Susan's City Scene

NW: I’ve been creative most of my life, growing up in a village (Tormey) across the Bay with 49 houses and a company plant. There were few children and lots of space to play, create and invent games. I remember always wanting the large set of color crayons for MORE colors! High School was in Crockett, California, and a wonderful Art teacher, Maurice McAuliffe, seemed to see some talent in me and unknown to me saved much of my work. When it came time to see what college I was going to attend, he had a whole portfolio put together for me to send to The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, a college he attended, and paved a way for me. I had a scholarship for the first couple of years and ended up with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a heavy emphasis on Graphics. He came all the way to San Mateo to one of my first Open Studios and BOUGHT a table from me. That was the biggest compliment I could have gotten.

DJ: What is the focus of your art?

NW: The focus of my art for the last 10 years or so has been on older furniture. I started One Of Designs to encompass all the Reinvented things I do now. I take something old, renovate it, reimagine it and re-create it to a new life. I’ve even put game boards on chairs for conversation pieces. Recycling at its best. I always strip or sand all varnish or paint off each piece to see what I have and then begin the creative process. I use acrylic paint mixed with metallic powders to get a deeper color and most times it takes many coats of paint to get the solid color I want. I finish coat all my painted work with a UV Clear for protection so it can be used.

DJ: You are on the Board of Directors of Silicon Valley Open Studios. What challenges has the lockdown brought to scheduling Open Studios?

NW: The board of directors of Silicon Valley Open Studios never stopped thinking and “zooming” during all of this about a “venue” of sorts for artists to show their work. We work all year normally just to have this ONE event in May for the first three weekends so up to 400+ artists who register can show their work to the public. It’s a great way for “emerging artists” to start on the path and gain the confidence to show what they create. We have done this one event for the last 34 years with people visiting the studios. With COVID-19 dropping in our lap we had to scramble to reinvent ourselves rather quickly since we haven’t been very virtual up to this point. With every other Art show and Open Studios canceling we decided to just go for it and fight our way through to what’s up online now. Getting Michael Davis’s PR savvy brain on board with ideas on how to garner more and different “eyeballs” was a huge coupe for us. It has blown some needed life back for the artists AND SVOS.

ABOUT SILICON VALLEY OPEN STUDIOS. Silicon Valley Open Studios is one of the oldest, largest and most popular art events in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of its goals is to act as an incubator for new and emerging artists. Artwork for sale at www.shop.svos.org through Nov. 30 include painting, watercolor, photography, mixed media, sculpture, ceramics, furniture — woodwork, printmaking, glass-mosaic, digital art, jewelry and wearables.

ABOUT SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, serving San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, is committed to building a hunger-free community. That means distributing nutritious food to nearly every neighborhood in Silicon Valley, leveraging every available food resource, and collaborating with organizations and people who share a belief that hunger is unacceptable. www.shfb.org

Susan Cohn is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association. She may be reached at susan@smdailyjournal.com.