Artist: Susan Rios
Title:Feel The Hope
Edition Size:165
Medium: Iris Giclee on canvas
Image Dimensions: 16"x12"
About the Artist: Susan Rios is an artist living and working in a cozy home studio that nestles up to Griffith Park, California. Her artwork reflects that coziness, drawing the viewer in for a stroll in the garden, a cup of tea, or a long overdue rest in a quiet place. She sees her paintings as metaphors for a state of mind. These days, when we are all so crazy-busy. quiet time seems self indulgent. as best. Yet Susans intention is to encourage the viewer to take time to connect with positive feelings through a visually pleasing image. People often tell me they live living with my paintings because they make them feel happy, peaceful, or calm, that is my deliberate intent. Susan Says. She visually tries to give the viewer that feeling, the peace and space to feel quiet and connected. To look at a Susan Rios painting is to be whisked away to another world, one of beauty, tranquility, and harmony. Yet the settings are somehow very familiar, evoking a feeling of being at home at the same time. Like you never ever left your own backyard. Susans art shows that the best life has to offer is available to each and every one of us if we take the time to connect with it.
About the Art: With the image I painted, I envision the end result: a world where women are free of breast cancer. Standing in a field that stretches out before her, a woman celebrates her life, her world, and is gloriously grateful and free. She celebrates the moment, because she is living now, in that moment, and the doves flying above her confirm that "God is in His Heaven, and all is right with the world". The journal on the table in the painting represents a life story. Each of us has our own path to follow, and our own story of our "heroes journey", as Joseph Campbell said. The book is locked with a heart-shaped lock, representing the love in our lives. The key is on a pink ribbon, which of course, represents breast cancer awareness. The key, for me, also represents my own motto for living, which is: "Magic is in Believing. Belief is found within the heart. This is the key that opens the door to our heart's desire. We cannot always control our circumstances, but we can most certainly control our attitude and our actions in each challenge. With God's help, our Higher Power, the Universe, call it what you want, there is a loving presence there to help and guide us, if we allow it into our lives, and I do know this from personal experience. There IS magic in believing. Contribute to it, believe in it, feel the hope, and celebrate and envision with me, the outcome of a cancer-free world. -Susan Rios