I find fruit to be incredibly beautiful. With their sweet, life-giving nature, as well as their extraordinary diversity, and their richness of color and form, I have become completely enamored. I am not alone in my admiration, for they have called to artists throughout the ages. All through history, people have developed numerous associations to fruit, creating an abundant number of possible meanings. The apple alone is a prominent symbol: Adam and Eve's apple, Snow White's poisoned apple, The Big Apple", or "as American as apple pie," are all well-known in our culture.

There is a wonderful story, a childhood favorite of mine, that brings a fruit to life for the reader: the book, James and the Giant Peach. The author, Roald Dahl, takes various bugs and a peach and makes them bigger than life. The bugs become the heroes, and the peach the home, of a mistreated young boy. The peach is both a juicy, cozy dwelling, and a vessel for adventure. This kind of fantasy is what I enjoy playing with in my art.

In most of our lives, fruit are everyday objects, familiar, and easily overlooked. Each of my fruit sculptures presents a common image sometimes filled with other ordinary items, such as a ladder, windows, or a chair. In combining these simple images, I'm hoping to allude to something more: a waiting, a wish, a hope perhaps, or possibly even a belief that something might happen . . . something amazing . . . maybe even . . . something magical. When we experience these moments, they usually revolve around simple things, or the smallest things, that suddenly fill us with the biggest feeling, and even though we may not know the ultimate answer, we know we are part of it.

Susan Clusener