Susanna Rosso Wolf
Born in 1956 to Michael and Rosann Rosso, Susanna Rosso Wolf was introduced to the arts by her mother, a natural musician who played the cello, piano, organ and bandolin. Music filled the Rosso house with love, joy and rhythm as each of her four children were touched by Rosann’s talent: Michael on Fender bass, Sharifah on piano, Danny on violin and vocals and Susanna on percussion, guitar, dulcimer and vocals. The joke in the Rosso family was that “Dad plays the radio!” Wolf’s father wasn’t exactly artistic, but rather a veteran of the Navy and a mathematician in aerospace as Chief of Production at Hughes Aircraft
In 1961 Wolf was introduced to the ballet with lessons at Culver City School of Ballet. In her early years she began developing her vocals as she sang in choir, many musical productions, madrigal groups and studied classical voice with Dr. Dean Verhines of the Metropolitan Opera that eventually led to Wolf’s full scholarship to California Institute of The Arts (CalArts) as a coloratura soprano. As a first-year student in 1974 it was mandatory that Susanna attend lectures in art history, and it was there in those lectures that she became fascinated by the personal desires of the artists that drove their determination to succeed. Wolf had several friends at CalArts who would invite Wolf to watch them create their works in their art labs and that was when she caught the art bug. Watching the flow of creative energy inspired her desire to study art. However, It was the lectures of the Renaissance and many stories of sacrifice, simply to paint, that had a deep effect on Wolf while moving on through her life into the workforce, marriage and day to day survival.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s Wolf simply scribbled on the backs of napkins, paper coasters and matchbooks. It was in 2009 when Susanna finally purchased her very first French easel. Wolf is a self-taught artist whose main focus is abstract compositions; however, the artist is known to stray occasionally from that course of study to paint her beloved florals and landscapes with just enough abstraction to identify her work.
Wolf’s husband, Kurt Grumpy Wolf, a well-known sound engineer in the rock n’ roll industry, designed and constructed a small but functional art studio in their home featuring Kurt’s amazing design of the floor to ceiling, wall to wall multi sectioned easel. A brilliant and necessary contraption.
Susanna Wolf commonly uses multimedia practices and several layering techniques using transparent acrylic paints in-between layers of binding and glazing medium. She is also known to blend gravel, sand and any other forms of texture she feels adds interest into her work on the canvas. Wolf is particularly fond of including many of “earth’s treasures” into the paint mix on her pallet including dried leaves, weeds, wheat stalks, sticks and stems. Susanna also paints in oil on her plein air compositions. When looking back at a long life of artistic practices in multiple genres, Susanna Rosso Wolf describes her painting life as “true transcendence.” Art, painting and photographing nature is the food of life that not only feeds her soul but heals her heart, mind and body. You can FOLLOW Susie Rosso Wolf on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
