Rising Stars: Meet Susiehyer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susiehyer.

Hi Susiehyer, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a kid. “I remember drawing a pair of ceramic flamingos my mother used to keep on the dining room table when I was four years old. I knew from that moment I would be an artist when I grew up.” That was, I mean if I couldn’t be a flamingo or a bird.

I was fortunate to have multiple kinds of art classes in both primary and secondary public education. But in 8th grade, you know how they made you take these aptitude tests? Mine came back telling me that I would be best suited for work as a cowboy or a park ranger. Which probably did fit. But I really never wanted to do anything but make art. It is telling though, that I have ended up doing some western shows and until recently, painting in plein air events where you are painting outdoors on location in some pretty amazing places, including national parks and recreation areas.

I attended art programs at Moravian College, The Baum School of Art, and the University of West Florida in the 1970s. I got started right out of college looking for exposure in galleries and national shows. When I moved to New Orleans, I got involved with the Women’s Caucus for Art as a chapter president and a national vice president. The WCA was making lots of opportunities for women in the arts that they may not have previously had. We hosted a lot of shows and conferences on women’s art. It was a good stepping stone.

When I came to Evergreen in the mid 80’s I tried to get involved in the art community here, but I was looking for something different from what was offered here. Child rearing and a 15-year hiatus from my work ensued out of necessity. When my kids were more independent I basically had to start all over again. Whatever reputation I had been able to achieve had faded like a gas receipt in the sun on your dashboard.

When I got back on track I got a scholarship to start classes at the Art Students League of Denver and also enrolled in the Denver Botanical Gardens Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration so I could remember how to draw! I loved it! I also took workshops outside of the League. I feel really fortunate and grateful that our art students league in Denver and the Denver art community have such amazing instructors and some of the best painters in the country (IMHO). The instruction and the connections I made there proved extremely valuable.

I gradually got involved in doing plein air events because I used to paint in Rocky Mountain National Park a lot and the Cultural Council of Estes Park always held an event. A friend of mine was doing it and encouraged me to apply. It was so fun, and profitable that I looked for others to apply to. These events have taken me all over the country, and I have met so many artists, organizers, and collectors from doing these shows. It has seemed to me to be like my big family. All those shows led to many other interesting opportunities to travel to places I had wanted to go explore and paint. One thing just led to another. I’ve had many wonderful invitations

Then, of course, there was always the painting, both outside and inside the studio. Honing your craft, learning new things about painting, exploring new ways to think about what you are doing, new ways to put down the paint, and pushing the edges of design or color. My studio is like a science lab, with boxes of experiments all over the place,

Gradually bowing out of the plein air circuit (or circus) I have been invited to some other kinds of shows that suit me better these days. The circuit can be a grueling way to try to make a living on the road going from show to show. I’m ready for something else to show up.

How I actually got to where I am today remains a mystery to me. I was just doing what I loved and following my intuition about where to go and what to do. I had no business plan. I’m sure I never will… It’s just not in my nature to set myself up for failure by trying to make some sort of plan I might not be able to stick to. I guess the thought of sitting behind a desk at a computer scared the crap out of me. Oddly enough, that’s become at least half of my job as a painter! So the joke’s on me. LOL.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The challenges of a home and a family are definitely a thing. My husband or my kids never begrudged me for traveling and not being home. But not being home. I did miss some kid activities and milestones. It’s still a balancing act, even though the kids are grown and my husband is retired.

Being a WOMAN artist is a challenge. Just because I’m a woman. Even in this day and age. No matter how much attention has been brought to the issue in the past. A few days ago I was talking with a male artist friend who heads up a fairly well-respected group of painters. He made the statement that, with respect to this group, the boys “were the best painters” and that “some great female painters have come about the last decade.” He then added, “I’m not chauvinist but it’s the hard truth” So it’s still out there. But it’s entirely not the fault of the men either. It’s so ingrained in the roots of the collective unconscious… It’s cultural. It’s religious. It’s ethnic… It’s disappointing. I’ve heard many female artists lament that we have to work 3 times harder to get the same recognition as men. (That is if we expect to have that recognition 50 years after we’re dead). It’s up to all of us to change our thinking.

To be fair, I think a lot of it also has to do with our perceived yet outdated male/female roles. A male artist who is supporting a family and a mortgage on his art has no choice but to be anything BUT successful. His family’s welfare depends on that success. A woman artist who also is in charge of the kids, the house, the property, the PTA, the cooking, and the laundry better be highly motivated and eternally sleep-deprived. But I understand there are drugs for that. Or wine at the very least.

If my road has been at all smooth, it’s because I try not to let any of this deter me from what I want to do. I am also fortunate to have the support of my husband these many years, and my family. Maintaining a positive “can do” attitude and pretending the rest is an illusion is a strategy I try to employ….with varying amounts of success.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I paint in oils mostly…..I’m generally known for my LANDSCAPE paintings (you know, that cowboy, park ranger thing?) But I’ll paint anything, try anything for fun. My early work was all abstract and I’m exploring that again, both pure abstraction and abstracting the landscape. There’s so much I want to explore with my work. Color studies in complements and harmonies. High and low-key paintings. Tonal effects. I love drama in painting and that’s kind of a new thing for me…..those dark stormy skies behind sunlit foregrounds are exciting me at the moment. I’m also thinking about how to tell more of a story with the landscape…. what does a landscape narrative look like? It’s like a big playground out there, with slides, jungle gyms, and sandboxes.

I don’t know if there’s any one thing that I do that’s so different from most painters. Many painters sell everything they paint, I don’t. Some paintings I use for reference for future work, I love and value what I do. So there are paintings I just enjoy looking at over and over. Many are great memories of where I was and who I was with when I painted them, kind of like a photo album is to most people. My studio is full of paintings I will keep until such time as I get tired of looking at them. I don’t know whether or not other artists are that sentimental about their paintings. But I’m prolific enough to have plenty that can be sold.

One of the things I’m most proud of is the recognition bestowed on me by my university. I was the 2022 recipient of the Comenius Award from Moravian University. It’s their lifetime achievement award and a huge honor. I guess that’s something I never would have even thought of…. being recognized for my work by one of the oldest educational institutions in the country. (Moravian was founded in 1742). I’m still kind of in shock. I only know of one other woman artist who was honored in this way by their alma mater.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was very social and had lots of friends. I was the happy-go-lucky kid who laughed and giggled all the time. My mother would give me a nickel to play and giggle at some neighborhood friend’s house. Then their mother would give us a nickel to play and giggle at a third friend’s house. I didn’t understand why giggling was something that drove parents to drink, but I guess that was where I figured out that if I was happy and giggling while doing something I liked, I could make some money off of it. It was my early class in entrepreneurship.

I was the kid that was in every organization. Girl Scouts, 4-H, Pioneer Girls, and such, In high school, arts, music, and sports, were the only things in a school. curriculum I was ever interested in, (the rest of it was severely depressing). Roller skating, ice skating, biking, swimming, and springboard diving, gymnastics, dancing, skiing, archery, and anything physical. I was intensely competitive at field hockey. I was outside, in the woods, in the water, hiking, climbing up stuff, skiing down stuff, jumping off stuff, every chance I could get. (That cowboy, park ranger thing, remember?) I was also interested in home economics, cooking, and sewing. I made a lot of my clothes, much to the distress of my friends and the amusement of the cool kids.

In effect, I was ADHD.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.susiehyerstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susie_hyer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusieHyerStudio https://www.facebook.com/susie.hyer/