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 great 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 with the Reformed Church in America, and operated a spiritual retreat center in Sonoita, Arizona for 7 years. Suz retired from ministry in 2020, moved to Mexico and devoted herself to making art full-time. She has made Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco her home since 2020.
As an artist Suz specializes in abstract painting utilizing acrylic paint and collage. She also works with oil pastel, photography, 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 galleries in Nevada and Arizona (USA) and Jalisco (Mexico) and is held in private collections world-wide.
Artist Statement
I’ve been making art in some form or other, my whole life. My art reflects my belief that everything is spiritual, and we are all One.
I am inspired by nature – after all, the Divine is the consummate artist – whether She is painting the sky with a breath-taking sunset, or creating a tiny, colorful reef fish that no one will ever see. The ocean, the mountains, the jungle, flowers, animals…all of nature moves me to create, and explore texture, layers, color and emotion.
I am struck by the ephemeral beauty that constantly surrounds us, if only we open our eyes and notice. For me, most of that is about color, which is reflected in my paintings.
I’ve recently become fascinated by rust, decay, and how things fall apart. The life cycle in the natural environment - which juxtaposes beauty and entropy - has led me to examine and deconstruct my own societal conditioning and religious beliefs. These explorations are expressed through the various elements of my work (colors, shapes, layers, and textures) and together these components form an intriguing conversation.
My Artistic Process
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 layers of play involving 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.
