Jubilee

Acrylic, dry pigment on paper, 30" x 22", 2026

I work in multimedia using wax, dry pigment, bits of metal or tin, photographs, copper, or easily accessible acrylic or oil paints. It includes assemblage pieces created from everyday items scavenged on city walks, my children's teeth or more traditional painting on canvas, wood or paper. My work centers on the relationship to place within the context of memory. I'm interested in mark making and the descriptive possibilities within whatever materials I have on hand. In that way they are not planned but a reaction to time and place.

Over time, the work becomes autobiographical in terms of balance: being a mother, a caregiver, a worker and/or an artist. Not necessarily in that order. Because these activities require a creative response to feed my soul or nuture another, I have a codependent personality in a good way. Codependence on community, family and friends, in a symbiotic relationship which feeds into and informs my work.

S. Clifford was born in Phoenix grew up in Anaheim and moved to Seattle as a teenager and graduated from the UW School of Art focused on printmaking and mixed media. She has received support from Artist Trust, 4Culture and KC Metro as well as Seniors Making Art. Her work has been seen in group and solo shows in Seattle, Tacoma, Fife and LaConner, and is included in private collections in the US, Germany and Canada. In between working jobs for a living, she managed to cofound a bookstore and art gallery in Belltown (Signature Bound); and founded an art program for seniors with dementia in West Seattle. For the past two decades she focused primarily on small mixed media, assemblage pieces but recently returned full time to painting. She also curates and directs Roberson Art Space, an art gallery in the lobby of the Roberson Building in downtown Tacoma. She can be reached at susancliffordart@gmail.com.