Susan Mentrak
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![Decorative metal container with cut-out leaf pattern, filled with artificial fruit and leaves.]()
Self Portrait
2023, 23 in. x 13 in. x 11 in.
This embodies the theme of resilience amid life's challenges. I depict feeling overwhelmed, akin to a swirling flock of birds, mirroring the world's distractions and information overload. Emerging from the middle are leaves and juicy peaches symbolizing my tentative desire to burst out in taking risks.
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![Ceramic sculpture combining a human face with a large, colorful, botanical-inspired headpiece.]()
Femininity Wears Me
2024, 16 in. x 19 in. x 10 in.
Sometimes I feel like femininity wears me instead of me wearing it. Although I fully embrace and love being a woman I’m not always comfortable with the stereotypes and preconceived notions of what that is supposed to look like.
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![A ceramic sculpture of a human figure with a pink body, standing with a face that has closed eyes. The figure has a crown or head adornment, and large abstract wings with yellow and blue elements extend from its back.]()
Stephanie Alaska, the Reluctant Goddess
2024, 19 in. x 13 in. x 6 in.
Modern Mighty Aphrodite is put on a pedestal she doesn’t want to be on. She is a goddess but she never asked to be one. She is a woman, hear her roar.
She is not any of these things. She is all of these things. She is Dichotomy Incarnate.
She carries conflicting truths in each hand and sometimes on her shoulders.
Title inspired by the Velvet Underground song “Stephanie Says”. SOLD
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![Decorative ceramic vase in a shape resembling a woman’s face, adorned with flowers and leaves in pastel colors.]()
Redeemed
2024, 15 in. x 16 in. x 3 in.
As I was making this piece it started to look like a uterus which I didn’t intend but I decided to go with it and at one point it also looked like a skull and I had the thought, “death has no power here”. I then worked to redeem what was once something dead and make it a symbol of life. Perhaps this was an exercise in reclaiming my own experience of processing unresolved grief of a hysterectomy 15 years ago.
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![Painting of a woman dressed in traditional attire, with arms raised in a dance pose, surrounded by string lights, shown on a 3x3 grid of canvases.]()
Fitting In
2025, 22 in. x 21 in. x 3 in.
I’m hoping to capture that awkward moment of desperately wanting to be like the cool kids and taking that risk in being vulnerable while watching someone who embodies everything we wish to become dance effortlessly. She timidly mimics their hands in the air but hers are not as confident. She tries to mirror the confidence she sees in others. What a brave girl even if she doesn’t think so.
hello!
I’m Susan, a ceramic artist in Ohio. My handbuilt pieces are made for everyday use, hopefully to become family heirlooms. The kind your great-grandkids will haul onto Antiques Roadshow someday and make mucho denaro.
I think most people are walking around chronically, comedically constipated and lacking in whim. I aim to fix that.
Welcome to my studio.
Roguishly Unrehearsed
I paint with hand-tinted porcelain slip. The real challenge? I never truly see what I’ve done until the kiln opens. Too wet and it collapses into mud. Too dry and the surface turns strange and foamy. Every piece is a gamble of spontaneous choices.
Curious how these unpredictable layers actually turn out? Peek behind the scenes on my blog