Meet Tina Suszynski

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Suszynski.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was raised on a barrier island in southern New Jersey. A beautiful place to grow up. My youth was full of exploration, sisters (I am one of five girls), sports and art. I started drawing at a very young age. My mother happily bought me a sketchbook and pencils and encouraged my art by searching out “art lessons” for me akin to the music lessons my sisters were taking.

This was not an easy task in our tiny beach town with no art center and very few artists. Nonetheless, she found the perfect person. So while my sisters all sang and played guitar in the church choir, I became a student of a local artist and art educator whose studio was in an attic space overlooking our back bays and tidal pools. This relationship lasted through elementary and high school and it allowed me to experiment with media not available in the typical public school art class. Because I was a high school athlete and took a few art classes, I was given the job of painting sports murals in the school auditorium and I also reverse-painted the glass windows at a local business for several years. I got very comfortable trying new things with new materials.

Still, for reasons discussed below, I did not pursue an art degree. Instead, I went on to get a BA in International Studies from a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. Fortunate enough to be able to spend my junior year studying in Paris, I visited the Louvre almost every week to soak in as much art as possible. I vividly remember my visit to the Rodin Museum that year and its strong impact on me.

After college, I went on to law school and took a job at a large law firm in Chicago. At the behest of my sister-in-law, I joined her in a nighttime ceramics class a year into my job. I was immediately drawn back into the creative world that I so dearly missed. The voices in my head had sent me in search of a “career”, but the undercurrent of art had always remained in my subconscious. I felt at home in this new setting and knew I needed to get back to art. I also realized that my passion was for sculpture. I had taken drawing and painting classes but it wasn’t until I started working in clay that I felt truly comfortable.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Despite early support for my art, when I started thinking about life after high school, the adults around me started to dismiss art as a vocation and urged me to follow a “real” career path, consoling me with the idea that art would always be my hobby. Heeding this advice, I did not pursue an art degree. Instead, I went on to become a lawyer and took a job on the 80th floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago.

Needless to say, this didn’t suit my temperament at all. After my second job, closer to the ground, working for a nonprofit legal organization, I decided to leave the law and get back to my art while raising three children. It was a hard way to get back into art. I was very isolated and had no connections to the art world. Still, I persisted and honed my skills. I took workshops whenever possible and set up a studio at home. It all worked out really well in the end. When I turned to face the art world after my third child graduated high school, I was excited to jump into the Denver scene. It’s been a fabulous experience.

We’d love to hear more about your art.
Many artists fail to see what they do as a business, an affliction I shared for the many years I created while raising our family. As soon as our third child left for college, I dove into the “business” of art and stepped back to take a critical look at what I had been making. I decided, with help from some new artist friends, that I needed to change my work dramatically. I embarked on what is now a three-year journey to reevaluate my goals and my artistic voice. I am enjoying installation work these days and broadening my repertoire of materials. Since I have always been a nature lover and I fear for our natural environment, I have decided to use my work to have conversations about climate change and human behavior.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I recently finished my first bronze. It was a brand new experience for me and I enjoyed so much of the process. I had always seen bronze as something I would get to when I felt I had achieved a really good piece in clay. I got there and I’m thrilled.

Contact Info:

• Website: tinasuszynski.com
• Phone: 303-587-9511
• Email: tinasstudio@comcast.net
• Instagram: tinasstudio
• Facebook: @tinasuszynskiartist
• Twitter: @tinasstudio1

Image Credit:
Wes Magyar

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