A child of the 70s, Gregory was born in Augusta, GA and raised in South Carolina. Most of her life has been spent in the Carolinas. In recent years, she has also lived in San Francisco, CA and near Denver, Colorado. She is a landscape painter, ceramicist and community art studio owner.
After finishing a degree in Political Science at the University of South Carolina, Gregory moved to the mountains outside of Asheville, NC. She worked there professionally in an office setting and eventually was inspired to return to school and study art at Western Carolina University(NC). She completed a B.F.A in Painting and Ceramics there (2000). In 2009, the artist took a course in Encaustics at Penland School(NC). At that point, her painting transitioned from oils to mixed media with encaustic being the foundational medium for her work.
The artist’s painting process typically begins with a concept embodied in observed objects or symbols, often manmade, and furthers in a visual dialogue with the natural world. Broader aesthetic influences include quilt compositions, oceanic patterns, botanical graphics, sidewalk survey lines, Edisto Island, rural highways, paintings of Pierre Bonnard, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Arthur Dove, Anselm Kiefer, Agnes Martin, Mark Bradford, Jose Parla and the work of Clyde Connell and Magdalene Odundo. Gregory’s current series celebrates her Charleston, SC neighborhood of North Central as the forces of change surround.
Susan was one of the founders of cone 10 studios, a ceramic studio and gallery in Charleston, SC(2005-2019) and served on the board of Enough Pie(Charleston, SC. 2011-2021), a non-profit using creativity to connect and empower community. Susan recently joined the board of the local non-profit station, OHM radio. Her largest community work is the designing, founding and directing of Studio Union, a communal, art studio space in the Neck of the Charleston peninsula. .
Recent exhibitions include Fifth LaGrange Southeast Regional, Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange, GA(2024), Shapers, James Island Cultural Center, Charleston, SC (2024), Southern Futurisms, Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University (2023), Creature Comforts, Niza Knoll Gallery, Denver, CO (2022), and Studio Union: Art Outpost, REDUX Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, SC (2022).
