Throughout the month of November a collection of new paintings by Suzanne Zoole—Kitchen Chronicles: Paintings of the Foods We Love—will be on display at the Artists’ Guild of Spartanburg Gallery at Chapman Cultural Center.
An encore reception will be on Thursday, Nov. 21, which is ArtWalk in Spartanburg. The public is invited to both receptions. The exhibit may be viewed at no cost Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
“In painting a series about food, I have used these ideas as a jumping off place. Food, as delicious as it might be, may not always be visually exciting,” Zoole said. “My task (and I am limited) is to involve the viewer’s eye, their visual sense. I hope to delight the eye and whet the aesthetic appetite.”
Zoole is an established painter in Spartanburg and member of the Guild, having exhibited many times in the region. She is a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Association and the South Carolina Watercolor Society. She holds degrees from Agnes Scott College, University of Colorado, and North Texas University. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. Her serious pursuit of art followed these academic achievements with the intensive study of water media with nationally known artists.
In regards to this exhibit, she said, “Family recipes gathered together compose a kind of domestic journal. Beneath the surface of something simple, ordinary and familiar like a recipe can be a richness and a heartbeat. Here we find glimmers of family stories, personal histories and regional attachments. They document a family’s celebrations and recall the cooks who prepared them. Favorite recipes are collected and passed down to the next generation because the food is delicious and the memories vivid. Who among us doesn’t have a favorite food prepared by a loved one?
“And many of the old recipes are written in the hand of the cook recalling other times and places,” she continued. “In many families and cultures, food, love and hospitality intersect. We are nurtured literally and figuratively by beloved recipes and dishes of our families. We show our affection to others with hospitality serving our favorite foods. A simple recipe on a card can tell quite a complicated story—like a family photo from an album or a page pulled out of a diary. Even our favorite fast food can have a sentimental edge depending on the circumstances in which it’s shared.”
A few years ago Zoole was juried into the prestigious American Watercolor Society’s annual show winning an award and having her painting chosen as part of the traveling exhibit. For two consecutive years she has been designated as a fellow in the Artist in Residency program at the Hambidge Center in north Georgia. She has exhibited her work in solo shows at the Tryon Fine Arts Center, Aiken Center for the Arts, Spartanburg Day School, Artists’ Guild of Spartanburg Gallery, and has been part of countless juried shows. In 2009 one of her watercolor paintings was featured in Nita Leleand’s book: Confident Color: An Artist’s Guide to Harmony, Contrast and Unity. Her watercolors and acrylic paintings are found in many private collections in the area and in the Hospice House in Memphis, Tenn. Zoole paints in her studio at home in Spartanburg, S.C., and in her getaway studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains nearby.
This project is funded by The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg, which receives support from the S.C. Arts Commission in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of S.C. The “Kitchen Chronicles” exhibit will end Nov. 28. For more information, please call (864) 542-ARTS.
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