HUNTING & GATHERING
1990-2010
By the mid 1990s, computer art technology had advanced, and I discovered the flatbed scanner. It had an uncanny ability to transform flowers from my garden into a 17th century Dutch still-life painting of exquisite detail, bathed in soft light. Like the Dutch, who painted impossible bouquets of flowers from different seasons, I could also create fictional “ecosystems.” By layering imagery from my camera, scanner, and the generous new world of creative commons, Hunting and Gathering contemplates the beauty and hazards of nature, and its collision with culture.
“Working With Dreams” 2010 exhibition commentary by Lindsey Kouvaris, Curator, De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA “In these works Felter brings flora and fauna to life in (un)natural ways that artfully blend photography, computer technology, and the 17th century Dutch flower paintings, as well as their vanitas still life tradition, which featured symbols of the brevity of life, such as skulls, rotting fruit, smoke, and timepieces. Acting as a hunter and gatherer herself, Felter scours beaches, forests, and her own backyard for specimens to cast in her vivid photographic montages.”
“Post-Natural Ecosystems: Technological Interventions in the California Landscape” 2003 by Andrea Pappas, Associate Professor of Art & Art History, Santa Clara University “Examining the impact of humans as witting and unwitting agents of ecological destruction, metamorphosis, and renewal, Felter's images take a close look at the populations of our "new" backyards.Titles such as Burmese Albino Python, Plum and California Butterflies invoke classical transcendental meanings for western landscapes by referencing traditional lapsarian imagery. The result is a hybrid of painting and photography: the source material is photographic, but the artist’s process and traditions she invokes historically belong to painting. These homologies between the pictures’ subjects and surfaces implicate both artist and viewer in the search for the 'natural'.”
Publications
2009. Orion Magazine, “Digital Garden: Montages by Susan Felter,” print & online
2007. Stretcher Magazine, “Visit with Susan Felter: Post-Natural Ecology,” by Fred Setterberg
2002. Pappas, Andrea. “Post-Natural Ecosystems: Technological Interventions in the California Landscape.” Western Landscapes panel, American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM
Solo Exhibitions
2015. FredFOTOarts Gallery, Susan Felter : Retrospective on Three Screens, Fredericksburg, VA
2010. de Saisset Museum, Working With Dreams: Susan Felter 1978–2010, Santa Clara, CA
2007. de Saisset Museum, Experience Teaches, Santa Clara, CA
2006. 871 Fine Arts Gallery, Paint & Pixels, San Francisco (two person show)
2006. Sanchez Art Center, Paint & Pixels, Pacifica, CA (two person show)
Group Exhibitions
2024. Gray Loft Gallery, Pretty in Pink, Oakland, CA
2015. Oakland Museum of California, Who Is Oakland?, Oakland, CA
2009. Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Assemblage+Collage+Construction, Santa Cruz, CA
2009. de Saisset Museum, Natural Blunders, Santa Clara, CA
2007. Syracuse University, Santa Clara University Photo Exchange Exhibit, Florence, Italy
2004. Byrnes Institute, German-American Center, Santa Clara University Artists, Stuttgart, Germany
2003. Institute of Contemporary Art, Bytes & Pieces: The Art of Contemporary Collage, San Jose, CA
2003. Otaru Museum of Art, Otaru; Continental Gallery, Pacific Rim Art Now, Sapporo, Japan
2000. Triton Museum of Art, Winter Work, Santa Clara, CA
2000. Southeast Museum of Photography, Fresh Work 3, Daytona Beach, FL