Susan Aaron-Taylor

Susan Aaron-Taylor ( Aaron; born July 1947) is an American artist who creates mixed-media sculptures. For forty years she was a professor at the Crafts Department of the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan. Her work is abstract and surreal, stemming from alchemy and focusing on story-telling with dream-like qualities.

Biography Susan Aaron was born in July 1947 in Brooklyn, New York. She lives and creates art works in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan.

Career She earned a Bachelor of Science at Wayne State University and a Master of Fine Arts at Cranbrook Academy of Art. and Professor of the Crafts Department at the College for Creative Studies for over 40 years When she retired, Aaron-Taylor was granted emeritus status.

Aaron-Taylor is known for her artworks that draw inspiration from her knowledge of alchemy, story-telling, chemistry, Jungian psychology, philosophy, archetypes, and the Collective Unconscious. and her work has been included in permanent as well as private collections.

Style and technique Aaron-Taylor has created a body of artwork that consists of modest-sized sculptural objects which depict fantasy-like figures recalled from her dreams, including dogs, cats and other small creatures. The distortions from the anatomical correctness of the objects results from a practice of using tree roots, affixing felt in multiple colors for the basis of the core figure's form. She hand-processes her own felt. which she uses emulate an animal's pelt. She incorporates other natural and man-made materials, such as gemstones, pieces of metal, teeth and bone.

One of Aaron-Taylor's most prominent work was in the Dreamscapes and Soul Shards series which focuses on the psychology of marriage, dreams, and turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. The Soul Shards series focuses on the retrieval of these broken pieces of soul.

My dreams have been sourcing my creative life for over three decades. I continue to delight in discovering their essence, distilling and then sharing that one magical moment. My goal is to create clear, psychologically charged vignettes... I play with the symbols in my dreams as I embrace and tease out images from my unconscious that inspire and bring forth poignancy, humor and meaning. Significant works Deity series Dreamscape series Threshold series Soul Shard series Endangered Species Series

Shows and collections Selected one-person exhibitions Soul Shard #30, 2006; Wayne State University Art Permanent Collection, Detroit, MI Deity VIII, 1990; Cranbrook Art Museum Permanent Collection No. CAM 1992.17, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Renaissance Center, Commissioned Wall Relief - Westin Hotels, Detroit, MI K-Mart Corporation, Permanent Collection, Troy, MI Green, Roger. "Personal Paths In her mixed-media sculptures, Susan Aaron-Taylor re-creates the landscape of her dreams, informed by Carl Jung's spiritually charged concepts." American Craft Council 70, no. 6 (2010):30. ISSN 0194-8008.