Deirdre Saunder Profile
Deirdre Saunder (Rhodesia & Somerville 1978) is a Washington, DC area artist and has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally. Her work is in a number of collections and museums. She is also a public artist and her installations can be seen throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia. She received her MFA from Oxford University, was a research fellow at Harvard University as a Knox Fellow, and holds a BA(Art) and a Higher Degree in Education from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She taught art at the Maret School in Washington, DC for many years and currently leads workshops at the Art League School and the McLean Project for the Arts in Virginia.
Rhodes Project: What is your favorite thing to do in Washington D.C.?
Deirdre Saunder: One of my favorite things to do in DC is go to the museums and art galleries. They are numerous and so many of them are free which is amazing and wonderful because it makes them accessible to everyone. My husband and I are also avid bike riders, hikers and pickleball players.
Rhodes Project: What was the last book you read for pleasure?
Deirdre Saunder: I’ve got a pile of books next to my bed that I want to read and it just seems to grow. I just finished a novel called On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. It’s a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read and is a powerfully told story that explores family history, race, class and masculinity.
Rhodes Project: What is the first job you ever held?
Deirdre Saunder: I got my first summer job when I was fifteen. I loved geography and math and I managed to get a job at Salisbury’s (now Harare’s) urban planning office. I thought it was going to be so exciting planning new neighborhoods and parks, but I ended up just checking the math and data that the surveyors gave me. It was before computers and the work was beyond tedious.
Rhodes Project: What do you enjoy most about your current job?
Deirdre Saunder: I am both an artist and a teacher. I think it’s a wonderful combination because while I love being alone in my studio, it can get lonely sometimes. Teaching fulfills the more gregarious part of my personality as well as the need to give back. Young people, especially high school students, are so eager and their ideas can be incredible when given the chance to learn how to be creative. I’ve retired from full-time teaching now because it became unsustainable to try and hold down two full-time jobs – actually three jobs if you include family in the equation. This has given me more time in my studio and with my family and husband, and I feel so extraordinarily lucky and privileged to be doing what I do. That said, the work is not always easy – in fact it is often hard and even occasionally boring, but it is fulfilling and meaningful.
Rhodes Project: What kind of artwork do you specialize in?
Deirdre Saunder: I am primarily a painter using acrylics, oils, and mixed media, but in addition to my work in the studio and having exhibitions, I’ve spent much of the last 20 years creating works of art for public spaces. When I lived in Europe in the late 1980s, I was blown away by the amount of public art that existed there, and when I came back to the USA, I decided that I really wanted to do something that would bring my art to more people than the small numbers who might see my work in galleries. I had always been very interested in architecture, urban planning and public spaces, and it seemed that it would be an easy transition from painting on canvas to “painting” with outdoor mosaic materials. So, I decided I would give it a try and applied to a local public art competition. I somehow managed to win the competition, learned how to work in mosaics, and then the whole thing just kind of snowballed from there. In more recent years and probably partly because of the pandemic, I have begun to concentrate more on my painting than pursuing my public art career.
Rhodes Project: What is the most challenging part of your job?
Deirdre Saunder: Painting is just hard. It is exhilarating at times when it is going well, but it can be also be frustrating and cause crippling self-doubt when it is going badly. Working through those moments is challenging and takes enormous discipline. The most challenging part of my public art job, on the other hand, is just getting the work done. When you’re doing public art, you’re often working with architects, construction companies, landscapers, plumbers and electricians, and the work is often delayed for all sorts of reasons causing the artist to revise schedules and lose necessary help. You are at the mercy of so many people which can be frustrating and costly, but the end result is so satisfying that you almost forget all the difficulties – like forgetting the pain of birth – and you do it all over again! The most challenging part of teaching has nothing to do with teaching. Working with young minds and actually “teaching” is the best part of the job. It is fun and rewarding (even with students who are struggling either academically or emotionally), but the amount of paperwork and emails that the job requires literally takes the joy out of it. Not letting that get to you or wear you down is probably the most challenging part of the job.
Rhodes Project: Who are some of your mentors or role models?
Deirdre Saunder: The mentors in my life have been my teachers (particularly my private high school art teacher, Helen Lieros), a couple of my colleagues, and my mother who was a physics professor and worked all her life. I have been extremely lucky to have had mentors who I have admired and who have believed in me. Helen Lieros was perhaps the most influential in my life as an artist. When I graduated from high school, I didn’t believe I could make enough money as an artist, and so I decided to become an architect. However, I soon discovered that was not for me and decided to take my chances and pursue a fine art degree. Helen Lieros’ encouragement and belief in my ability was extraordinary and never wavered, despite my own doubts and fears. Without that love and support I would never have considered such a difficult and financially precarious career.
Rhodes Project: What inspires your artwork?
Deirdre Saunder: My public art is inspired and dictated by the space and the people who frequent, work or live in that space. It is important to listen to what they would like to see and experience through the artwork. I believe that life is already hard, painful and chaotic for many, and that public art should be an uplifting experience for all who have to look at it. My painting, on the other hand, can be more political, angsty, and personal, and I aspire to make the viewer both feel and think. I am inspired by the natural, social and political environment I live in as well as the work of many other artists including visual artists, poets, writers and musicians. None of us live in a vacuum and I believe in the saying “steal like an artist” – not copy, but be inspired by.
Rhodes Project: What does an ideal day look like for you?
Deirdre Saunder: More time in my studio with fewer interruptions. I wonder whether that is possible given the need to make money, exercise regularly, have a family, shop for groceries, do laundry, make repairs to the house, clean, make time for friends…
Rhodes Project: If you had unlimited resources to address any issue, global or local, what would it be and why?
Deirdre Saunder: Combat misinformation - it seems that the world can’t solve anything like climate-change, hunger, immigration, migration, social justice, or pandemics without tackling this first.
Rhodes Project: What are you looking forward to?
Deirdre Saunder: Time with my grown children, my husband and dear friends, more time in my studio, some “bucket list” travel, getting older gracefully - and hopefully with my health and my faculties.
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