For artist Susan Maakestad, the horizon is more than a line separating earth from sky — it’s a place of possibility.
That sense of expansiveness anchors “Land and Sky” — her newest exhibition at ShapeShifter Art School & Gallery, on view through August 15th. Through luminous abstract landscapes inspired by highway webcams, wide-open vistas, and years of artistic exploration, Maakestad invites viewers to slow down and experience the quiet beauty hidden within everyday scenes.
“The horizon line represents optimism,” she says. “I think my attraction to that expansiveness stems from growing up in Illinois, where I could see the sky and horizon just outside of town.”
Maakestad has long found inspiration in unexpected places. While traffic cameras were designed for practical purposes, she saw something more. “I’m always on the lookout for the extraordinary within the ordinary,” she says. Following the same webcams through changing seasons and weather, she discovered ever-shifting landscapes that became the starting point for her paintings.
The resulting works balance recognizable landforms with abstraction, encouraging viewers to linger between reality and imagination. Maakestad continually edits away unnecessary details, searching for what she calls the “essence” of a landscape while preserving its emotional resonance. “The space in my paintings is believable, but it’s not real,” she says. “You think you’re looking at a landscape, but then the abstraction flattens the space.”
Another influence arrived during the pandemic, when she immersed herself in the work of 19th-century British painter John Constable. By creating hundreds of watercolor studies based on his landscapes, she absorbed new approaches to light, atmosphere, and color that continue to shape this latest body of work.
Many Memphians know Maakestad as a longtime painting professor at Memphis College of Art, where she taught for more than two decades. Today she continues teaching at ShapeShifter and through Creative Aging while expanding her own studio practice.
Visitors have already described the paintings in the show at ShapeShifter as “calm” and “peaceful” — responses that surprised the artist but now feel fitting. In a world filled with uncertainty, Maakestad hopes her work encourages people to reconnect with nature’s enduring rhythms and perhaps notice the landscape around them a little differently.
“LAND AND SKY,” SHAPESHIFTER ART SCHOOL & GALLERY, 680 OAKLEAF OFFICE LANE, THROUGH SATURDAY, AUGUST 15.
