Continuing with our artist profiles of artists both living and working in the Hamptons, our next artist is Susan Rockford, who lives in Sag Harbor.

Susan Rockford is a member of the East End Arts Council, and served on the Board of Directors of the Artists Alliance of East Hampton in 2008. She works in digital, acrylics, and multi-media.

Artist Susan Rockford in her East Hampton studio.

Rockford has exhibited in group shows, including an Invitational Exhibit at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City in 2002, members shows at Guild Hall in East Hampton where she received an Honorable Mention in 2005, as well as group exhibitions of Photographers East and the Artist Alliance of East Hampton. Since September 2008, Rockford has had a two-person show at Walk Talk Gallery in East Hampton, which was the first time her paintings were shown, and a three-person show at the Crazy Monkey Gallery in Amagansett.

A Greenwich Village resident, Rockford practiced law in New York City for more than 20 years. While there were many creative aspects to the practice, she also spent free time studying the arts. Trained in black and white film photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and video production at Global Village in SoHo, Rockford also studied color theory and drawing, painting with oils, and drawing at the New School in New York City, as well as painting workshops in Woodstock, NY, and digital workshops in the Hamptons. This was supplemented by countless hours spent in national and international museums.

"Anemones" Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

Rockford states, "My first love was black and white portraiture. Lacking my own darkroom space, I developed film by using the crazy technique of unspooling film blind in a changing bag into a developing canister and rented darkroom space in Chelsea so that I could make my own prints."

"Then a friend in Wainscott gave me a digital camera as a gift and a love affair with the color and gorgeous natural beauty of the East End became an obsession with landscapes of all sorts." She continues, "After a while, though, the 'clean' aspects of digital work became frustrating. The fact that I never touched anything but a camera and a keyboard, and the precision of the process, wasn't satisfying."

"As a result I began a series of acrylic, multi-textured pieces on canvas and linen that uses a process best described as 'rising to the surface,' that is, letting the medium take the piece to its natural end. While I often begin with a specific palette or theme, I try to let the canvas and the medium direct me."

When did you start making art and what medium(s) do you consider to be your roots in art?

Susan Rockford: I started making art in college with creative writing. Words are something I've always loved. I've written short stories and a screenplay. I also loved the visuals of video and photography and studied at one of the pioneer video documentary centers, Global Village, in SoHo, in the early 1980s.

My early work with black and white film photography eventually evolved into digital, which I initially found very exciting. I taught myself Photoshop and the range of possibilities for creating images was astounding.

"Archipelago" Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

On one project I combined the two - a small series on the post-Katrina Mardi Gras incorporated black and white Holga film images, which are very primitive and uncontrolled, with digitally shot images.

I suppose my 'roots' in art, and perhaps particularly my painting, are also grounded in my love of looking at art, in galleries, museums, etc. What excited me and interested me most were the texture of paint and strong, intelligent collage and combination.

I chose to work with acrylics in my painting because of the availability of such a broad range of mediums - gels, glazes, and pastes of different finishes and consistencies. It's interesting that I chose acrylics because of the myriad possibilities for texture, when many of the early users of acrylics actually used them for their flatness and ability to be 'more one' with the canvas. I also like the immediacy of the dry time, which becomes quite manageable since most of the mediums act as 'extenders' and give you a reasonable time to work with the pigment.

In painting, my process is really about extracting some meaning from the mediums by layering them. The end pieces are all 'landscapes' in the sense that they represent some topography, whether it's psychological or physical, or both. I choose the palette, but the rest I try to keep as 'random' as possible in the sense that I choose the medium to use as I go. I also try not to manipulate an image when the medium begins to 'look like something' (although that's difficult sometimes) and, of course, every time I apply something, or wipe it away, or tear it off, it's a choice, isn't it? It's the way Pollack's process looks random, when, after all, he was the one in control of throwing the paint.

"Mardi Gras" Digital pigment print, 2008.

What is it about the Hamptons that brought you here and enticed you to stay, work, and pursue your art as opposed to some place else?

SR: I'm working out here because it's beautiful and I love the sea. This is where I settled after spending many summer and winter weekends while working as a lawyer in NYC. When I first moved out here full-time three years ago, I owned a home on Shelter Island and lived there for two years. It was too isolated for year-round living, so I moved recently to Sag Harbor.

I live in the Village [Sag Harbor] and find it a good balance of country and town. After I sold my studio on Shelter Island, I rented space at the "Milking Parlor" of an old barn in East Hampton. The windows face west and, while not always ideal for painting, the late afternoon light is stunning.

How do you support yourself as an artist?

SR: My art supports me spiritually and intellectually. Money is a different matter.

Why live and work in the Hamptons as opposed to elsewhere?

SR: It has great beauty and serenity and connection to a sophisticated urban center. And my daughter, Jennifer, who coordinates Special Events for the Ross School, lives here.

What local environmental or historical aspects of the Hamptons do you relate to that may be reflected in your medium?

"Mardi Gras Hand" Digital pigment print, 2008.

SR: While many of my digital pieces are traditional landscapes, my painting in particular is not about the famous 'light' of the East End, although I know that my palette has been influenced by my surroundings. And subconsciously I know I 'see' and encourage more natural aspects of the local landscape in the work as it evolves than I would if I were still living in Manhattan or in industrial Long Island City where I spent three years before settling out here permanently (the beginning of my eastward migration).

What artists do you feel have influenced you and your work?

SR: In terms of 'museum' artists, Rauschenberg comes to mind, and Cornell's boxes; also the inexplicable emotional impact of Beuys' wax and felt pieces - and I was always moved by the raw, unfinished quality of some 'Outsider Art.' In terms of local artists, I find James Kennedy's work at the Surface Library in Springs extraordinary.

What advice would you give an emerging artist?

"Tribute to Poet" Acrylic on canvas, 2008.

SR: I would have to say that I'm an emerging artist, particularly with regard to my painting. There is no obvious relationship between the two-dimensional photographic images I had been doing and the textural paintings I've been doing recently. Although both the paintings and the photographic images beckon you to "see what's there," the paintings do so by creating a surface of physical layers. My advice to others would simply be to follow your instincts.

What gives you an edge (if any)?

SR: If I have an edge, it's some ability to not be self-conscious about my work. I think my yoga practice has something to do with that.

What are you working on now, and are you involved in any upcoming shows or exhibitions?

SR: I'm still working with acrylic textures, on a slightly larger scale. I'm scheduled to have my first solo show at the Levitas Center for the Arts at the Southampton Cultural Center from April 13 through April 26.

 • To visit Rockford's site visit http://web.mac.com/susrock