SCULPTURE

S C U L P T U R E

Susan A Christie

The ORB Series
Mixed media flax

The ORB Series emerged in 2019, born from a desire to expand my work from the two-dimensional surface into the sculptural. That year, I initiated a flax sculpture workshop with six fellow artists. What began as a weekend exploration evolved into ongoing studio sessions, where we delved deeper into flax as a medium—its memory, texture, and strength.

My work is grounded in natural materials. I paint on handmade fiber paper—often Japanese Washi or Chinese Xuan—crafted from bast fibers such as Kozo, Gampi, Mitsumata, bamboo, and mulberry bark. These papers, valued for their beauty and durability, are paired with traditional Asian inks made without shellac and applied using handcrafted brushes composed of woods and animal hairs: sheep, goat, weasel, rabbit, horse, wolf, bear –even mountain lion.

Flax, like the materials above, is a bast fiber—more commonly recognized in its textile form as linen. In sculptural use, however, flax offers a quiet resilience and organic purity that echoes the meditative nature of the circle.

Throughout my career as an asian brush painter and printmaker, I have been drawn to the circle—to the Enso, the Zen symbol of enlightenment and imperfection. In this series, that form evolved into the orb—a round vessel, a sculptural echo of breath and containment. These works explore wholeness, impermanence, and the sacred space between gesture and stillness.

As I worked through this series, I was frequently visited—symbolically—by the presence of the mountain lion. Elusive, powerful, and deeply tied to the landscape I inhabit, the mountain lion became a totem of silent strength and solitary insight. Its spirit inhabits the ORB Series as a quiet guardian, circling the edges of form and intuition. Like the orb, the mountain lion moves with grace through thresholds—between seen and unseen, stillness and motion.

T H E O R B S E R I E S