Susan Moss (American born 1944)

An artist whose style is reminiscent of abstract expressionism, Susan Moss was born in Chicago in 1944. Susan graduated from the University of Nevada with a B.A. in Painting, Printmaking, and Psychology, and finished her graduate studies at the Otis Art Institute in L.A. in 1970.

After she started her own studio, one of the first paintings she sold was to the late Tamara Thomas, an art consultant for the Security Pacific Bank (now called Bank of America) Art Collection. The piece was a 10x2 foot red spray painting, part of Moss's successful Cylinderseries paintings, many of which she has sold to businesses, homes, and studios.

One of her most notable pieces, Cinnamon Ridge, was first shown with David Findlay Jr. in New York. Moss described this acrylic and rhoplex work as a cross-current pattern of red and green that has a watery feeling to it, and said she gathered inspiration from the waters at Marina del Rey. She was especially inventive with Cinnamon Ridge since some of the tools she used to layer the painting included cake decorating tubes and spatulas.

Some of Moss's Earthslide crayon drawings have also been shown at the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo, New York. For years, Moss struggled to find new mediums as she no longer wanted to subject herself to the fumes of varnishes or turpentine. My vision when I was sick was to have a beautiful studio, working without fumes, and I did it. Now she mixes her own paint with flaxseed oil and uses orange turpenes, which thins paint without fumes or damage to the brush.

Some of Moss's most acclaimed paintings came from her Black Forest series - a tribute to her grandparents Richard and Edith Hecht, who died in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, Germany during World War II. The Black Forest paintings were sold to several big collectors like Robert A. Rowan in Pasadena and Frank Yablans, former head of MGM studios.

Moss is not concerned with the viewers response, nor is she committed to transmitting a message. Rather, her concern, is to express inner emotions "I do what is in my heart and soul at the moment. I express my feelings and if i do it well, the paintings communicate on a very intelligible level-That is, the viewers get very excited when they see them. They speak of power, transparency, color and force."