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

Suzan , appreciate you joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

The most unexpected and the most difficult problem I’ve had to accept and understand so I could continue my art-making was cancer. In 1994, when still in my thirties, I was diagnosed with oral cancer and underwent what was the first of 17 operations until 2018. No one can expect to be diagnosed so young and then have to face so many surgeries. It took some time to adjust my work habits. Thankfully, because I have terrific doctors and a support team with my husband and friends, I was able to continue to exhibit almost every year since that time. It came to pass that my cancer was due to genetics. My father had oral cancer in his early forties and passed away at 50. Firstly, I changed to using only nontoxic materials in both printmaking and painting.
That was an easier transition than I imagined. I designed a process of nontoxic printmaking. I taught courses on that at the Women’s Studio Workshop in New York and made guest appearances at university classes.
During those years, I learned to work around the interruptions the surgeries would bring to my ability to create. The pauses lasted anywhere from two weeks to two months. But I was always able to return  exhibiting solo as well as participating in scores of group shows. I scheduled exhibitions far enough in advance so I had enough work in case I needed another surgery. More than once, I had surgery within days of an opening.
To keep in physical shape I always hiked, biked, lifted weights and ate healthily. This was essential in maintaining my ability to make art.
This healthy lifestyle became even more important in 2018 when my cancer became potentially lethally aggressive. I underwent right jaw replacement surgery, radiation and more surgeries. I could not eat for almost three years and was on a feeding tube. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to paint again – if I survived. Again, thanks to my doctors, my husband and swallow and physical therapists, I was able to recover so I could eat and continue working out by biking, stretching and weight lifting.
Last year, after four years of barely going in my studio, I began painting again. Smaller pieces at first. Tressa Williams, owner of the Billis-Williams Gallery in LA, who has been supportive of me for years, visited my studio and we began talking about an exhibition. I began working more and more. I hired an assistant. I can’t work 10-12 hours a day any more but I can work 8 hours. Now, after five plus years, I have a new body of work, Back From the Edge, which I will be opening at Billis-Williams on May 11th. I am lining up future exhibitions. It’s been a long and often brutal journey but I am so happy to be creating and exhibiting again.

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

Since I was a child growing up on the edge of the desert in Phoenix, I was immersed and enamored with nature, which was only natural. On my paternal side, I am a fifth-generation westerner. My middle name is Dwight after John Dwight Woodruff, who built a cabin in Wyoming in 1871 in co-operation with his friend Chief Washakie of the Shoshone people. My maternal grandfather was a gold prospector who taught me “to read rocks” when I was child. My maternal grandmother, an original member of the Church of Self-Realization, told me I was reincarnated from a great artist. I believed her so I never had to “choose” to be an artist. I was always inspired by the landscape, the sunsets and sunrises, the stars in the night sky. Now, I often look at images from NASA and the Hubble telescope. Traveling around the world, and most especially a four-month residency in India, opened up new natural vistas and colors to infuse into my work. Early on I did illustrations of natural settings, plants and animals which were sold for commercial use. By the time I received a scholarship to study art at ASU, I’d moved on to abstract visions of nature. While I was in college, I worked making monoprints at a gallery-owned printing press. At the same time, I was working on abstract paintings and sculpture.
As the only woman printmaker, that became a lesson in itself. This was before the me-too movement, so I learned to navigate the male dominated world, which has benefited me throughout my career. It is very important to set boundaries. When a male would tell me “You have (testicles…)” I’d respond “No thanks, I don’t want them. I’m good the way I am.”
I always loved creating art in all its forms, and my ambition starting out was to never need a secondary income and I’ve been lucky enough to do that. I began to show in Phoenix galleries, while still at the press. When I moved from Phoenix to LA, I opened my own small art press business, Zuma Art, working with other artists making limited edition prints. Handling the dueling aspects of running a small studio and pursuing my individual art career was demanding. As I sold more and more of my work, I closed Zuma studios.
I am most proud that I have followed my vision as an artist and that I have connected with enough people to sustain my artistic life and support myself. I only occasionally do commissions because each piece is unique and exact replication is impossible. I designed my Gravity Easel over twenty years ago and had it fabricated. This easel which spins, whirls and tilts has helped define my work and make it easily distinguishable, especially in person, from others working in the same abstract form. The easel allows me to work in a state of controlled chaos, which I believe, in its way, mirrors our world.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being able to spend my life expressing my artistic visions in my own creations is by far the most rewarding aspect of being an artist. I love it when people respond to the work. Everyone seems to bring their own insight and interpretation. Or memories of certain places they’ve been or maybe wish to go. And many collectors have said they feel emotion that resonates with them when they see my work. That is so gratifying.
I can work all the time as I want to. After I’ve created a new body of work, I can travel to the exhibition if it’s another part of the U.S. or a foreign country. If someone in France or Germany or Sweden has bought work, I can see it in its new home when I visit and it makes me so happy. I’ve sold works as far away as Australia, which I have never seen in its new home.
I also have the freedom to travel. When my husband, who is a novelist, was still teaching at CalArts, we traveled during his breaks. Now that he has left his position and I have recovered, we can go any time we feel ready. This past fall we traveled to Norway and saw the Northern Lights, Fjords and glaciers.
My style and manner of painting are quite physically and emotionally demanding, and I am a perfectionist, but when I create a painting that matches my expectations it is a wonder, and wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to survive and be healthy enough to continue creating paintings and now my sculptures that appeal to the viewers emotions and imaginations as an experience of living among the natural wonders of nature that I hope to recreate in my work. My ultimate goal is to bring more beauty into the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.suzanwoodruff.com
• Instagram: suzanwoodruffstudios
• Facebook: Suzan Woodruff