Art & Life with Suzanne Klotz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Klotz.

Suzanne, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Since earning my Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1972, I have consistently exhibited my art as well as conducted workshops in conjunction with my art exhibitions in the United States and overseas. Between 1980 and 1993 Elaine Horwitch represented my art in her galleries in Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Sedona, and Palm Springs, until her passing in 1993.

My artist residencies include the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Lakeside Michigan Studios, the Oklahoma Arts Institute, and the Arizona Commission of the Arts Collaborative Leadership Program and Artists in Schools Program. During artist residencies throughout the 1990s, I facilitated collaborative exchanges for Palestinian artists and art workshops for youth in refugee camps in Palestine. Other international residencies with collaborative initiatives include West Africa, Mexico, Taiwan, South Australia (Aborigines), and Jordan. During 2013-2014 I was a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan.

My awards include a 1985 Arizona Governor’s Women Who Create and Educate Award, Governor’s City of Phoenix Improvement Award for a sculpture in Roosevelt Park (downtown Phoenix Historic District), and Texas Tech University’s Most Distinguished 2-D Graduate Student Alumni Award.

I was awarded two NEA Craftsman Fellowships and a shared NEA Arts Performance and Dance Fellowship and an Arizona Commission on the Arts 3-D Visual Artists Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, a Puffin Foundation grant to work on a collaborative project with a Palestinian artist, Change Inc. grant from the Rauschenberg Foundation, and two NY Artists’ Fellowships.

I am an Associate Professor of Fine Art and taught in higher education for eighteen years as full-time faculty and guest artist appointments at Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University, University of Utah, University of Texas San Antonio, California State University Stanislaus, and Arizona State University.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I work in all media: ceramics, painting, drawing, mixed media, wood, furniture, sculpture. My work is extremely detailed and elaborate.

My intent as an artist is to direct the viewer’s power of reflection toward a personal examination of current social, humanitarian, and cultural issues.

The inspiration for my current work originates from my association with diverse cultural groups during artist residencies and researching cultural symbolism in pattern and design.

My art conceptualizes the values and concerns of segments of the world society, many driven by the myth of ownership and the illusion of separation. Imagery referencing the history and traditions of specific cultures is symbolically incorporated into my work.

I’m currently working on a tent construction for exhibition in the Middle East. I am one of seventeen international artists who have been invited to participate by Naim Farhat, independent curator, and organizer. The tent is titled “Pushed in the Sea, Refugee Prayer Tent.”

Art reflects the values of the society that produces it, and in so doing, bridges the divide between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Art is invested with the power to encourage personal investigation of truth and unify humanity.

Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
Good questions. I think it’s harder for individual artists today because the appreciation of fine art hasn’t been encouraged in our public schools and educational systems for the past thirty-some years. Therefore, there are much fewer individuals who invest in fine art because they don’t have an appreciation or understanding of the uniqueness of specific artworks and their emotional, intellectual and spiritual value. A larger percent of the masses today consider ‘art’ to be their purchases at Ikea and Target that they hang over their couch. Creating art is very expensive and time consuming for the creator. Collectors are the lifeblood of artists.

Art appreciation (which includes art history) should be required in all public schools, rather than the first subject administrators cut in attempts to “save money”.

Contact Info:

• Website: suzanneklotz.com
• Email: klotzsuzanne8@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/public/Suzanne-Klotz

 

Image Credit:
Katherin Hervey

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