Meet Susanne Mitchell | Artist/Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Susanne Mitchell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Susanne, how do you think about risk?
Calculated risk-taking is essential for change and growth. I have taken a fair number of risks in my life and have found that they often lead to profound experiences that positively impact my life and work. A few years ago, I was feeling a bit stuck with my art practice and teaching. So, I started to cold contact various organizations in South Africa to see about going there to live and work for a while. I sent a short message inquiring about communal artist studio spaces and included a link to my website. I got no responses for some time. Then, one of the organizations called Greatmore Studio’s responded and invited me to come and participate in an artist residency. I thought for sure they would rescind the offer when I informed them that I would need to bring my child, but they agreed. So, I quit my job, put my stuff in a storage unit, and off we went. This adventure turned into one of the most significant experiences of my life and career as an artist. The project I worked on was inspired by my experiences of my surroundings in my studio located in Cape Town. I explored social systems and power dynamics relating to race, class, and gender as they manifest in post-Apartheid South Africa. These issues have considerable universal relevance. I hope that my artworks create a profoundly visceral experience in the viewer, stimulating empathy, awareness, and reflection.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a visual artist and educator. My artworks draw from my life experiences and surroundings to reflect on the human condition as it is affected and informed by history and current socio-economic systems. The works, rooted in painting, combine various materials and imagery such as fabric, wallpaper, stenciled lace patterns, and figurative elements. Through these materials and images, I examine and recombine elements that serve as a lexicon of signifiers, which reference history, race, gender, family systems, and home.

I grew up in the woods in southern New Hampshire. I moved to California to study art at California College of Art and then lived in Los Angeles for ten years. In 2002, I moved to Colorado to attend graduate school at the University of Colorado in Boulder. I was previously married to a Malawian man and have spent significant time traveling and working in Southeastern Africa. During the 1990’s we shipped cars to Africa and started a backpacker’s lodge in Malawi. This experience of traversing continents and cultures between Africa and the United States has greatly influenced the direction of my artwork. I am interested in the phenomena of culture shock and re-entry shock; The brief time after returning home from a foreign place, when the mundane, unnoticed, and familiar are fleetingly exposed to consciousness.

In addition to being an artist, I have worked as a full-time teacher and am a single parent. My most significant success is maintaining my artistic practice and not giving it up despite the challenges. Being an artist is about perseverance over the long term. One learns to navigate rejection, and strength is built from that. You have to find your audience and selectively put your energy in places where it is best expended. Lately, my artistic practice has involved working collaboratively with various local art collectives such as Artnauts and Pink Progression and with my students through my teaching practice. Joseph Beuys said, “To be a teacher is my greatest work of art.” And this is true for me as well. Reframing my teaching as a part of my artistic practice liberates it from being just a job, which it has never been for me. Making art is something I do because I find great interest and purpose in it. There is always something beyond my reach that engages me and keeps me interested and creating.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Denver Botanical Gardens is one of my favorite spots to visit. You can bring a picnic dinner to eat among the beautiful flowers. The Museum of Contemporary Art is another favorite. The building is fantastic, the exhibitions are always worthwhile, and the rooftop restaurant is a great place to meet with friends. First Fridays on Santa Fe is an excellent place to people watch, and the Museum of Nature and Science a great place to go and sketch with students. I also love to visit the Brass Armadillo Antique Mall because it’s filled with odd things from the past.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Dr. George Rivera Dr. George Rivera is an artist, art critic, curator, and founding member of the Artnauts Artist Collective. I studied with him when I was a graduate student at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has remained a significant influence and mentor. Dr. Rivera taught me to be brave and engage with the world in any way I could, and I am forever grateful to him for that. It is teachers like him that made me also want to become a teacher and hopefully influence my students in the same way.

Website: https://susannemitchell.com/home.html

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanne_mitchell_studio/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-mitchell-8ba88a13/

Image Credits
Wes Magyar (images 1,2,3,and 5) Jenna Rice (headshot) Todd Herman (images 4)