Check out Beth Surdut’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Surdut.

Beth, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
As a professional artist, writer, and storyteller, I have the good fortune to be able to express verbally and visually what comes of experiencing nature. And I get to share that with you.

Prior to Raven, that iconic spirit guide, calling me the Southwest, I spent three years paddling with alligators on the wild and scenic Myakka River on the Gulf Coast of Florida, painting and writing about human interactions with paradise. Explorations in Jamaica, Indonesia, and Australia, and six years residing in Hawaii fostered large-scale paintings as well as extensive stained glass, textiles, and product design.

I’ve hung from a rope in a tropical fern forest, piloted a small plane through the hot lava reds of sunset, climbed a mountain to bathe in a holy Hindu spring, swum with barracuda, kayaked amidst seals and dolphins, wandered through monkey forests, held a flying fox, driven around with a lizard in my pants, and know that grand adventures can be had right in my yard as long as I continue to practice the art of paying attention.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My work as a writer, artist, and environmental educator is an invitation to observe, with unbounded curiosity, the wildlife that flies, crawls, and skitters along with us in our changing environment. From my perspective, paying attention brings care, care brings love; and that love engenders protection.

My primary focus is using my unusual skill set to create the multi-platform “Art of Paying Attention” illustrated nature series that includes written stories, audio, and meticulous drawings. I research the behavior of each creature, write about our encounters, interview experts, collect sounds for the radio pieces, draw each critter, and record with a professional engineer. At this time, 20 of my Paying Attention stories have aired on NPR in Arizona, and more are being produced.

Since 2008, when I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I have been focusing on desert denizens and what we can learn from them. My “Listening to Raven” illustrated collection of true raven encounters won the 2013 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award for Non-Fiction. Orion magazine published my illustrated essay on the Las Conchas fire that roared through New Mexico, destroying high desert habitats. The Encyclopedia of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico contains my raven illustration “The Reason Why” along with my explanation of Raven calling me to the southwest to draw and collect first-person accounts of interactions with this clever corvid and iconic spirit guide.
In March 2015, I moved to Arizona, home to more than 1,500 recorded wildlife species. Along with selling my art and nature essays, I using my multi-platform nature stories as teaching tools and facilitate outdoor Paying Attention workshops in the desert under the aegis of the National Phenology Network. I am a certified as an Environmental Educator by the Arizona Association of Environmental Educators.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
My advice to artists is that they should expect to be paid for excellent work and unique creativity. Treat your art as a full-time business. Much as we would prefer to just be makers, we need to be our own advocates and wear all the hats necessary.

My advice to cities and everyone else is to expect to celebrate and pay for art, to recognize that beauty is a necessary antidote to despair.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work is online at www.bethsurdut.com and the best way to keep track of current and upcoming projects, exhibitions, and performances is by following Beth Surdut Visual Storyteller on Facebook.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bethsurdut.com
• Email: info@bethsurdut.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Beth.Surdut.Visual.Storyteller/
• Twitter: @BethSurdut

Image Credit:
Beth Surdut

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