoing interest in the energy of color, mark-making and abstract painting.

Shany Porras

Shany Porras’s abstract paintings visually communicate, or translate, what is experienced through music regardless of genre or musical period. Her classical music training when young has meant that music remains an essential part of her daily living. She sees music as an abstract language, and she translates music to paintings, much in the same way she would translate one language to another. Her motivation is to extend the reach of music and paintings' reach to many people. Shany Porras has a B.A. and a B.F.A. from Rice University in Houston, Texas. At Rice, Shany started as an architecture major, then transferred into the Fine Art program after her sophomore year, where she focused on painting and lithography, establishing a foundation of abstract art. Conception Arts and CAFA have awarded Shany’s art in juried shows. Shany currently maintains a studio in Framingham, and actively shows in both juried and groups shows around New England and New York City. Shany is an associate member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA).