We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Susan Cofer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Susan , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

I had submitted a small collage to the High Museum Gift Shop. I am thinking it was in the late 1960’s back when the museum was a much smaller operation with a very small paid staff and a dedicated group of volunteers. I’m trying now to conjure up memories of the other merchandise, but it’s a bit foggy. I only remember that someone from Maryland bought my effort. I hope they have continued to enjoy it.

Susan , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Sitting very still for my aunt as she painted my five year old self introduced me to the process of art, the smell of oil paint and the sound of a brush on canvas. Art classes soon after were more tolerable than piano or ballet. Years of drawing when I should have been listening to high school teachers led me toward the study of art history in college. My wonderful experience in a woman’s college (Hollins) gave me a deep study in how things were made over the centuries. It was expected that we knew how to make frescoes in the manner of 15th century Italians and egg temperas exactly as Northern Renaissance artists used. Plaster casts and all forms of printing, making gesso and stretching canvases were part of our education. Careful study of art throughout the ages taught us about composition and intention. It didn’t matter that in the 1960’s all the work we studied was by what later was disparaged as”white men”. At the time, and even today, I celebrated it for the work of human beings. This has held me in good stead as the boundaries of art exploded. I continue to value the genius of humans of whatever country, gender or color. Anyone who dares to try to communicate with the limited resources of art supplies knows the frustrations of trying to say what can’t be said in words. Some humans can just do it better than others. They are my teachers.

By the 1970’s after teaching in an Atlanta high school and taking additional art classes I found the seed of what I felt I absolutely must try to convey. It came to me as if from nowhere but now in retrospect I can see that it had been put in my way by authors and poets, composers and scientists who had been sending me their messages throughout the otherwise chaotic years of the ’60’s, made more chaotic by the fact of being in my 20’s. This seed was optimistic, it was unifying and undying and I felt it had to grow, so I started making the drawings I have become known for over these fifty plus years. Because colored pencils were on my desk and required no preparatory work it was easy to begin with them. They have been my primary medium ever since. When I draw a line I leave a space between it and the line I draw next and for the most part the lines are always vertical even in horizontal compositions. I found that paper is important. After several experiments I discovered that hot press watercolor paper works best for the pencils. I tear it randomly and relish the challenge of working with unexpected shapes. Color has always been a matter of layers. In my drawings it’s necessary to focus intently to see how color builds. Sometimes there are as many as 15 layers of color carefully placed so that there is always that space between the strokes. There is meaning in my drawings. If I could tell you what it is I would be a poet.

In the mid ’80’s I was commissioned by a friend to make a family portrait. She surely knew that I did not make portraits at that time. Given the freedom to play I was inspired to make small papier mache heads and place the four family members in a house made of postcards. It was a surprising diversion from my usual work but led to other commissions. Today, I continue to make these portraits but now they are leading toward a large artwork with a story to tell which is explained below.

Pride, it’s said, goes before the fall. Risking it I will say that the retrospective of 90 of my drawings at the High Museum was a major moment, though I have had many solo exhibits at smaller institutions in the south and beyond. My work is in museum collections and owned by people who love it. An enormous satisfaction.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Every human has a deep well of knowledge within them, knowledge that understands more than spoken language communicates. We each aim to bring forth all that we know but it’s not possible. I think of it as the Tower of Babel effect: with no common language we grab for what we can use. Musicians play, dancers dance, cooks cook and artists make the visual work that comes closest to expressing what they know be true. That is what drives me though success is ever out of reach. There is some happiness in this as inadequacy demands that I keep trying.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

What question! Most everyone I know who makes art of any sort and those who appreciate having the arts in their lives ask this question of themselves almost daily. In the past years I have been making small papier mache portraits of people in Georgia who have spent years trying to make a “thriving creative ecosystem.” My subjects range from gallery owners, philanthropists, critics, museum leaders, collectors, curators, teachers, to singers, composers, players and artists who care about other artists. I continually wonder where the ambition comes from to make these people dedicate their time, money, and energy towards the creation of a culture. As younger people move into the Atlanta area they assume the arts have always been vibrant here. My aim is to celebrate the people who have made it so. “Society” would be best to remember these glorious people. Unfortunately there will not be enough time in my life to make portraits of them all .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://susanseydelcofer.com

Image Credits

portraits photos by Jerry Siegel