Susan & Stephen Kemenyffy
Americans Susan B: 1941, Stephen B: 1943
A Study in Bright II C: 1985 • Clay 38-1/2" x 38-3/8" x 1"
A tale of two cities. Stephen Kemenyffy was born in the shell-shocked, starving city of Budapest, Hungary during World War II. 38,000 people died during the infamous “Siege of Budapest” by Soviet Troops. His father was away fighting in the war until Steven was six years old.
Susan Hale grew up in the neatly trimmed city of Springfield, Massachusetts, known as the “Victorian City. The All-American game of basketball was invented there.
25 years later, a third city became involved in their story when they finally met in Iowa City, Iowa. There they fell in love, married and started an intriguing, long-lasting artistic partnership. He creates the ceramic forms, modeled on shapes found in nature. Susan decorates his forms with her whimsical drawings. Forms and images, you can’t have one without the other.
Six years after marrying in 1968, the couple became owners of 47 neglected and littered rural acres in northwestern Pennsylvania. There they built a home, a studio, and 18 wondrous gardens. Working year-after-year, as time and treasure allowed, they built 14 pools and ponds, 5 bridges, a Hungarian Tea House, a Primrose Path, a Moss Garden, Spirit Bridges, numerous sculptures and a mountain house. It became a magical place filled with their love of nature and art. They named it Raku Place after their favorite ceramic firing process.
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Stephen is now retired after 40 years teaching ceramic art at Edinboro State University. Growing up in war torn Hungary seems to have fired a passionate spirit. One student commented: “A crazy genius / mad artist and former physics guy. Insanely talkative but, perhaps, the most knowledgeable person about anything and everything, including ceramics, of course.” In recognition of his impact on the sculpture program at Edinboro State, he was named Professor Emeritus.
Susan is more sedate. Her devotion to the arts fueled her rise to leadership of the Erie Art Museum, Pennsylvania Artist of the Year in 2012, and Chairman Emeritus of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Born in separate worlds, they ended up two Emeritae. He creates the forms, she creates the images. As Susan once said, “I gave my best. He gave his best. When the kiln gave its best, it was better than anything we could do as individuals.”
Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Gift of Jim & Carol Luntz, 999.6
4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art
1.
“Stephen creates ceramic sculptures. Susan draws on them before they are fired. They share the work and the rewards.”
2.
“Their greatest work of art is Raku Place, the 47 rural acres they have turned into a series of 18 connected gardens, based on their shared interest in landscape architecture.”
3.
“Stephen calls many of his ceramic forms ‘Biometric’ because they are based on shapes found in nature, others are based on traditional ceramic shapes.”
4.
“Susan grew to love the unpredictability of Raku, comparing it to child rearing: ‘You wish for the best, but don’t always know what’s going to happen.’”
BONUS: “Raku firing is when the ceramic form is buried in the ground to react with trapped smoke and gases.
Kemenyffy Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.
