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Profile: East Nashville artist Susan E. Bennett
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"ZaSu" by S.E. Bennett
Susan E. Bennett has been a local for a little over a year now, transplanted from New York to the East Side. She’s been spending much of that year sculpting furiously, specializing in terra cotta faces and heads. Her most recently completed series was inspired by the slightly odd inhabitants of her childhood memories of a small town near New Orleans. Each one is about four inches high, sculpted and painted in three incredibly detailed dimensions, mounted in 8 X 10 inch shadow boxes. Perhaps benefitting from Bennett’s film background, the faces come to life, revealing seedy pasts and conjuring images of smoky dive bars, dirt floors, distant jazz and the smell of coffee and whiskey. They were recently shown at Bongo Java East, where the dark interior and the smell of coffee beans seemed a perfect complement.
"And Then She Ran Away With The Circus..."
The series of pieces she’s currently working on are quite a bit more colorful, but no less intriguing; these faces take their inspiration from Cirque du Soleil. Bright, bold colors over stark white faces stand in dramatic contrast to the darker, moodier tone of the previous series, but Bennett’s style is clearly recognizable and present in all. Slightly exaggerated and off-kilter eyes are a recurring characteristic, as is a faint trace of something sinister. Also in progress is “The Nine Faces of Oya,” a series of foot-tall papier mache masks, layered and textured by different papers and paints. Often working with magnifying glasses on her face and a headlamp on her forehead, Bennett’s attention to detail is evident in everything she does, which includes puppets and paintings as well as sculptures. Having shown up and down the east coast, she currently has sculptures on display at Rumours East and The Big Bungalow Bed and Breakfast. Pictures of other sculptures can be seen online.
"Sentimental Tommy" by S.E. Bennett
In April 2009, Bennett sold a sculpture at the Promise Gala Charity auction held in Nashville's Rennaissance Hotel. Proceeds from the sale went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Recently, Bennett has become fascinated by palmistry, tarot, and numerology, all of which are finding their way into her works. She's "going around collecting hands," doing blind contour drawings of palms and then applying her newfound palmistry skills. The final project is envisioned as a combination of print-making and written work. Some of the vintage typewriters may prove handy when she begins the mixed-media effort.
Susan E. Bennett can be contacted at sbbeatnik@yahoo.com.
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