Suzanne Keith Loechl

Secrets
oil on panel
10 x 24 in.

I draw inspiration from seemingly ordinary elements in the landscape that evoke a sense of human frailty, memory and nostalgia. Landscapes are like memories— layers upon layers of history are recorded in one person’s psyche or one plot of land. Like people, the landscape reinvents itself. It heals when it’s wounded, but sometimes it scars for life. Elements of the whole are nurtured or rubbed away. I endeavor to portray the landscape and those who live in it as strangely beautiful — yet enormously fragile. Laundry blowing in the breeze is the clothing worn by our mothers and grandmothers or the dresses that might have been worn by the daughters we never had. What I see in the Middle West landscape are journeys of infinite promise, profound sadness, nakedness and melancholy.

© Suzanne Keith Loechl