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SUSANA ARIAS, SCULPTOR

Susana Arias, a native of Panama living in Santa Cruz, is an internationally recognized artist. She has a BFA from Tulane University in New Orleans. Her work is in the permanent collection of museums in the United States and Latin America.

Susana Arias working on the Sailmaker series

Arias has lectured and taught workshops in Universities and Museums in the United States and Latin America and has participated in Symposiums in many Latin American countries

Some of her awards are, 2013 Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year given by the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission, in 2012 Project of the Year at Beach Area Roundabout for her sculpture installation Creatures of the Bay in Depot Park, Santa Cruz, CA., in 1997 the Santa Cruz Archaeological Society Presidential award for “Artistic Achievement and Advancement of Archaeological Awareness” and the “Environs Award” from Cal Trans for her Public art sculpture Finding our Past, in 1988 a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for her sculpture series Earthworks.

Susana has a strong interest in Public Art and working with the community. She worked with Gateway Students on a traffic circle on King Street Light time, a working sundial; with 150 third graders, on the tiles around the new the Santa Cruz Police department; with Aptos Jr. High students she created Sentry an architectural ceramic sculpture; and she has created many painted and ceramic murals at different schools around Santa Cruz County.

She has a firm conviction in education and sharing her love for the arts; to this end she organized Art Extravaganza at Sierra Azul Nursery and gardens in Watsonville in 2009 and Experience Clay at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz in 2011 each a weekend of free demos and workshops by 30 artists. In 2016 she created Art in the Arboretum a series of outdoor sculpture exhibitions at UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.

Susana’s sculptures represent the process of entropy. The corroding looks of the surfaces combined with the disjointed elements create a feeling of disorganized order that gives the sculptures the appearance of found objects of antiquity, a feeling of having been unearthed. Affirming the undeniable existence of entropy and the beauty of deterioration.

Using clay fired with oyster shells, copper wire and steel shavings mixed with the glazes Arias makes her vision of corrosion.