ON VIEW THRU NOVEMBER 11, 2023: Susan Budge’s first solo exhibition at Heidi Vaughan Fine Art features works created in ceramic following a series of significant life events. As always, she prefers to work spontaneously in the studio in order to allow her subconscious thoughts to surface. Much like the Surrealists, Budge celebrates the unexpected, the element of surprise, and paradox in all she creates. She envisions each of her sculptures as having a secret soul which is silent more often than it speaks.

Susan Budge has been making ceramic sculptures for more than 40 years. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Texas Tech University in 1983, a master of arts degree from the University of Houston in 1987, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1999. Budge’s work has been included in hundreds of exhibitions throughout the United States and is part of important collections in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. Her sculptures are in the permanent collections of ten museums, among them the Smithsonian, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the San Angelo Museum of Art, the Art Museum of South Texas, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. She has completed numerous public art commissions, including at Brackenridge Park, Lady Bird Johnson Park, and the South Texas Center for Blood and Tissue, all in San Antonio. Budge began her decades-long teaching career with Artist in Education grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts. In 1995, she was named Department Head of Ceramics at San Antonio College, where she earned tenure. She was awarded the NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award and established an endowed ceramics scholarship fund at SAC. She returned to Houston in 2015 for a yearlong residency at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, then taught at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Glassell School of Art, and the Art League of Houston. During the 2020 lockdown, she began construction of her new permanent studio. She and her husband, musician Rick Paulson, continue their studio practice at their rural home/studio near Houston.