Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/856465
he brilliance of a true artist is reflected on how one can take objects that were somehow considered less valuable, that didn't necessarily have pedigree, and reassemble them in unexpected ways. I discovered that rare brilliance in the works of an artist who connects to my deep, quiet passion for reclaiming the past. She is Susan Bryan. Think humble beginnings imbued in sentimental mystery. Bryan takes old vanity train cases, cardboard shirt boxes, and weathered suitcases—for- gotten and discarded long ago—that now become impeccably styled with a dose of her whimsical eye. It all began with foraging for bits of beads from belts, hatbands, Indian medallions and handfuls of seed beads from the '40s and '50s. Her search was further enhanced by finds from friends and family, and particularly from her artist-photographer hus- band, Alan Platzer, who was key in finding the beaded object materials used in her art. Midway in the making of the cases, they bought the remainder of a souvenir shop in Montana which closed in 1980. Some they sold as par t of their antique store inventory, while some became infused into use of her ar twork. Her inspiration began in childhood. Bryan travelled a lot as a kid, and many of her cases inspire travel in their story, as license plates appear either dangling from the case handles, applied to the outside or tucked inside. The cases are comprised of souvenir belts, not made by any Native American artists. They're the stuff of our American culture childhood. Something a lot of kids would have worn or acquired on a trip. Bryan's previous work had been more abstract with non-objective imagery. She wanted these to be a different experience: more reality with narratives, fully dimensional and story-based. She saw these works as compositions; starting with the outside cover- ing and growing more complete with the selection of interior items. The inside pieces were a reflection of the narrative thinking of the fantasy per- son for which each case was designed. Each was a journey, a fabricated life left for the viewer to interpret. The cases became a series. They were like individual souls. Some needy, demanding, delicate; always asking for more attention. Some were reality- based or from memor y, hers or someone else's. But all became some form of composite energy based upon color, texture and imagery. A favorite of Bryan's is "Prison Made." Her husband found a Montana license plate, marked with that phrase, indicating that someone in this narrative went to prison. When asked how she selected pieces for the inside, Bryan replied, "It seemed like that plate needed the bits and pieces of a woman's aloneness to fill that case." Souvenir beaded belts, emblazoned with locations like Montana, Grand Canyon, Arizona, Big Sur, Las Vegas or Vancouver, were picked up along the way by roadside travelers in the 1980s. They were the result of mass production, kitsch Americana, which like all things once on trend, have taken the road to extinction. These cases immediately resonated with me. It made me nostalgic for road trip vacations with my family to national parks and campgrounds, to escape the summer heat of the California valley. Each July, my sisters and I were stuffed in my dad's old Lincoln with camping gear, road maps and fishing poles, and we happily travelled to the coolness of mountain meadows and vast waterfalls in search 110 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 7 COLLECTING T E X T A N D P H OTO G R A P H Y B Y M A R J O R I E S N O W Embellished Beaded Cases Filled With Sentimental Mysteries T "Big Sur Souvenir Belt in a Mosaic of Beaded Symbolism" is one of Susan Bryan's creative train cases.