About the Artist

Suz Hetrick

Suz Hetrick grew up in New England and has been making art for as long as she can remember. Leaving the snow for the desert as soon as she could, Suz earned her BA in English Literature with a minor in Art History from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. There she immersed herself in the arts - finding deep, spiritual joy in wandering through art galleries and museums, then writing about art and artists for the AZ Daily Wildcat. She worked as a freelance art critic for magazines and newspapers in Las Vegas, Nevada during the 1990s, while raising her children.

In the early 2000s Suz followed her spiritual calling and earned her Master of Divinity degree from Phoenix Seminary in Scottsdale, Arizona, while also taking painting classes. She is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament with the Reformed Church in America, and operated a spiritual retreat center in Sonoita, Arizona for 7 years. Suz retired from ministry in 2020 and devoted herself to making art full-time.

As an artist Suz specializes in abstract painting utilizing acrylic paint and collage. She also works with oil pastel, photography, crochet and other media. She studied abstract painting techniques with Matt Mays, Karen Leeds, Dick Phillips, Judy Woods, and Louise Fletcher.

Her work has been shown in:

The Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada USA
Brio Fine Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona USA
Creative Spirit Artists Gallery, Patagonia, Arizona USA
Art Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco MEX
SMA International, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco MEX
MuyGuud, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco MEX

Suz is married to her best friend David, and together they raised four children and lots of dogs. She has made Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco her home since 2020.

My Artistic Process

Utilizing mixed media, most of my work begins as an exploration of color and texture. My process is intuitive and spirit-led, involving several layers of various media: vintage and textured papers (as collage), followed by layers of riotous color (acrylic paint). That is then followed by further explorations and play in layers of pastel, fabric, crayons, acrylic markers, more paper collage, photographs, charcoal, pencil, and acrylic paint. I never know what a piece will be about until I am at least five to seven layers deep. Eventually a commonality will emerge from the fragments of ephemera I have subconsciously chosen. The colors, the shapes, and bits of collage will spark a connection, and a theme will slowly become evident. Toward the end, I will add a shape or section of melded color that ties things together. Some paintings take longer than others for the underlying concept to emerge and for the piece to coalesce. Because this process is intuitive, I cannot determine beforehand what story my paintings want to tell.