We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hannah Sucsy Aka Teascarlet a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hannah Sucsy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I learned how to paint by painting. I really have no formal training like art school, and never took painting classes or lessons.
I don’t know that there’s a way to speed up the process of learning to paint, but I could be wrong. Maybe there are techniques that would have been helpful to be taught instead of learning by trial and error. But I don’t have anything to compare it to, so I’m not sure.
The skills that have been the most essential in becoming a full-time artist are persistence in my artwork and willingness to learn business skills.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a full-time artist, running my studio gallery and community events in my very small rural town. I really wasn’t planning to open a gallery here where I live. I spent a while pursuing what I thought was “The Real Art World” in places like New York and Paris, and truly had some rewarding experiences through that. But when I saw a space for lease where I live, I instantly knew my art belonged in this building. Less than a week later I had the keys and was hanging my art.
While my gallery is my solo space (with limited guest appearances), I am passionate about elevating other artists around me. A fellow artist and I have created an Artist Studio Tour for our county, and this will be our second year organizing the event. I am committed to changing the way my community views and values creativity. Specific ways I’m doing this are by creating spaces and events that spark hands-on creativity, talking about being a full-time artist as a legitimate profession, and engaging fellow business owners and community members in recognizing the way that art elevates our community as a whole.
One of the things I’m most proud of is my sidewalk chalk art event called Chalk the Block. People come out to make art all up and down the sidewalks of downtown Bonners Ferry, with an optional contest. This year was my third year putting it on, and I sponsored a professional chalk artist who stunned everyone with her gorgeous work. I would love to continue growing the event, with more professional artists, while keeping the main event open to all ages and all skill levels.
The other thing I’m most proud of is the amount of original art I’ve sold. While I sell a lot of fine art prints of my work, I love keeping track of originals sold. Since opening the gallery in April 2023, I’ve sold over 350 of my original paintings! This includes everything from my tiny hand-painted ornaments to my 5′ tall canvases.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A message I got early on in life was “Don’t be an artist–get a real job!” That, along with the general stereotype that you can’t make a living as an artist, kept me from pursuing art seriously when I was younger.
When I was 40, much of my life was flipped up-side-down. I was at a crossroads, with the crazy question “what if I could make a living with my art?” in the forefront of my mind.
As I considered the idea of doing art full time, I had to confront that image of myself as a starving artist. I had sold maybe a couple dozen of my paintings by this point, and I started imagining that if 25 people wanted to buy my art, so would 250. I’ve worked constantly since then to remind myself that there are people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on art, every day. So it’s not a given that I’ll be a starving artist–I can figure out how to get my work in front of people who connect with it, love it, and buy it!
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
“The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron, was the first drop in the bucket to start to value my creativity. I love her insight and exercises about “filling the well.” Jen Sincero’s “You are a Badass” played another significant role. It gave me this belief that if people are buying tons of bad art every day, surely they would want to buy mine too, even if it wasn’t that good.
More recently, I have started group coaching in some of Amber Lee Smith’s programs. I listened to her podcast “Abundant Heart” for at least a year and a half before I signed up for any of her programs. One concept I have learned from her that has been so helpful is the Law of the Harvest. I can trust that if I continue to plant seeds, water them and give them the proper environment to grow, I can trust that there will be a harvest when the time is right. Some seeds take weeks or months before there is any visible growth above-ground. This is an excellent reminder in business–there are collectors who saw my work and followed me (without me knowing) for 2-3 years before they every collected any of my art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://teascarlet.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/teascarlet_creates
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/tscarletstudio
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@teascarletfineart
