Sue Steele: Start Where You Are
Towards the end of art school Sue found herself isolated as a painter, and from mainstream art and society as a whole, so she took off across Europe on a quest to establish her identity. It was there that she discovered other underground, mainly self-taught artists, mostly from a travelling background, and together they created a new concept of art, artists, and places where art could be viewed, giving Sue the excitement and freedom that she craved. While in Berlin, Sue crossed paths with the Mutoid Waste Company, a performance arts group founded in London in the early eighties. They became a huge part of her life, heavily influencing the way she thought about and made art, and leading her to Mutonia, an arts commune in Rimini in Italy, where she became part of the collective of artists there.
Emerging from the pandemic and returning to Glasgow after the death of her dad, Sue found a lifeline in the form of Greencity Whole Foods, an ethically sourced, vegetarian food and drink wholesaler based in Dennistoun; a workers co-op, democratically run by its members since 1978. Greencity had been on Sue鈥檚 radar for some time, with many of her friends and her brother doing stints there over the years. She joined the team two years ago as an HGV driver, and has never looked back. Greencity was an oasis which gave her community, support, and purpose.
Sue wanted to celebrate her Greencity co-workers in a way that captured the energy of their shared workplace and that could articulate the hope and belief it inspired in her. Although Sue admits that the resulting portraits were initially challenging, she came to find the process deeply gratifying. The ever expanding collection of joyous, bright paintings are full of personality and clearly express the enthusiasm that Sue associates with her colleagues, and with Greencity.
The self-portraits featured in the show were painted by Sue during lockdown when she was, like so many of us, feeling isolated as an artist and losing her sense of self. The self-imposed discipline of creating daily enabled Sue to see her painting skills improving day by day; tangible progress in a world that had come to a standstill.
鈥淎 couple of years later I revisited the self-portraits and thought they were AWFUL. To me, they didn鈥檛 work as paintings, they were just bad self-portraits鈥� so, I tore them in half! When I collaged them back together, they sang out to me and finally turned into something I could identify with. They sat around for another year or so until I got them professionally framed, and now they鈥檙e on display here. They tell the story of a very personal journey. They are finished.鈥�
These constructed scenes are then photographed, by herself or by other photographers, and the resulting photographs wholly evoke the attitude and rawness that Sue so loves about punk.
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Towards the end of art school Sue found herself isolated as a painter, and from mainstream art and society as a whole, so she took off across Europe on a quest to establish her identity. It was there that she discovered other underground, mainly self-taught artists, mostly from a travelling background, and together they created a new concept of art, artists, and places where art could be viewed, giving Sue the excitement and freedom that she craved. While in Berlin, Sue crossed paths with the Mutoid Waste Company, a performance arts group founded in London in the early eighties. They became a huge part of her life, heavily influencing the way she thought about and made art, and leading her to Mutonia, an arts commune in Rimini in Italy, where she became part of the collective of artists there.
Emerging from the pandemic and returning to Glasgow after the death of her dad, Sue found a lifeline in the form of Greencity Whole Foods, an ethically sourced, vegetarian food and drink wholesaler based in Dennistoun; a workers co-op, democratically run by its members since 1978. Greencity had been on Sue鈥檚 radar for some time, with many of her friends and her brother doing stints there over the years. She joined the team two years ago as an HGV driver, and has never looked back. Greencity was an oasis which gave her community, support, and purpose.
Sue wanted to celebrate her Greencity co-workers in a way that captured the energy of their shared workplace and that could articulate the hope and belief it inspired in her. Although Sue admits that the resulting portraits were initially challenging, she came to find the process deeply gratifying. The ever expanding collection of joyous, bright paintings are full of personality and clearly express the enthusiasm that Sue associates with her colleagues, and with Greencity.
The self-portraits featured in the show were painted by Sue during lockdown when she was, like so many of us, feeling isolated as an artist and losing her sense of self. The self-imposed discipline of creating daily enabled Sue to see her painting skills improving day by day; tangible progress in a world that had come to a standstill.
鈥淎 couple of years later I revisited the self-portraits and thought they were AWFUL. To me, they didn鈥檛 work as paintings, they were just bad self-portraits鈥� so, I tore them in half! When I collaged them back together, they sang out to me and finally turned into something I could identify with. They sat around for another year or so until I got them professionally framed, and now they鈥檙e on display here. They tell the story of a very personal journey. They are finished.鈥�
These constructed scenes are then photographed, by herself or by other photographers, and the resulting photographs wholly evoke the attitude and rawness that Sue so loves about punk.
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