When fine artist Suzanne Stryk learned she had received a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts to create her own artistic interpretation of Thomas Jefferson’s 1785 book Notes on the State of Virginia, she was both excited and daunted: “What have I gotten myself into?” she wondered. “Virginia is so biologically and culturally rich. And how audacious to use Jefferson’s book for my series!”
But then she remembered Jefferson’s own words when he was asked to revise his book decades after writing the original. “The work itself is nothing more than the measure of a shadow, never stationary, but lengthening as the sun advances, and to be taken anew from hour to hour,” he wrote. “It must remain, therefore, for some other hand to sketch its appearance at another epoch.” Suzanne considered his use of the word “sketch” as a prophecy, she says, and with that, she dove in.
Four years after receiving the grant, Suzanne’s brilliant series of 26 assemblages Notes on the State of Virginia is touring the Commonwealth, much as she did during its creation. “Basically all I knew was that I was going to do a series of mixed media works on topographic maps,” she says. “I knew I would visit each site, draw there a lot, collect, make notes and just absorb – just be open to all the different environmental and historical things I would experience, people I would meet, animals I would observe – and from that I would create a piece.” Each image in the series offers viewers the full range of sensory experiences, creating the sense that they have visited the sites themselves.
The series is irresistibly tactile. With actual ferns, plants, leaves, insects, ground stone, coal, clay and other samples from each site incorporated into the pieces, it’s like experiencing the sites firsthand – with the added benefit of viewing a masterful artistic composition.
The series retains the historical factor, yet at the same time, Suzanne brings it very much into the 21st century. “Bridge,” her take on Southwestern Virginia’s Natural Bridge, demonstrates the breadth and scope of this artist’s vision and tells a very intricate story while still allowing for the viewer’s own interpretation. The foundation for this piece and for 13 others in the series is a U.S. Geological Survey topographic map – something Suzanne has always found artistically enticing. Using ground stone collected from the bridge itself, she made mineral-based watercolor, which she painted onto clear Mylar.
Suzanne’s depiction of Natural Bridge with the genomic sequences of a swallow suggests the connections between all living things. “We’re all connected by similar chemicals in our genes” says Suzanne. “We’re all made of the same stuff. The title of the piece, ‘Bridge,’ implies this and the link between past and present.”
Traveling by car, foot, and even kayak, Suzanne visited Virginia’s Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge and Appalachian Plateau regions. After each trip, she would return to her studio in Bristol to begin construction of the pieces, relying on samples, drawings, notes and the visceral experiences fresh in her mind.
Suzanne is often asked if she studied science, art, or both. “I wanted to be an artist or a field biologist,” she says. “These two interests have been playing tug-of-war all my life.” Art eventually won out, and Suzanne graduated with a degree in art history and painting. “Art suits my need to interpret the natural world, to integrate science and spirit, fact with imagination. So I think I’m happiest as an artist, yet I constantly flirt with science,” she says. “I wrote all my research papers in college on how art represents nature throughout the ages and in many different cultures.”
She worked as a scientific illustrator for a bit but says “it didn’t involve enough interpretation for me to be totally satisfied with it,” so she devoted her life to fine art. She is greatly inspired by Russian icons and has loosely translated them into many of her designs.
Parts of the Virginia exhibit are interactive, and Suzanne considers it egalitarian. “It’s not just for the art world, it’s for everyone. I’d really like people to feel welcomed and involved . . . I’d like to contribute to people’s ability to integrate their experience. What is science, art, history and travel if not combined with personal reflection? And why do we separate these subjects anyway? To me, real learning is not the same as memorizing facts – it’s integrating facts into full and rich experiences.”
