A day in the life of artist Susan Byrnes

Or you may have viewed her own artwork, from old school Dayton art happenings up to a recent solo exhibition at The Contemporary Dayton.

Byrnes hasn’t stopped at radio producer, artist, writer and curator; she’s branched out further to add documentary filmmaker to her resume.

Previously the director of ArtStreet at the University of Dayton, Byrnes, 57, settled in Cincinnati in 2012 where she lives in Clifton with her husband. She frequently visits the Miami Valley.

‘Ghost Lover’

Originally from Rome, N.Y., an industrial city in the middle of the state, Byrnes began dabbling in radio while working as a career advisor for artists at Alfred University. She picked the midnight ’til 2 a.m. time slot at the small college radio station.

“I had these ideas for radio shows that I wanted to do,” Byrnes said. “I figured no one would hear me. It was called ‘Ghost Lover’ because I realized in my record collection were all these songs from dead people who died these tragic or romantic deaths. It was music and I told their story.”

Now a seasoned producer who enjoys capturing the sounds of the artist’s studio, she speaks fondly of her radio mentors, Neenah Ellis and Katie Davis.

Keep the train moving

“I usually get up at 7:30. My husband gets up earlier and makes the coffee.

“I am working part-time at Kennedy Heights Art Center. I’ve done different things with them throughout the years, so I’m stepping in as the exhibitions coordinator while my friend is on leave. I’m keeping the train moving.”

“Either I go to Kennedy Heights or I work through messages and see what I have to follow up on and then go to the studio.

“If I’m doing a thing like casting glass I’ll go to Brazee. Periodically I’ll use other facilities to go cast iron. Mostly I love the process of casting, but primarily iron.”

Credit: CLAYTON WEIS

Credit: CLAYTON WEIS

Byrnes spent years traveling the country before attending graduate school for sculpture and performance art. While living in New Mexico she developed a love of casting. She has been pouring iron for over 20 years.

“Everything is homemade with iron,” she said.

“You break up the iron with sledgehammers, you have this thing that look like a hot water heater, a cupola furnace. You put the iron in it with these big chunks of charcoal. It burns and melts down. You take it to a mold and pour it in.

“It’s dirty and gritty.”

It is the connection between iron and the body that resonates with Byrnes as a reoccurring motif in her work.

“Iron is blood. It’s in our bodies, the same element that’s carried through all these materials. My work has a lot of feminist body orientation.”

In October she will visit a decommissioned steel mill in Pittsburgh to participate in an iron pour.

Creative flow

“My studio is in my renovated detached double garage in my backyard in Clifton. I have a giant attic space, too, so I have the sort of clean studio with some sewing stuff up there. It’s beautiful and light. And then I go to the garage and do the dirty stuff.

“I’m preparing for a show that’s coming up at this gallery around the corner from my house called the Off Ludlow Gallery. It used to be the old post office.

“My friend gave me all this doll hair that she couldn’t use. I want to make an installation of it. I’m covering all the walls. The motif is the notion of the wave and so I’ve got sound pieces (with) electric impulses, and actual water waves in one of the pieces. I can make the wavy hair into wave forms.

“The (concept) is about the idea of ‘creative flow’ by this psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.”

‘Crystal City’

“The big project is, I’m making a film!”

Stemming from a WYSO story she produced in 2023, Byrnes is in pre-production on a documentary she is both writing and producing titled “Moving Crystal City.” It tells the story of Dayton artist Robert Blackstone, who was fatally shot in 2023, and the transporting of his large amorphous installation from Dayton to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin.

Credit: Hannah Kasper

Credit: Hannah Kasper

“The film will show the very complex process of how 'Crystal City' is dismantled, moved and put back together,” said Byrnes.

“For over 30 years, he had been building ‘Crystal City.’ It was put up and taken down to different places around the city. The last space he had was where I met him, an abandoned bank behind the Schuster Center.

“This was his magnum opus, and the manifestation of his mind. It’s all these little vignettes and is this assemblage extraordinaire.

“It’s a documentary and yet it’s also a response, because Bobby wanted other artists to work on ‘Crystal City’ with him. The film really derives from this question that haunts me, which is, what happens to artists’ work after they die?”

The question echoes back to her very first radio show, ‘Ghost Lover.’

Checking in

Between all her various projects, she finds time during the day to call best friends in New Mexico, Ann Arbor, Yellow Springs and Upstate New York.

“I have a community of artists I know here, but my life long community is distant because I moved around a lot.

“That’s my universe.”

Cooking conundrum

“My husband comes home, we hang out and play Scrabble and make dinner.

“I love good food. My husband picks out a recipe, we’ll follow it and it’s great. I cook pasta with anything that’s in the fridge when it’s my night to cook.

“When I went on a residency at Antioch College — I was the Ohio bronze artist when they had artists from all over the country — they put us in a dorm for two weeks and we ate in their vegan student cafeteria. I didn’t have to think about food for two weeks. I never had that in my whole life. I prefer that to cooking.”

Going for it

Reflecting on her early days in Dayton, Byrnes describes art happenings that took place in the Oregon District’s 7,000-square-foot Armory Building.

Occupied at the time time by a law firm, the vacant top floor was given over to artists. On any given night there might be a community art show, live painting and roller derby girls skating loops around the open floor. She described the downtown building as the “creative soul of Dayton.”

“I always try to find that opportunity in a place and go for it.”

HOW TO GO

What: “Being As How”

Where: Off Ludlow Gallery, 3408 Ormond Ave., Cincinnati

When: Aug. 8-Sept. 10. Opening reception: 6-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8. Artist talk: 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24.

More info: Susan Byrnes on WYSO https://www.wyso.org/people/susan-byrnes or visit www.susanbstudio.com