Cover Photo: A Way Out

Susan Bennerstrom’s piece A Way Out is featured on the cover of Bellingham Review Issue 84.

Susan Bennerstrom:

“A Way Out” is based on a hallway and stairwell I saw a few years ago somewhere in Ireland.  I took many liberties, especially with color and perspective.  I made this painting during the depths of coronavirus lockdown.  Though I was safe and comfortable in my studio, reveling in my solitude, doing nothing but painting every day, singing, and walking the dog, I was keenly aware of the suffering all around me, just outside my tiny realm.  “A Way Out” provides an escape into a mysterious future.  Hope exists, even joy.

---

Susan Bennerstrom has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and has received a number of awards, including an Artist Trust SOLA Award, a Pollock-Krasner Award, a Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship, a Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award, and three Artist Trust GAP Awards. WWU’s Western Foundation has established The Bennerstrom Prize, a scholarship given each spring to an outstanding art student. Her work is included in the collections of St. Joseph Hospital, Virginia Mason Hospital, Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art (Ireland), Western Washington University, and University of Washington Medical Center.