Going Big: Artist Susan Lefler Evolved Her Practice and Invested in Herself

When Susan Lefler stepped away from her corporate job to pursue printmaking full time, she needed to find a new rhythm. For years, her creative practice existed as a side-hobby, with small evening projects (cards for friends’ birthdays, small leaf studies captured after collecting autumn leaves) carved and printed after the 9–5 workday. Those pieces were intentionally modest in scale, giving her room to explore techniques and composition.

Initially, stepping away from the steadiness and structure of her corporate job gave her pause. Fearing she would feel unmoored without the usual deadlines, she decided her first project in her new “life” as an artist would be to carve and print a large scale woodblock piece, something new to ground herself to. Gone were the small projects on the side. Her artistic work needed to take center stage.

With the help of Big Ink, a workshop that encourages artists across the US to explore relief printmaking at large scale, for the past two years she’s taken on the personal challenge of creating one large-scale printmaking project each year among her other projects and commissions. The shift was not only about artistic growth but also about learning to trust her own abilities and fully invest in her identity as a printmaker.

Lefler’s commitment to scale began with a simple question: How does my art shift if my usual 4”x 6” or  9” x 12” linoleum blocks become 24” x 36” or 36” x 36” woodblocks?  

Pattern, texture and botanical details are central to Lefler’s practice. Scaling up allowed these visual elements to unfold in new ways. While her attention to micro details and small textures remained, she could now explore them in larger, sweeping compositions. 

Lefler’s first large scale piece, “Natural Disco” took a familiar subject of her work, leaves, and reimagined them into a larger circular mandala-inspired composition. The final piece, 44” x 44” is inviting both up close and at a distance. 

In her 2025 Big Ink print, “Here Emerge the Creepy Night Bloomers”, Lefler challenged herself to explore larger botanical subjects and imagined mystical florals. Her arched composition features florals crawling out from an inky black background.

This journey into large-scale work also introduced Lefler to a broader artistic community in the DC-area. Carving independently in her home studio, the workshop environment gave her guidance, support, and the chance to print alongside others. Seeing fellow artists tackle their own large blocks affirmed her belief that printmaking is wonderful because it can be both an independent and communal art practice. The hours spent sketching and carving alone are a natural counterbalance to the vibrancy of printing in a collective space.

While Lefler continues to grow her artistic practice, she sees the commitment to working at larger scales as central to her artistic development.

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