Susan Kliewer
Susan Kliewer is a native of Southern California, but has made Arizona her home for forty years. She spent five of those years at Marble Canyon Trading Post in a remote area of Northern Arizona, adjacent to the Navajo Reservation. A painter since the age of ten, Susan turned to sculpting in 1987, after working in an art casting foundry for ten years.
In 1993 Susan won a competition to create a monument of Sedona Schnebly for the City of Sedona, Arizona. The ten-foot high sculpture of her town’s namesake was installed in front of the Sedona Library in 1994. Since then, many more monuments have been commissioned and installed in the United States and Europe. Susan is currently working on fourteen, two thirds life sized sculptures for the Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens and Sculpture Park on Kauai, Hawaii depicting a Navajo family settlement.
Among the numerous prizes and awards she has won, Susan is especially proud of the Governor’s Award at the Cowgirl Up Show in 2007 as well as in 2012, First Place for Sculpture in 2008, and the People’s Choice Award in 2012 also at Cowgirl Up held annually at the Desert Caballeros Museum, Wickenburg, Arizona. She is also the recipient of the Olaf Wieghorst Award presented at the Mountain Oyster Club Contemporary Western Art Show in Tucson and the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for sculpture at the Western Artists of America’s museum shows. In 2009 Susan won both First Place for three dimensional art and Best of Show at the Sedona Arts Center Member’s Show; and in November of 2009, she once again won the Olaf Wieghorst,(Best of Show) Award at the 40th annual Mountain Oyster Club Show in Tucson.
Susan is represented by Mountain Trails Galleries in Sedona, Arizona, Jackson, Wyoming, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Park City, Utah; Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona; Heritage Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona; Len Wood’s Indian Territory in Laguna Beach, California; and Cogswell Gallery in Vail, Colorado.
Susan often uses her Native American friends and relatives as models to capture that special intimacy which is a hallmark of her work. Her depictions of Indians, cowboys and cowgirls in everyday life from the past as well as the present are, as one critic said; “Truly heartfelt”. “My work aims to show the common thread that underlies all human experience, and which, I hope brings us to a greater understanding between all people.”
Source: Mountain Trails Galleries
The Gift
Artist: Susan Kliewer
Description: Bronze (1992) | Dimensions: 18”h x 17”w x 9 ½"d; AP #2
Originally from Southern California, Susan Kliewer has spent more than forty years living in Arizona; the first five of which were managing the Marble Canyon Trading Post in Northern Arizona adjacent to the Navajo Reservation. Much of her work reflects her time spent there, her knowledge of Navajo culture, the land and most especially its people.
Though Susan was a painter early on, her sculpting transition became firmly rooted in 1987 after working in a bronze foundry for ten years with famed Arizona sculptors John Hampton, Joe Beeler, Buck McCain and many others. Mentored by Ken Ottinger at the Sedona Arts Center and obtaining formal anatomy instruction at NAU steadily established her technical abilities. Susan’s aspirations rose when she combined her technical skills with the love, respect, and admiration she felt for the Navajo that provided the subject matter inspiration.
“My work aims to show the common thread that underlies all human experience, and which, I hope, brings us to a greater understanding between all peoples.” And “The Gift” embodies that sentiment. Within the Navajo culture the gift of sheep is a gift of life. It provides sustenance that is deeply rooted in tradition and culture. Sheep are tended to, sheared, the wool cleaned and then spun into yarn, and rugs, blankets and clothing are woven from it. Lastly, but not least, it is a food staple.
Sisters from Cedar Ridge
Artist: Susan Kliewer
Description: Bronze (1997) | 9”h x 15”w x 7”d
