DKNY 261 _ 259 42nd Street by Stephen
Daks : That’s great. So, let’s start now with Susan. Can you talk a little bit about your artistic background up to the point where you met Stephen? Susan : Well, you know my Italian dad and my Japanese godmother were both artists. I have a lot of artists in my family. I did a lot of creating when I very young. I grew up in Brooklyn and we had a Tatami room. My dad would teach me watercolour and my godmother would bring me origami papers that I would cut up and rip. In high school, I was in the fashion club, and I would make up my own sketches of clothes that I’d want to make. That was kind of letting out my creativity at that point. Then I started painting when I started working for DIOR menswear. The designers were in the backroom and they would show me how to make the patterns, and then I would go home after working in the city and I was drawing all kinds of things and a lot of collage. It was just something that I had to do.
I was painting when I moved to PA, and it was when I got divorced that I decided that this is what I really want to do. I needed to explore this more. I’ll never forget; I got on the Internet and I saw Stephen’s website and his photos of New York City were there, and I was curious to know about that and I messaged him and we started talking. Daks : Stephen, you were still in London at that time. You came to visit me didn’t you? Stephen : You’re part of the connection because I came to visit you, and then I went to meet Susan. Susan : I picked you up at the airport to bring you over to Michael’s. Stephen : You’re the central connection there, because if you hadn’t been in New York, then I probably wouldn’t have made the journey over and met Susan. Susan : Oh gee, thanks! Stephen : I trained as a painter in England but then spent most of my time doing photography projects. I was really into Aaron Siskind and that abstract expressionist type of photography, appropriating marks from my natural surroundings.
120
Powered by FlippingBook