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Growing up
in Palo Alto, I always wanted to be an artist.
Even though I was encouraged as a child to draw, paint and sculpt,
I was never one of those super-drawing kids in school.
But I did see pictures in my mind.
I remember lying in bed with my mother,
thinking her back was a television screen and I could see pictures on her
back.
My middle-class
family thought painting was no way to make a living,
so I didn't have any reason to think I could make a living from art.
For years I just kept doing other things for work, trying to be responsible.
But in my spare time, I would paint and draw, mostly portraits of people
and animals.
After I graduated
from high school, I moved to Lake Tahoe and worked as a nurse's aid.
I went to DeAnza College and later San Jose State, where I took classes
to become a registered nurse.
At one point, I thought I might become a marine biologist because I enjoyed
nature and the ocean so much.
However, after a few diving trips, I realized I wasn't all that comfortable
under water.
Artists were always
the people I wanted to hang out with, but in college,
where art was presented as being really strict and formal, I actually flunked
out of an art class.
We had to do things like make color charts with a hundred shades of gray
from white to black.
I could never do art with my left brain.
I realized that way of learning art was not going to be my way.
My way is just in doing it.
At age twenty-five, I attended the Academy of Arts in San Francisco.
That was when I finally made the decision to become an artist.
I felt really good about that decision; it was like shedding a false skin.
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I
had a teacher, Carlos
Loarca from Guatemala, who taught at the Mission Cultural Center in
San Francisco.
He was such an individual; a very intuitive kind of artist. I learned a
lot just from being around him.
Art was his whole life; he inspired me so much.
Once he said to me,
"You know how to draw and paint well enough. Now you just have to go and
make the pictures"
He also told me,
"A painting is done in a half an hour. All the rest is fooling around and
filling in the details."
I like this concept because it helps me not get so bogged down.
Many of my paintings take at least a month to complete because I put so
much detail into them,
even though the real core of the painting is done quickly.
I read somewhere
that if you just go into your studio and sit for eight hours, that's fine.
Normally I meditate and smudge with sage smoke before I paint.
I really like to be in the mystical realm while I work.
I begin by covering the canvas with one color and do what is called "painting
from the middle ground."
As I pick out the lights and darks, the picture begins to emerge -
much the way Michelangelo described seeing the statue within the rock.
I do sketches as a warm-up before I begin. But when I start painting the
canvas I stay open.
I don't have to be a slave to the study, but just allow the form to appear.
For me, painting comes down to moving the color around on the canvas.
Even though the ideas are meaningful, color is what really sends me.
I love the Fauvists' use of color; they were a part of the expressionist
movement in the 1890's.
Colors and shapes moving together put me into a trance.
Painting for me is not chaotic, or about crisis; it's sublime.
I've been a painter
for at least twenty years now.
Most of my work is done in oil, but I also do etchings.
I've worked my discipline to the point where it feels like a habit.
One thing I learned from art school was to keep sketchbooks and diaries.
I've created about fifty of these and I still get nourished from them.
Anais Nin, an early
influence, also kept diaries.
The way she related to her life inspired me and I spring boarded off what
she did with words except I use visual images.
Whenever I come up with something: inspiring dreams, quotes or images, they
go in my sketchbook.
These have kept me going for years. I illustrate my own dreams and others'.
For instance, I have an etching of Aphrodite that came from a dream.
She's on the classic half-shell, with dolphins swimming beneath her in the
ocean.
The ocean is like the subconscious and the dolphins are the messengers.
This blend of personal and collective mythology is typical of my work.
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If I were only using
my right brain, I'd be in outer space and not long in this world.
While I do my art with my right brain, I also love computers and find comfort
in left-brain activities.
Logic and order are a nice balance for all the mysticism in my art.
Having to turn in assignments every week in art school taught me discipline
and provided grounding.
My physical body is also a big factor in staying balanced.
As a child, I was on a swim team and had to swim laps.
Now I do yoga, jogging and meditation.
My children also
ground me.
Not having had them too close together has helped me to keep working.
Georgia
O'Keefe never let anyone see her work until she finished it, but since
I live with my family, I can't do that.
Even though I don't like much feedback when I'm working,
I've learned to discriminate between what's helpful and what isn't.
Some people will say it's not "pure" if other people's comments influence
your work,
but I do appreciate what I learn from others.
Some people need total isolation, but semi-solitude works for me.
The hard part is finding time to complete my work while
cooking, keeping house, making lunches and meeting deadlines and commitments.
But I think everyone deals with that no matter who they are.
With three children,
life does get challenging, but I think that's good.
The challenges keep me going.
A certain amount of tension gives form to my life, just another way of balancing.
Anais Nin said,
"The personal life that's lived deeply always extends beyond itself."
I feel that what you devote yourself to reaches the universal ground.
For us, life is about following our bliss rather than selling out to corporate
America.
It's great when people can do grassroots things to survive and actually
make it.
The more people do the things they love, the better off society will be.
Money is available and there are ways of accessing and translating it through
art and creativity.
Even when I was paranoid and thinking I should have a "real" job, I knew
that was my false self talking.
A friend recently gave us a couple of little books,
Don't Worry, Make Money ..and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ..and
It's All Small Stuff.
These are good for overcoming momentary depression.
They express how this is just a mood swing, like when the weather goes bad,
you don't have to base your life on it.
Life can get scary, but somehow the universe provides.
(continued here)
Be
At Peace and Many Blessings To You
-Suzanne
deVeuve-
September
2008
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Sojourn
Magazine Interview
(More about Suzanne)
Namaste!
I am presenting
my past paintings for sale here,
in Giclee, Laser Prints and some images in Greeting Cards.
All shipping, handling and insurance is FREE on each painting in the
U.S. , Canada, and all International Orders.
I stretch each canvas and have them packed professionally and lovingly.
ALL
images on my website
are available as giclee and laser prints
Giclee
Prints
16 x 20 <> $225
18 x 24 <> $275
20 x 24 <> $350
22
x 28 <> $450
30 x 40 <> $600
Laser Prints
12 x 18 <> $60
(all
prices include shipping)
Contact
me for any questions or further information:
sdeveuve@mcn.org
or
(707) 887-8767
I am using CCNow and Paypal to accept any and all Credit
Cards.
I also accept personal checks and money orders..
please call or email me for instructions.
Please visit my Current
Galleries, my original painting's are available
for sale,
and
my very popular Greeting Card
Gallery and Etchings.
I also do Commisoned Work.
Be
At Peace and Many Blessings To You
-Suzanne
deVeuve-
September
2008
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