When I graduated with a degree in graphic design, I worked for one of the best design firms in Denver. That steep learning curve on the job was a perfect way to develop lifetime skills – and a love for design that I feel is the glue for just about everything I do. Working for different companies – corporate inhouse departments and freelance for numerous big and small businesses – I started experimenting with my own ideas for products that weren’t for any client, but just for me. Way back, I began to do a couple shows, display my work in galleries, and set up an online presence. Nothing big – but a whole lot of fun and flexibility.
After losing my house and studio in the Marshall Fire on December 30, 2021, I rethought what it means to be an artist and author and began a deep, conscientious journey of discovery and recovery. I feel creativity is the key to invention, flexibility, and happiness, all necessary energies to help me rebuild my home and life, and to rethink my studio from the ground up. In the process, I have rebuilt my internal heart to be tuned to the workings of the earth and to the community around me.
There are common threads that keep coming around – songs of the ancient storyteller Wind even in her 100 mph furies; the resilience of the prairie through devastating burns, bone dry winters, and scorching summer heat; the activities of birds, bees, and butterflies finding refuge in my new xeric gardens; and the amazing people who drop in for tea, stay for conversation, and gaze at the mountains on a refreshing morning.
I have a reverence for Mother Earth. She shows up in my drawings, in my garden, in the wildness around my place. She is memorialized in the words I write, the books I produce, the newsletters I send. I have found that the more I am curious about her, the more I slow down to pay attention. I try not to rush as much. One of my new forms of illustration has been to burn wood, which is the epitome of slow, measured speed.
The ideas keep coming. The fire took a chunk of time out of my calendar to rebuild and set up my studio. I had to get new artwork finished and files to the printer, sketchbooks started and books reprinted. But time is a healer. I’m grateful to be an author and artist to smooth the way.
Thank you for your interest in my work, and please don’t hesitate to go to my Etsy store. I appreciate your support of my small, AI-free, independently owned business.
— Sue