Susan Hoskinson

ARTIST'S BIO

Susan Hoskinson is twenty-six years old, resides in Monrovia and has been a PVAA member for over a year. She has received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly Pomona. She is currently taking classes at the University of La Verne and is working towards a Masters degree in Leadership and Management. She is currently working at the Gentex Corp. in Rancho Cucamonga where she is designs personal safety equipment for Aviators. Here job only satisfies a small portion of her creative interests and she is avidly pursuing her artistic skills, which were developed at an early age.

As a ceramic artist, Susan currently puts all her patience and effort into creating ceramic tiles and decorative hand built raku platters and bowls. In every piece of art she creates her intent is that each piece will evoke wonder from viewers. She uses the cuerda seca technique to decorate the tiles and she uses raku glazes which when fired create intense colors on her platters. She waits with anticipation when the kiln is firing, nervous and excited about what lies inside. Each success and failure increases her knowledge, and she is constantly seeking to improve her work.

Susan started doing ceramics at Monrovia High School with a great teacher, Sal Perez, who taught her all the basics and then supported her exploration of the art form. At Monrovia high school Susan focused on creating unique raku dishes and she won several rotary club awards for her pieces. Susan has been creating ceramic pieces for over 10 years and currently has her own home studio. She has an interesting body of work which includes raku fired decorative dishes and platters, pierced wall hangings, and decorative tiles. She was inspired to make decorative tiles after attending a workshop at Citrus Community College that featured tile artist Marlo Bartel.

Exquisite tile designs feature nature scenes and geometric designs that are strong and bold. She uses a process called cuerda seca where the different colored glazes are separated by a dry line on the finished tile. The patterns on each tile are drawn and glazed by hand so every tile is unique. The 4 1/2 inch tiles can be used many ways including borders, trivets, tables, and murals.

Susan is a member of the Shameless Self-Promoters who have held many interesting and eclectic shows in the progress gallery.  Her artwork has also been entered in the PVAA monthly shows, the artisans Christmas festival and the PVAA open jury show. Susan has won a couple of ribbons for the work she has displayed and she looks forward to participating in future PVAA shows.