Susan Kristoferson

Everything that Susan Kristoferson creates is based on the relationship of parts.  The relationships may be personal, environmental, philosophical, color and design, or even from aspects of astrophysics.  For Susan it is the relationships between parts, between atoms, and between people, that are the basis and important elements and aspects of life.

Susan hand paints and dyes papers to create an extensive palette for her unique collages and fine craft objects.   Starting at the age of 4 or 5 Susan began a lifetime of  being a maker.  She had an early interest in sewing and textiles and has earned BFA and MFA degrees.

She is skilled in textile arts and hand paper-making and has been an art teacher, art professor, and head of a college fibre arts program. She now works with specialty papers that often look like fabric.  Shown in more than 200+ exhibits, her work is in collections across the US, in Japan and Canada.

Specializing in unique hand dyed and painted papers, Susan creates complex collage “paintings” and unique paper objects such as origami ornaments, blank books, notecards and jewelry.  She sells her sheets of hand decorated paper and packages of “off cuts” and overpainted scrapbook papers for other people to use.  Susan is writing a book about the history of paste paper based on 30 years of research and study at over 40 rare book and rare paper collections around the world.  She also up cycles materials to make useful items.

Her work can be found in Alberta at Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond, Collectors’ Gallery in Calgary, and at the two Alberta Craft Council Galleries which are in Calgary and Edmonton.  In 2020 sixty-one of her unique hand decorated papers were acquired by the Legacy Paper Collection of the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City. 

She has lived in England, Denmark, in several places in the US, and now happily lives in the southern Alberta Foothills with an inspirational view of the foothills and Rockies from her hilltop home and studio. 

Paste Papers

Collages

Itajame

Historic Reproduction Paste Papers

“The possibilities for unending creative invention paired with skilled craftsmanship and happenstance intrigue me. I find them seductively lurking in the creation of paste papers and itajime papers. So much so, that I have been studying and working with paste papers since 1990 and with shibori (Japanese tie dye) since 1977.” 

Vistas of the West is a collection of poetry and visual art that celebrates the beauty and spirit of the Rocky Mountains, Western foothills, prairie landscapes, and the natural inhabitants of these beautiful environments. A special edition is available that includes a CD of poetry readings by featured poets and a limited edition print.

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