Susan McIntyre Bricolage: recycle, reuse, reconstruct September 5 - 25, 2008 (Back to exhibition page) The title of the exhibit is Bricolage: recycle, reuse and reconstruct. Bricolage: the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things which happen to be available; a work created by such a process As an ever evolving mixed media artist Susan McIntyre works in a variety of mediums. For over 15 years she has been practicing mixed media techniques and likes to combine them to create unusual and amusing objects. Mediums she has studied include painting, printmaking, collage, paper making and altering and reconstructing books. Most recently she has been working with found objects, mostly what someone else has discarded. For Susan, art is all about the process. She loves color and texture and watching things evolve. The idea of Bricolage came to her after a visit to a folk art museum in Osaka, Japan in 2005. That exhibit was all about using whatever you find at hand to create dwelling place, furniture, and useful as well as artistic objects. Shortly after she moved to Iowa, Susan discovered the joys of auctions. This was an entirely new way of acquiring odd and unique objects. At one auction she purchased an entire table of books, mostly Reader's Digest Condensed books and encyclopedias. After that she set out to think of how many different ways an artist can use books. From another auction she brought home buckets of rusty car parts. Her latest favorite material is silver plated flatware especially spoons. In 2006 Susan created a 4 x 6 inch collage or drawing every day of the year as a part of an online group project. She belongs to a number of online artist groups where she participates in swaps and round robins. Susan studied art at Brazosport Community College, Watercolor Arts Society of Houston, New Mexico Highlands University, Santa Fe Community College and Valley Ridge Art Studio in Wisconsin. She has had workshops with Mary Todd Beam, Gerald Brommer, Michael de Meng and Juliana Coles. Susan and her husband, John, live in Grinnell with their 3 dogs. They delight in the variety of activities available here and love spending time with their grandson.