Rapeeporn “susu” Pianchuchupattana was born in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to the United States in August 2002 to pursue a formal education in painting. She graduated from the New York Studio School and got a full fellowship as a participant at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Susu won many awards including Hohenberg Travel Grant and full scholarship – Drawing Marathon in Orvieto, Italy. She then took a chance to travel to Italy during the summer 2006. Currently she lives and works in New York City.

Artist Statement
My current work is inspired by my Italy trip and intensive artist retreat to Skowhegan woods where I quickly found that nature is never still, never calm, but always vibrating, violent and ever-changing. These are paintings of the constant current flowing through all life and I have tried to capture certain moments when nature collides with itself. Exercises in maintaining an open channel for this energy, my work is all about the immediacy of painting outdoors, combined with memory and imagination. I am a city person and was incensed by the beauty and the mystery of land I never get to see.

A twelve-year career in advertising that involved extensive traveling exposed me to the world’s most exciting cities. Cities are a great source of inspiration and my desire to find and paint an inner peace has been brought into stark relief by the many physical and emotional challenges of this way of life. I am not a religious artist nor do I focus on religious themes in my painting, but I am from the Buddhist nation of Thailand and my country’s spiritual views do inform the way I see the world and the manner in which I approach my work.

It is clear looking at my development as a painter over the past five years that my work has evolved from more strongly representational forms to the abstract. As my influences amass, my ability expands, and my ideas grow, it seems that a balance of both styles needs to be found. It is a journey from the familiar into the unfamiliar and where I want to paint is in the space between.