We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Suzanne Papiewski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Suzanne , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I have supported myself since age 18. I put myself through college and law school (I went to law school at night and worked full time). I graduated from law school with honors and landed a fantastic job, and have had a very successful career in a male-dominated field (international tax law). I went through some very difficult times as an adult, including a divorce and a serious illness. I was a single mother for many years and my son now has a college degree and a graduate degree. Overcoming these challenges has made me very resilient.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I long for a world where women are given the same respect, notice, and opportunities for leadership and self-actualization as men. In that ideal world, women have an equal voice and patriarchal constructs do not oppress us. My art puts women center stage. My work typically features a female protagonist who is not restricted by traditional gender roles and in fact may involve rewriting gender mythology – such as the “creation” of Eve out of Adam’s rib. In my art, the female leading character is multidimensional and is not forced to live up to impossible standards of “purity.” She is in charge of her own sexuality and has no shame in that. Every piece tells a story and I intend to reveal layers of meaning, including whimsicality.
I use a method of deconstructing and reconstructing faces using features from individuals with different ethnic backgrounds. My goal is to create a face that blends disparate characteristics so that any woman can see herself in my art, as the star of the work. I hope to empower women to identify with the subject of the piece, and give her a jolt of happiness, recognition, and the fantasy of existing in a world where women live without limits.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. being fearless about making art that is personal and communicates your emotions 2. making your art bold and unexpected
3. being influenced by other art but staying true to your own aesthetic
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I think it is a good idea to experiment with different art media while also focusing on and ultimately relying on our strengths. I am self-taught and only started making art in 2022. I am very fortunate to have met other artists who have been very compassionate and generous with their time and advice. They have helped me with basic aspects of my art, such as choosing materials, and also helped me choose some online courses.
Although I focus on making collage, I wanted to learn how to paint with acrylics because I use that method to make the background of my collages. For example, in my piece entitled “Portrait of a Self-Made Woman” I have a collage of a woman in a suit standing on top of the world with her head in the clouds. I painted the globe, the sky, and the clouds for that piece.
I decided to take an online class on painting an abstract landscape. The first step was to sketch the landscape, which included a house. Since I don’t know how to draw, even that step was a challenge – but I did not give up. The next step was making an underpainting. When it came to painting the actual image, the online instructor moved very quickly and I had to pause the lesson and watch sections of it over several times. It felt slow and painful, I was not a natural at this. Even though this process literally hurt my brain, I persevered and even created something that is very good. Although I will not start creating abstract landscapes, and I will continue to make collages, I learned so much in that online class. I find the learning process to be very exciting. When I am learning I really feel alive. I want to continually learn and improve my art and improve myself as a person. I have used what I learned in that online class in all of my other works, and I have a huge sense of accomplishment as a result.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @__pink__poppy
Image Credits
All photos were taken by Greg Staley.
