We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Susie Quiroz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Susie below.

Susie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents were always great about encouraging my creativity. I can remember my mom telling my siblings and I, “you are very creative!” Hearing words of affirmation like that during such foundational years goes a long way. When I became interested in music, my parents bought me my first acoustic guitar, and then later gifted me my first electric and a little Peavy amp. They let my friends come over and make all sorts of (probably unpleasant) melodic noise in the garage for hours. I think my parents encouraging my creativity and helping me believe in myself has a lot to do with how actively I pursued so many creative endeavors, even to this day. I started an original band when I was 17 years old. I am now 31 and just performed with that same band a few weeks ago.

Because of what was invested in me, I now work as a youth and child mentor and teach 1-on-1 creativity classes, inspiring the natural artists in kids and helping them believe in themselves too.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started a band called Brother Rabbit when I was 17. We are still going strong and are currently writing new music. We are a rock act that features trumpet and the occasional cello. I also have a solo music project of acoustic singer/songwriter material under my maiden name, Susie McCombs. However, my passion project is and always will be Brother Rabbit. There are some very talented individuals who play with me in that project and I am forever grateful for their relationships and contributions.

Avant-garde fashion photography was a major inspiration to me as a teenager and is what inspired me to become a portrait photographer. Technically, I started doing photography for clients at age 15. But allow me be very honest and humble here and let you know that I, in fact, was not good at all when I started. But thanks to the numerous individuals who allowed me the practice on them, I was able to develop my craft much more. In fact, things even wound up coming full circle for me. A few years ago, I was privileged to get to collaborate with Turkish fashion designer, Pinar Eris, whose work was what originally inspired me to become a photographer. Though fashion photography is what fueled my beginning, I offer all types of portrait services. My work can be found under the name SusieQ Creative.

Lastly, as far as my creative endeavors go. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but never released any publications outside of the songs I wrote. Thanks to the encouragement from an accomplished author (and the editing assistance from my English major mother), I wrote and self-published my very first book in 2020. The book is an autobiography called The Day I Went Swimming & Didn’t Come Up the Same. It entails the details of an accident I experienced in childhood that caused me to suffer a traumatic brain injury, as well as what life is like living with the disability the TBI left me with.
The following year, I wrote and published a children’s adaptation of the book. It features original illustrations from two teenagers I used to mentor.
Both books are available on Amazon.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

People often perceive others who have experienced hardships as resilient. While that may not be false, I think the reality is that everyone experiences hardships. We just have the choice of 1). allowing God to intervene in our lives and 2). choosing to grow from hardships. The alternative to both of those choices is just giving up and deciding to become bitter. I don’t know that I can say that I am resilient. But I, like most other people, have had plenty of life experiences that have offered me those alternatives of giving up and becoming bitter. Though that is the easier choice, it does not lead to a peace-filled life in the long run!

The majority of my life, I have been “recovering” from the traumatic brain injury I suffered when I was 11. I am grateful to say that today I am a high-functioning TBI patient, independent adult, and your average contributer to society. But the TBI impacted me physically, mentally, and emotionally. For most of my life I have had to find ways to compensate for all of my little physical and mental limitations. (For example, I am typing this with just my left hand because my right one lacks those functions!)

To those whose journeys differ from mine, I might SEEM resilient. But the reality is that giving up and becoming bitter made for a much more sad future than a disabled person who just tried her best every day. I eventually learned how to allow God to intervene in my life and began to learn how to grow from hard things that happened to me. Both of those things have brought me an indescribable peace.

The most we can do every day is just try! I have been learning to live my life around that mantra. If I miss the mark and don’t do a good job, then I mentally pat myself on the back for trying anyway. So I would gently argue that perhaps I am not resilient. I just keep trying. Anyone can do that!

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

-To create the music, art, etc that I am passionate about. To not limit myself to creating things that I feel others expect from me.

-To always be encouraging, kind, and humble. It is a focus of mine to offer hope to others who are struggling.

-To always stay teachable. I am not always right.

-To glorify God in everything that I do. He gave me these gifts and this creative drive, and He daily offers me grace, forgiveness, and peace. I hope to spend the rest of my journey honoring Him with my art with a joyous and grateful spirit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.susieqcreative.com
• Instagram: @brotherrabbitok @silllysusie
• Facebook: Facebook.com/brotherrabbitmusic
• Youtube: YouTube.com/brotherrabbitmusic | YouTube.com/susiequiroz

Image Credits
Photos by Luis Quiroz and Sonny Reza