As you may have noticed the “In the Artists Studio” series took a HUGE break over the summer. Responses have been slow coming in and this sat in my email box throughout our move and I only “found” it recently.
Anyway, Susan Sorrell is a fabulous artist and I consider her a great friend – even though we’ve never met. I find her art inspiring, fun and her use of the internet and marketing resources available to her make her a business inspiration as well. So, here’s my interview with the famous (or infamous..tee hee) Susan Sorrell:
Mary-Frances: How did you develop your style?
Susan: How I develop my style was by trying all different kinds of art mediums and researching different artists, looking at colors and designs until I felt comfortable with where I saw my work going. I knew I had to find my own niche, so people would remember my artwork.
Do I ever truly the depart from my style? I think at times when I’m developing a new online class I’ll start experimenting and trying new art materials something will click. also, I will see something in a magazine or outside when I am working in the yard or walking and that will give me an idea. I never want to be pigeoned holed into one subject matter or art medium, so I am always playing with new ideas.
Mary-Frances: The phrases you write on your pieces,are they what inspires the art or do you think of them as you do to pieces?
Susan: The words that I write on my pieces can sometimes come from different places, like from a song and that will inspire me to do an image or I will run across a quote and think of a great image to graphically illustrate it. In any case, it is a give-and-take and sometimes I will find a quote or saying but I don’t even use it in the piece but it will inspire me to create an image. Words can be a great starting point if you are ever blocked for an idea for a new piece of artwork.
Mary-Frances: Why the Internet for your promotion and what social media do you love best?
Susan: The Internet is just awesome and can allow you to reach millions of people that you would never have the opportunity too by living in your own little world. As individuals we are isolated, but the Internet frees us to roam and search for ways to meet other artists and collectors. The social media I love best is probably the Ning.com site that I created because you can gather with so many like-minded people and start your own little tribe. This has really helped in promoting me and my online classes. For my just personal fun I like Facebook because I have met so many people and rekindled friendships with friends that I knew years ago that I thought I would never see again.
I would suggest that if you are new to social media, that you grab some books on how to use social media market yourself. That is what I did and played around with a lot of sites to find my fit.
Mary-Frances: Have you always live in the South?
Susan: I guess for all of the people who do not live in United States, the South is the eastern southern half of the United States. That’s where South Carolina is located. I do love the South because of the customs and people. l have lived half my life in the South. My father was from Texas and my mother was from the Georgia mountains But, my dad was in the military so we did travel a lot and he worked for an oil company, so we moved around to different places overseas like Singapore and Egypt. It really did give me a worldview on how others live out of our country live. The South has a wealth of material for any artist and I have tried to use those images in my work. I love it for that reason, but get really frustrated by the closed minded politics and religious views people like to Push down your throat.
Mary-Frances: Tell us about your family and how they influence your art?
Susan: Depending on this series I’m working on I use a lot of personal information. When I was going through my divorce, that situation gave me lots of ideas for new pieces. If someone or something is bugging me, it might end up as a series. Going through my divorce it was great therapy to work through it out on canvas and in textiles and when I met my second husband I also used fiber are to celebrate that relationship. A lot of my work has a little bit of me and my family in it and it just happens that way. I don’t set out to do it all the time,it just kind of appears and sneaks in.
My fur child, Whoopi Doodle as been a source of inspiration,but those pieces were gifts to my husband. I do like using animals in my work and would like to do a dog and cat series in the future.
Mary-Frances: You have done a lot of teaching through the years, how do your students influenced your work and style?
Susan: When I was teaching elementary art, I loved to see the children created out of thin air and how their minds interpreted my lessons.that was a huge inspiration for me especially when I became a full-time artist and had to start creating on my own without a group of people around me to brainstorm with. now that I teach online, it is wonderful to see how students interpret my classes and that just inspires me to do more online classes to see what they can come up with. also, I have done a lot of reading on creativity and how other artists approach their work and that has a been useful to me in a lot of ways. Studying art education/history is a great way to fill in your creative spaces.
Mary-Frances: Have you had any problems as a result by being so virtually connected?
Susan: one of my biggest problems is time I spend way too much time on the computer that I don’t spend enough time on my own art, which I am trying to fix. scheduling certain times to be on the computer would be great, but it’s hard when you teach online and you run your business online. Basically I am online and connected 24/7. I wish there was better way to go about doing this but I have not found it yet. I have tried doing all of my marketing and promoting on the computer one day a week…but still get sucked in during the day.
Mary-Frances: Curling?
Susan: You asked about my recent fascination with the sport of curling I started curling because this is one sport I figured I could do with my husband that did not involve running I have no idea how this will work into my art that one way to look at it is I’m reaching a whole new group of people who did not know what fiber are yet and maybe they will possibly become future collectors I don’t know but I needed something to take me out of the studio and get my mind off of work overtime
If you liked this, be sure to read “In the Artists Studio” with Sharon B. of “Pin Tangle”
