VITA

Originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, Sue Sommers came to Pinedale, Wyoming in 1992. She makes paintings, etchings and handmade books and lives on a cattle ranch on the Upper Green River.

Education

University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
MFA, Painting 1992

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
BFA, Printmaking 1982

Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts 1977-79

Honors and Awards

2005 Juror, Wyoming Artists' Association Annual Exhibit, Pinedale, Wyoming.

1999 Visual Arts Fellowship, Wyoming Arts Council. Jurors: Peter Frank, Olivia Parker, Boris Bally

Solo and Two-Person Exhibits

2008 Inspired by the Wind River Range, Theatre Gallery, Jackson Hole Art Center, Jackson, Wyoming

2007 New Landscape Paintings, Pinedale Library, Pinedale, Wyoming

2000 Open Book, book art installation and workshop at Business of Art Center, Manitou Springs, Colorado.

1997 A Box of New Kittens, interactive installation with Ranchester artist Jessica Holt, Western Wyoming Community College, Rock Springs, Wyoming.

1994 Dolls and Puppets for a New Passion Play, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.

1993 The Little Gallery, Nazareth College, Rochester, New York

1992 University Center Gallery, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.

Selected Group Exhibits

2008 The Heap, the Pile, the Layer, the Metaphor, Lander Art Center, Lander, Wyoming

2008 Labor of Love, Art Association of Jackson Hole, Jackson, Wyoming

2006 Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition, Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, Wyoming

2006 The Story Within - A Dialogue Among Artists, traveling book art exhibit

2006 Culture & Agriculture, New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, Wisconsin

2004 Culture & Agriculture, New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, Wisconsin

2004 Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition, Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, Wyoming

2004 Print & Paper, Wyoming Arts Council Gallery, Cheyenne, Wyoming

2003 Under Cover: Book Arts, St Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis, Missouri

2003 Culture & Agriculture, New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, Wisconsin

1999 Six Wyoming Artists: 1998-99 Visual Arts Fellowship Exhibition, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming.

1997 Wyoming Works Prizewinners, 3-person exhibit, Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, Wyoming.

1997 Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Invitational, Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.

1996 Wyoming Book Artists Invitational, Wyoming Arts Council Gallery, Cheyenne, Wyoming (traveled).

1996 Wyoming Works, Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, Wyoming (Honorable Mention).

1995 Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Invitational, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C

Selected Projects

2007 Between Fences - Fenceposts Public Sculpture Project, Sublette County Library, Pinedale, Wyoming. Assisted library staff and Pinedale sculptor David Klarén to develop a local response (utilizing fenceposts donated by area ranches) to the Smithsonian Institution/Wyoming Council for the Humanities program. Donated two fencepost sculptures.

1998-2000 Bat Wings Are Night Things (Murcielagos: Amigos Vuelan de Noche), Illustrator. With environmental artist Lynne Hull, trans. by Ana Arias Terry. Educational comic book and poster about the importance of bats to agriculture and the ecosystem; for distribution as a free classroom teaching aid in Mexico. With scientific assistance from Michele Eveleyn and David Stiles of Stanford University; funding from the U.S. Mexico Fund for Culture, Fonda Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, the Rockefeller Foundation and Fundación Cultural Bancomer.

1994-96 Live Turkeys, Karmic Book of the Wild West, Editor, publisher and illustrator of photocopied zine. Five issues.

1993-94 Cattle/Text Interaction: A Project for Sublette County, Wyoming, Grant writer and collaborator for public art performance (inscribing a local pioneer ranchwoman's journal entry on 56 pregnant cows in Boulder, Wyoming); travelling exhibit of video and photographs. Supported by a 1993 New Forms: Regional Initiative grant to Kunstwaffen Art Group, Pinedale, Wyoming.

1992, 1993 Summer Assistant in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado. Assisted instructors James Drake, Charles Garabedian, Roberto Juarez, Maura Sheehan, Buzz Spector, Christopher French, Pat Oleszko, John Torreano, Tim Berry, and others. Collaborated with artist Lamar Briggs on a series of one-of-a-kind artist's books.