Merging characteristics of both painting and sculpture, the artworks of Susan Manspeizer are viewing through March 3 at the New Arts Program in Kutztown. " Susan Manspeizer: Sculptures" displays 13 sculptures made of manipulated sheets of very thin plywood that is festooned with knotted attachments, subtly painted with acrylics and marked with oil crayons. 

The Westchester, N.Y., artist teaches figure studies at the Art Center of Northern New Jersey.  In 1966, she earned her M.F.A. from the City College of New York, with additional studies at the Art Student's League N.Y.C. and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. She has a long list of exhibitions, awards and collectors. 

Process, for her, is very important.  To start, the artist soaks the originally flat panel in water and allows it to become soft, at which point she bends and folds it into the form she desires.  The end shape, when it dries, settles into a permanent fixture that can be adorned with color.  Some of the sculptures are composed of multiple sheets and further shaped with saws to create spaces for exploration.  Others have small attachments that seem to cling like barnacles to their sponsoring form. 

Similarly, she likens them to the shells of sea creatures, most of them portraying a conch or clamlike attitude.  Three of the pieces sit on freestanding Lucite pedestals, with the rest hanging by wall hooks.  The idea of the shell appeals to her as a symbol of age and usefulness, that one may get older and be a remnant of past goals but still have both personal and community value. 

"The shell is the remainder and reminder of the parts that are left behind," she writes in her statement. " As a mature woman, I see the shell as a metaphor for the human emotions of life at a stage when one's vitality has diminished." 

Associations to family, parenting, life, growth and life cycles are seen as emblematic in her abstracted interpretations of botanical or aquatic sea life, and by extension, mammalian or human.  She also makes note that wood itself, and paper, was once alive and held a former purpose.  Her sculptures also support such titles as "Sunshine," "Habitat" and "Nesting," among others. 

For instance, "Shelter" sits on a pedestal.  Its opposing blue and cream-white folds look like a crush of crumpled vinyl with a V-shaped valley in the middle.  In the crux of the valley rests a separately glued fold of red and yellow, tucked in as if protected. 

The works in the show are relatively small, each 3 feet or less in length, but with plenty of presence.  They're matte-finished, with muted tones of tan, yellow, blue and red.  She applies lines of near-value oil crayon to imply a marbleized, shell-like patina. 

Aside from their obvious connotations and symbolisms, each work is gentle and elegant as a lone abstract object and occupies its space with ease.  That the structures begin as flat and end up as wavy, solid and curvilinear also speaks of a formal practice that re-purposes the convention of two-dimensional surfaces.