Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Pandemic inspires ‘Faces’ exhibit
Local artist yearned to see faces under the masks
WEST CHESTER » For local artist Susan Curtin, the pandemic has become an eye-opening experience.
Curtin said her world was “upended like everybody else’s.” While most wore masks, the artist missed seeing faces on her regular walks around the borough.
Curtin’s yearning led to a 145-piece collection of pencil drawings now exhibited at the Church Street Gallery at 12 S. Church St. in West Chester.
Curtin asked neighbors to pull down their masks for an instant so she could snap a photo. She then created 9 by 12 inch pencil portraits at home on her easel, each during a three-day time period.
“I started noticing children’s birthday parties and drive-bys with thrown presents,” Curtin said, during a phone interview. “It made me so sad.
“The kids were insulated. I wanted to make a difference — maybe draw portraits of the children.”
She soon moved on to portray neighboring adults. She named her creations “Faces in the Neighborhood,” which then became “Faces of West Chester.”
The 70-year-old artist got to know her neighbors.
“I didn’t really know these people before the pandemic,” she said. “During the pandemic, and once I started drawing, I developed a deeper relationship and they became human beings to me.”
Some who posed said that Curtin, who has taught art for 35 years, went into more detail than required and sometimes showed too many wrinkles, while others were pleased with her work.
When Curtin, who has also worked with pastels, oils and sculpture posted her new portraits on Facebook, as part of a ten-day challenge, the response was very positive.
So how did Curtin change?
“I found out more about how I perceive people — it was a transformational thing,” she said. “And I got to know my neighbors.
“I appreciate living in this area. This is a very special place. The small interactions that we have every day, even if they are people we don’t know well, are important. To have those interactions makes you feel a part of the community.”
When Carol Giblin and her husband John Suplee, at Church Street Gallery, saw the drawings, they wanted to exhibit the work.
“I feel like COVID played a special role in these portraits,” Suplee said. “The practice of photo-based portraiture is very common and these drawings were made out of necessity in that genre.
“The extraordinary thing about them is that Susan has given them an incredible dose of humanity. They have a soul — possibly because we were feeling so separated at the time.”
The exhibit runs through July 9. For more information, go to www.churchstreetgallerywc.com.
For the exhibit, the gallery will be open from noon to 4 p.m., daily, except for Sunday when it is closed, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. For First Friday festivities on July 1, the gallery will be open from noon to 7 p.m.