About the Artist
Susan Tilt planned to be an artist from the age of nine and after taking a bit of a circuitous route, she’s living out that plan, and that dream. Susan grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, attended the University of Kentucky, and married a naval officer. Her husband’s career took them up and down the East Coast, to the Gulf Coast, Somerset, England, New Orleans, and Northern Virginia just outside Washington, D.C. where they currently reside.
Susan graduated summa cum laude from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia with a degree in Studio Art. She was selected as Honor Graduate of the Art Department in 1997 and the recipient of a purchase award by the college; one of her photographs remains in the permanent collection of MWC, now The University of Mary Washington. Susan also studied at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., Delgado College in New Orleans, Northern Virginia Community College, and currently at The Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Today Susan works in both fiber and paint; techniques and mediums sometimes merge. Her emphasis is on contemporary liturgical art with a strong focus on vestments, altarpieces, banners and hangings, small art quilts, and paintings in oil and acrylic. She accepts commissions for liturgical pieces that she designs and crafts incorporating ideas, imagery, music, poetry, and other text requested by the recipients into one of a kind works of art.
Susan is a member of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Springfield, Virginia but is an ecumenical artist with recent work at The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. and The First Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Havana, Cuba.
Artist Statement
My creativity is a gift and a treasure, and I feel the power of the Holy Spirit alive in my work, beside me as I work, and responsible for the spontaneity with which I make art. Where else could it come from? The results always surprise me. It has to come not just from me, but from the Spirit, too.
I am intrigued by phrases and ideas derived from everyday life that spark the imagination, and with the help of the Spirit, emerge as images and abstractions. Some work is driven by concerns and a very real need to respond, other work is from funny things that happen and the little pleasures or frustrations that come into our lives every day. Some work is simply a colorful dance.It is my hope that my vestments and altarpieces will add to the beauty and texture of liturgies and services as visual prayer.
My wish is that my art will speak to others, perhaps in a different voice than the one I hear or use. That’s part of the joy of creating. I want others to feel free to enjoy my art in their own way.