A few weeks back we had been taken with an wonderful sculptural door we found on a Houzz tour had to learn more about the artist who designed it. This led us to Austin sculptor Susan Wallace, who specializes in dealing with aluminum and generates beautiful, one-of-a-kind customized screen doors as well as prominent public artwork projects.

After receiving an MFA in sculpture, Wallace landed a job working at the model shop in the University of Texas School of Architecture, which led to teaching first-year design.

One day she was whining to a colleague about the dull options she had to choose from for her screen door. “Well, you are an artist,” he explained,”make one!” This led to a exceptional screen door with a spiderweb design on it, which led to another design professor commissioning her to create a door to get a project, and a design star was born.

Stuart Sampley Architect

Wallace was originally brought into design this door with this efficient and artful house by architect Stuart Sampley for The Austin Design Build Alliance.

Susan Wallace

The screen door in the former photo led to the commissioning of this slider at precisely the same home, created with negatives of the pattern of the door. At night, the glow in the master bedroom shines through the cut-out pattern at the steel door and yells lively shadows onto the deck.

See the rest of the two-bedroom Residence

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

This door brought Wallace back to her door-designing roots. The owners had two small boys who loved superheroes, and they gave Wallace a beloved Spiderman book for inspiration. This became her point of departure to create”the best, most dynamic spiderweb.” The plan isn’t too superhero-specific, as Wallace says”the children are going to grow up, but the door will continue forever”

Susan Wallace

“My designs don’t obstruct the view,” Wallace explains. “They create shadows from any kind of direct natural light or ambient lighting; here the angle of sunlight skews the shadows throughout the day, while the porch lighting transforms them at night”

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

Landing this door endeavor was fortuitous. “I’ve been coveting this home for 37 years; it’s a beautiful iconic house I admired every time I passed it,” says Wallace. “When I arrived to meet with the client, I could not believe I had the opportunity to work on it… it was a real deal.”

Wallace’s process for creating a layout starts with the home, both indoors and out. “I observe their house, their possessions, and how they inhabit it.” This information is translated into her designs, which start with a sketch. The drawings are then enlarged to scale; she generates the metal work along with them using pegs onto a desk.

Susan Wallace

“This is the cutest little stone house, which sits on a mountain place at a covey of walnut trees,” Wallace explains. “The area has the most incredible vibe.”

She persuaded the owner/friend that observing the pine leaves was predominant, and that having the layout”trickle” in the top of the door to the floor was the best way to go, since the tree branches hang over the home.

Wallace is constantly up for exploring and finding solutions to catchy fabrications. Here, the layout created exactly what Wallace dubbed”an intriguing challenge… my metal likes to go in curves and arcs, not hectic lines”

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

While customers frequently give her free reign, these homeowners — equally graphic artists — provided her with three postcards of work from their beloved graphic artists. This gave Wallace a point of departure; she provided them with three designs to chose from, and this one has been the obvious winner.

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

Wallace’s doorways are often asymmetrical. This”Circle Mode” layout gives a dynamic composition that stands up to the rectangles about it. While Wallace does the metal work, she often is based on John Hindman of Red River Restorations to fabricate the architectural doorways. They’re made from Spanish cedar, a wood that doesn’t react to humidity and is very secure (so secure, in fact, it is used on cigar boxes). Collaborating with architects, craftsmen, installers, planners and other musicians is a rewarding part of the job.

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

This door is a member of a gingerbread house built in 1890. Wallace studied the ornamentation within the home and out, and the result is this symmetrical layout that updates the 100+-year old details in a contemporary way.

This is an intriguing analogy to Wallace’s work, which that a client described as”mixing 19th-century craftsmanship with 21st-century aesthetic”

Susan Wallace

This obelisk is part of The East 7th Street Revitalization Project, a public art project in Austin. Eight of them line the main drag in the airport to town, making a gateway to Austin.

Wallace’s obelisk corresponds to the cardinal points, and every panel responds to the surrounding landscape in its color and pattern. Blue faces the river, orange faces the sunset, green faces the farmland to the east and purple faces the urban core of Austin.

Susan Wallace

To come up with her designs, Wallace circled the 3-4 cubes of surrounding region, documenting the grillwork, pottery designs, and other ornamental elements from lawns and houses in the region. She then picked four of those archeological drawings and took a slice from each to get a corresponding panel. The metalwork sits about 3/16″ off the powdercoated aluminum panels, capturing the shifting effects of the resulting shadows created by the metalwork.

Susan Wallace

Believe it or not, that this project came from Wallace’s annoyance in the salon! “The joint ray with this skylight was a tiny bit off and it drove me nuts!” laughs Wallace. Having finished several projects with the salon owner in the past, she came up with 12 drawings to show her, all which fooled the eye and took the attention off the skewed column.

“This layout functions much like my doorways, because it’s in the foreground,” says Wallace.

Susan Wallace

The bands are created by bending the metal round pegs on a desk. Though they may seem like it, none of the shapes are true circles.

Susan Wallace

This tree of life design in the University of Texas Department of Human Ecology begins 5′ off the ground and extends the following 15′ high and 22′ wide. “because kids age 3-5 pass by it on their way to the child development lab, a movie was made from the installation project so they can observe the making of the wall in perpetuity,” says Wallace.

View the process of designing and installing this job

Susan Wallace

The sculpture functions as a design. The copper glass leaves are engraved with the names of people who make contributions to an endowed professorship.

Here Susan on her work desk, making a section of the Tree of Life.

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

The UT project led to this Wall of Roses in Delta Kappa Gamma, an international society for women teachers. The installation was quite a challenge, since the wall extends a stairwell and is constructed from solid concrete.

A method of magnets solves the issue of incorporating donor leaves over time. The green leaves are permanently connected to the wall, and as donations come in, a lighter-colored glass foliage with the donor’s name on it adheres to the foundation foliage through magnetic backing.

Susan Wallace

Susan Wallace

This door’s layout was created to get a natural chicken farm. It was originated from their emblem, which incorporated a sunburst, a chicken, along with a Texas star.

“I opened my own studio in 2001 and I’ve been really humbled by getting to do what I love,” says Wallace. “Everybody thinks their door is the very best door!”

Susan at work on her most recent project, MStation. The project hasn’t been photographed yet, but we expect to share it with you later on.

See more of Susan Wallace’s job and Discover her contact information

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