In my youth, drawing fascinated me for hours. I just loved it. It is the foundation of any good painting, and armed with a new vision and desire to explore my own artistic creations, I'm very excited that I chose to pick up a pencil & brush again after an absence of 25 years.

It’s been both a rewarding and illuminating journey. I was choosen from my gradeschool to attend the Art Gallery of Ontario School and participate in a special program for young artists. Later, at York University, I studied under Ronald Bloore, a well known minimalist painter, and Michael Semak in photography. In fact, my interest in photography, film processing and printing began at that time, and profoundly changed the way I look at imagery.

In 1980 I was offered a position as a photography assistant to a well known Toronto photographer. The opportunity to experience a working photo studio was very exciting, and launched a move into the photography industry at one of the largest studios in Canada. I learned the entire commercial process of art making and became aware of an altogether different way of seeing, working on the production side of the commercial machine as a successful prop stylist, studio assistant, wardrobe stylist, sometimes even location scout. Replicating historic or modern day settings and wardrobe as the scripts demanded has been exciting, exposing me to various art mediums throughout my career, spanning the processes of film, to our digital present. It has inspired and developed my visual sensibility.

Having been fortunate to work with several of the leading commercial photographers, I've adopted a mosaic of influences and feel a strong desire to create my own work, combining my vision of photography with the tactility and creative freedom of drawing. I hope you will join me in my studio here in the headwaters of Adjala, Ontario and share in my on going journey of artistic discovery as I move full circle, back where I began, only drawing with fresh eyes.

Sue Florian