Jakuan

The artist’s morning walk to her studio. Photos by Ayn Gailey.

From the remote island of Orcas, Kandis Susol creates her stunning monochromatic encaustic paper sculptures as a form of spiritual practice. When one observes her working you get the sense that she is so focused on the piece she is creating that all else falls away. Inspired by her early study and practice of the Japanese tea ceremony, garden design in Kyoto, Japan and her ongoing study of Zen Buddhism, she is wholeheartedly present in the moment when she works, infusing each piece with a meditative quality and materials representing all four earthly elements: water, air, fire, and earth.

Susol begins each workday with a bowl of Matcha tea and meditation to center herself, followed by a walk through her family’s heritage orchard of century-old Gravenstein apple, Shiro plum, and pear trees to her art studio, which is situated in an old converted barn built with reclaimed materials, and sits next to the property’s pond, under the shade of a Maple Tree. The barn studio is named Jakuan, meaning “Arbor of Tranquility” in Japanese.

Mapping out the flow of the newest piece of art

The importance of movement in Kandis Susol’s work

Inside her studio, she has dedicated space for handcrafting the paper, a months-long endeavor that starts with raw Kozo pulp from Japan. On the second floor of the barn, she has space to meditate and conceptualize each piece by drawing with chalk onto slate. Once she has the shape of the design and how the energy will flow across each sculpture, she draws the design directly onto custom-made birch panels handcrafted by a craftsman on Orcas Island. She then takes strips of the paper she’s made and meticulously adheres and sculpts each piece with heat, wax, and damar resin.

To see more of photos from Winston Wachter’s highlighting Studio Visit,

White

The artist Robert Ryman said: “The white is just a means of exposing other elements. White enables other things to become visible.” This notion also comes to play in my mostly white encaustic paper sculptures.

There is a sense of purity with snow, especially a first snowfall. My studio is situated among towering evergreens, a few feet away from a pond. When the first snowfall happens, there’s a sense of stillness in the air, everything blanketed indiscriminately. It's the quieted mind.

La Paloma shows how light plays across the paper, 24 x 48 x 5 inches

I’ve always been drawn to making and sculpting with white paper because the shadows on the white make one really look at the paper. You can see the texture of the paper. In my work, I am honoring paper, rather than painting. Paper is usually in the background of artists’ work. It’s what they cover-up, and paint over. I'm bringing it forward to the foreground; I don't want to cover it up with color or any materials beyond the encaustic medium.

“The white is just a means of exposing other elements. White enables other things to become visible.”

— Robert Ryman

The artist Robert Ryman in his studio, New York, 1999. Photograph by Bill Jacobson

My arbor of tranquility in winter

The gate to the orchard and my Jakuan Studio

Matcha

The study of tea ceremony and meditation has had a profound influence on my art and artistic process. To this day, I start most mornings with a bowl of matcha before strolling down to my studio, where I then meditate.

I studied Chado (translation: The way of the tea) and its related arts for four years at the Shoseian Tea House in the Seattle arboretum. The principles of Chado are Harmony, Respect, Purity, and Tranquility. These qualities are meant to carry over into our daily lives, and they do show up in my process and the art itself.

The Seattle Japanese Garden teahouse Shoseian (translated as “Arbor of the Murmuring Pines.”) Photo: Aurora Santiago

In the tea ceremony, one achieves purity first by purifying all the utensils used to prepare and serve the tea. Purification is not only about the utensils but also about the purification of our minds and spirit. These acts are done ceremoniously, and they influence how I treat the paper and the tools I use to make the paper that is then shaped into my encaustic sculptures.

My art is like the tea ceremony; it has offered me a place to find stillness. A way to quiet the chaos of the mind and become present and centered. I am grateful for the teachings shared with me and how the tea ceremony shapes my life and art.

*Five Gateless Gates, 2020, Artist-made Kozo paper encaustic sculpture, on birch panel, 17 x 88 x 5 inches

*Private commission on five panels. The Gateless Gates are representative of the mind entering through to the place where it can be still. Each panel represents the artist’s evolution as one gains more and more insight into their practice.

Glimpse

Watch the video below by creative director Curt Pliler to experience my artistic process and my studio, Jakuan (Arbor of Tranquility), on beautiful remote Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest.

My time in Kyoto, Japan, studying Garden Design and tea ceremony at Shoseian in Seattle, Washington, and my ongoing study of Buddhism show up as influences and inspiration for my artist-made paper and my encaustic paper sculptures. I think, too, one can see how place and the four elements deeply influence my work.

Narrow Passage, 2021, 26 x 50 x 5 inches

Movement

Sometimes I am fortunate enough to experience spontaneous art as a reaction to my encaustic paper sculptures. On this occasion, dancer and fellow islander, Hayley Shannon*, stopped by my Jakuan Gallery and asked if she could interact (dance!) with my piece. So glad that I was able to capture her beautiful movement and spirit.

*Hayley Shannon (she/her) is a movement artist channeling dance for healing and empowerment. She is a former professional modern dancer who is currently devoted to guiding people of all ages and abilities into a more conscious connection with their body, heart, mind, and soul. She's reached thousands of people via retreats, festivals, schools, Buddhist temples, homeless shelters, orphanages, safe homes for children, and more since founding Dance Healing in 2016. Hayley uses dance/movement therapy, meditation, and expressive arts therapy to empower adults to embody their innate wholeness. She currently lives on Orcas Island, WA on unceded Coast Salish lands and teaches groups and individuals primarily online. Read more about her at HayleyShannon.com.

Community

I've been fortunate to live on remote Orcas Island for more than three decades, surrounded by natural beauty and so many talented artists.

Substrate Exhibition Video, San Juan Islands Museum of Art

In 1999, I was asked to serve a Tea Ceremony for the community at Susan Osborn’s “Living Room,” which had become a salon-like gathering space for artists of all kinds in the village of Eastsound. Susan is a vocalist who came to prominence as the lead singer for the Paul Winter Consort. Later, she won a grammy and sang at the Olympics in Japan, which resulted in busloads of Japanese tourists visiting Orcas Island to take her singing workshops.

Susan had asked artist Susan Singleton if she would hang one of her pieces of art in the space for the occasion. Singleton was known nationally and internationally for both large-scale architectural work as well as more intimate poetic pieces that incorporated the textural surfaces of paper, including Japanese Washi paper and paper from Nepal and India.  In her own words, Singleton explains that her "inspiration springs from the natural world with its intricate simplicity, balance, textures, scale, and light." She considers her pieces as portals recording time, light and air. 

Substrate exhibit with Susan Singleton and Hannah Alex-Glasser

Artwork by Susan Singleton

That was the first time I was introduced to Singleton's stunning work. I fell in love with it before I even knew her. Eventually, after meeting, I mustered up the courage to ask to see her studio and we've been friends ever since.

In 2006 I went to Hannah Alex-Glasser and Jim Hardman’s exhibition at Orcas Center. I felt an immediate connection to the elements of earth, nature, and the human spirit in Hannah’s work, and I was very moved. Hannah’s art, like mine, grows out of a fundamental connection with nature. She describes nature’s beauty, complexity, and integrity as a constant source of centering and awe. Her clay works are hand-built, unglazed, and fired in an open flame. 

Pierrot’s Crescent by Hannah Alex-Glasser

Years later, in 2011, talented artists Kate Geddes, Susan Singleton, Susan Mustard, and I organized our own artists’ salon. I have fond memories of visiting each others’ studios and critiquing each others' work. It was an important part of my evolution as an artist, and I found myself growing in confidence with the support of these women. In retrospect, I realize how rare and potent that connection has been.

Tears for the World exhibit at Orcas Center (Singleton, Alex-Glasser, Susol)

In 2013, while sitting with Susan Singleton and Pat Littlewood, who was in charge of artist relations at Orcas Center, Pat asked me to exhibit.  I was apprehensive because I only had a few pieces, not enough to fill a show, but Singleton offered to do the show with me to make it more feasible. I thought, 'A show with Susan Singleton, WOW!' I remembered Hannah’s sculptures and thought they would be a perfect fit, too. Susan and Hannah didn’t know each other yet, so Hannah invited us to tea.  When Susan saw Hannah’s work, she fell in love with it as I knew she would.  That introduction initiated a friendship and a professional collaboration between the three of us that spanned 2014-2018. We exhibited our work jointly in four venues across the region during those years and each time the experience was wonderful. 

One of those exhibits was in the spacious Nichols Gallery at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art. Susan Singleton, Hannah Alex-Glasser, and I created the exhibit “Substrate: Underlying Currents.” Our close association, cultural influences, and our philosophies brought a beautiful harmony to the exhibit.

Christian Carlson of the Perry and Carlson Gallery described our relationship and our joint exhibit with these words:

“In the way that the loosely described Northwest School brought the qualities of dappled light, mysticism and the quietude of Pacific Northwest nature to their audiences in the mid 20th century, Kandis, Hannah and Susan’s work dialogues on such a level — the quiet power of monochrome schema, the play of light on surfaces, and the viewer’s experience of being drawn, layer after layer, into complexities where a singular experience awaits.”

I learned so much during our time together and am deeply grateful to Susan and Hannah and all the mentors and other artists along the way that were generous with their support.

Painter Martha Farish was also an important part of the evolution and growing passion around my work. Her own work with colors is stunning, whether she is painting and abstracting landscapes in southern California or the Pacific Northwest. She has always been supportive, often sharing her wonderful island studio and space at the Water's Edge at Outlook Inn to help me photograph my work in better light. In the early days, before I built a small gallery space at my home, some of my pieces were so large that I had nowhere to hang them until Martha encouraged me to hang work in the Outlook Inn to sell. This step also boosted my confidence when it came to taking my work out commercially.

White Cloud, 2021, recent commission photographed by Ilias Schneider at Water’s Edge at Outlook Inn

The opportunity to exhibit at the Perry & Carlson Gallery with fellow artists has been a wonderful experience. I have great admiration for their contributions to the artistic community. If you have not visited their gallery, it's a must. Owners Trina (an artist and retail designer) and Christian (an artist and architect) stumbled across the 1924 Brunet Building in historic downtown Mount Vernon—in need of a major renovation— then bought the space and made their dream of opening a shop and gallery a reality.

Perry & Carlson Gallery

As the years have gone by, I look back now and see how all of us creative spirits have touched each other’s lives in sometimes little ways and occasionally great ways. I will be forever grateful for the gifts of loving support and kindness, as well as the hard lessons that have helped shape me.  Deep bows to every artist who has shared my journey. 

Artist Susan Singleton during installation of a joint exhibit

Having fun with artist and gallery owner Trina Perry Carlson

Capturing Hannah Alex-Glasser at her studio door

Sharing

“It is easy now to communicate with people through abstraction, and particularly so in sculpture. Since the whole body reacts to its presence, people become themselves a living part of the whole.”

— Barbara Hepworth

Enso Embrace, alongside Sharon Ho’s ceramic art, as seen in the Artist Studio Tour brochure

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Ceramics by Ayame Bullock, photography by Peter Oleson, Artist Studio Tour 2021

The Orcas Island Artists Studio Tour is a chance to visit the working studios of dozens of Orcas Island Artists. Visitors can see firsthand where our island artists create their art, and purchase their most recent work if interested.

I am always honored to be present for these Artist Studio Tours. Sharing the art I make with others is an important and valued part of the artistic process. This year, my good friend, Jan Pliler, welcomed guests with beautiful music she played on the harp as attendees perused the gallery in my home.

A young guest from California contemplates Enso Embrace, 48 x 48 x 5 inches, in the gallery

My husband, Bob, escorted guests through our heritage orchard, sharing sweet Shiro plums with everyone.

A few yards past the orchard, I met visitors at my barn studio known as Jakuan (Arbor of Tranquility in Japanese) where I shared my papermaking and encaustic sculpture process, and the history of the barn, most of which was made from reclaimed materials.

Jakuan (Arbor of Tranquility) Studio, once the barn for our family’s farm

Inside my studio made with reclaimed materials

In the south side of the studio, I make paper from Japanese Kozo pulp

Streams Draw Music From The Harp, encaustic sculpture from artist-made Kozo paper, on birch panel, 2021, 24 x 72 x 5 inches. Photos by Samuel W. Gailey

Experience more of my studio at Glimpse.