Artist Statement

What Chance Allows

My paintings grow out of a pre-occupation with the ongoing crisis in the North Atlantic fishery and my engagement with my heritage as a Nova Scotian with roots in the fishing communities on the South Shore.

Drawing on the rough beauty of the fisherman’s world, Cape Island boats, baiting tables, sheds tools and implements. I try to bring a boldness to my painting, looking for hard truths, not delicate renderings. I see my paintings as a kind of record keeping: at once an exploration of difficult contemporary realities and expression of hope through colour saturation.

There is a connotation of local culture and stuff of place. My thought processes and work focuses on what I call localism - local culture on communities  as well as the folk tradition inherent in this culture, a rich sources of inspiration for my own paintings.

I seized on the kind of gruff beauty of the Cape Island boats shown here through deconstructing the elements of the boats, large and weighty. Hopefully these paintings speak to the individuality and defiant spirit of the boats and the men who make their living on them.

May the five fine young men of Woods Harbour, who went out in one of these Cape Island boats and did not return, rest in peace and may their families find some form comfort knowing there was nothing they could have done to help them in the violent seas they encountered.

Biography

Su Rogers was born in Halifax, NS. She is a graduate NSCAD, where she majored in painting and art history. Su has been active during the past three decades as a practicing and exhibiting artist.

Her paintings have appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. As well, her work is represented in many public and private collections, including the Nova Scotia Art Bank, City of Ottawa Art Collection, Nepean Art Collection, and Carleton University Collection.

Su has been the recipient of a Canada Council Project Grant 2013, several Canada Council Travel Grants, Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Grant and several City of Ottawa Project Grants throughout her career.

Her work has also appeared on book covers for Oberon, Mosaic, Carleton University Press, and other Canadian literary presses.