We recently connected with Suzanne Frazier and have shared our conversation below.

Suzanne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Deciding to pursue a creative professional path, sort of creeps up on one.

I have known that I wanted to be an artist since the sixth grade when I was recognized as a “gifted child artist”. I was signed up for an after school art class. I loved it until the instructor drew on my drawing “to make it better”. I couldn’t handle my feelings of her altering my intention. I quit. I refused to go to the class. I didn’t make art again for a long time.

In college, I wanted to take art classes but my father wouldn’t pay for those classes, because my degree wouldn’t guarantee success. Instead, I majored in Philosophy and graduated in 1969 with Honors. My father was very pleased.

I continued my philosophy studies in a University Masters Program. After coming up against discrimination, as one of only two women in the class, I quit after eighteen months, because men kept telling me that no college would hire a woman philosophy professor.

In 1972, I started working full time, first, as the Continuity Director and, then, Promotions Director at KHOW Radio in Denver, CO. After I hit the “glass ceiling” at the radio station, I moved on to Frontier Airlines. I started out as a Sales Representative and my last job at the company was taking on the position of the first woman Ramp Supervisor/Assistant Manager, designed to break the “glass ceiling” at Stapleton Airport.

After working for over 10 years, in 1986, I decided to take a summer school class at Denver University and begin my pursuit of my dream to be an artist. I had saved up enough money to return to college. I later transferred to the University of Colorado, Boulder, where I completed a BFA Degree in Studio Arts.

In 1990, I rented a studio in a warehouse and began to paint full time. I had no idea what I was going to do next. Then a friend asked me to be her “art teacher” and I heard myself say “yes”! Being an art teacher wasn’t on my list of professional goals but I thought I would give it a try. I taught a series of classes and then my friend recommended my classes to her friends. And the rest is history. Since 1990, I’ve been teaching weekly oil pastel drawing and water-based oil painting classes, along with Contemplative Art Retreats at retreat centers.

Then, people wanted to purchase my art that was hanging on my studio walls. Also, I exhibited and sold work at local art exhibitions. At first, I was taken by surprise that people would find my contemplative oil paintings something they would want to own. After awhile, I came to terms with my embarrassment.

Over the past 30 years, I have been a professional artist selling my work and teaching. It’s who I am. I grew into the professional path with the help of encouraging friends and strangers.

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

Since 1990, I have been selling my oil paintings, teaching art classes in my studio, and hosting Contemplative Art Retreats at retreat centers. After working for ten years, in Denver, first, at KHOW Radio and, then, at Frontier Airlines at Stapleton Airport, I quit my job and returned to college in 1986 to pursue a BFA Degree in Studio Arts from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

I believe that Art is a vehicle for exploring the exterior and interior landscape of our existence on this planet.

Viewing the world from a meditative practice, I call myself a Contemplative Artist. To me, contemplative art is the product of creative expression rising from the pure joy of creating, grounded in a meditative connection to the radiance and perfection of spirit known only through one’s experience of being fully human.

During a contemplative experience one does not observe anything specific but rather a feeling emerges from the meditation. Likewise, I choose to create work that does not refer to any specific location or time. I choose instead to invite the viewer into my meditation of my collected emotional responses from residing in Colorado since 1972.

Each painting lives in its own place and time. It breathes on it’s own, free from a particular association, reflecting back to the viewer a new way of seeing. The painting changes as the viewer breathes in detail, subtleties of shape, and nuance of color. Then the painting breathes back to the viewer. A relationship ensues.

The painting process sometimes begins with heavy application of oil paint with a pallet knife to create texture. After the layer of thick paint dries and hardens, I begin the next layer, painting the contemplated image. Other times, I paint with a pallet knife that leaves little or no texture.

Color is the predominate features of my work, especially creating unique hues to reveal a particular mood. After applying untold layers of paint to create unique colors, my interpretation of my heart-centered experience arrives on the canvas.

I share my contemplation.

BIO

Suzanne Frazier integrates a BFA degree in Studio Arts from the University of Colorado with a BA degree in Philosophy from Lake Erie College to create a philosophical/meditative approach to art making. In September 2015, Suzanne published, “Contemplative Art”, a book describing her meditative painting process and definition for contemplative art amid images of her cloud paintings.

As a working artist since 1990, Suzanne teaches weekly oil pastel drawing and water-based oil-painting classes at her studio in Longmont, CO. She also facilitates spiritual journey contemplative art retreats.

Her work is in private collections in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. She was a founding member of D’art Gallery in the Denver Art District on Santa Fe from 2019-2023. She participates in the Open Studios Tour in Boulder County.

Since 1986, Suzanne has created over 500 pieces of art and sold over 250 pieces including oil pastel drawings, oil paintings and ceramic sculptures

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is “sharing”.

As an artist, I create work to share my perspective about living on this plant, my philosophy of life, and the environment I live in, but I, also, in each painting share a part of myself.

I spend so much time on a painting, working from a contemplative perspective, that when it is finally completed a part of myself has been painted into the abstracted colors. I meditate before I begin each painting session and I paint from a place of “not knowing”, letting the painting reveal itself through the creative process of applying paint of many hues/colors to the canvas surface. It’s a process that I enjoy and throw my entire “beingness” into with abandon.

It’s hard to explain the joy of creating work. In some ways it’s a mystery. It’s totally unexplainable.

However, when I exhibit my work or open my studio to visitors, there are individuals who respond to my work with “I don’t know why I like your painting but it speaks to me”. That’s the sharing I am referring to.

Usually when an art appreciator responds to a work of art, there is something in the color, shapes or images that invites them to look closer and even enter into the work. When I interact with such a person, the conversation is rewarding in that we find something in common between us and we share our individual responses to the work. I am always delighted to have these interactions.

That’s when I know I have “shared”.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Maybe the one thing that “non-creatives” might struggle to understand about the journey of a creative is that we love what we do.

In my case, I only paint with the colors I love. I only apply the paint with the pallet knife and brushes that I love. I only create work with images or abstract ideas that I love. I think, that artists are the only people in the world who get to do only what they love to do.

The ideas of “ought”, or “should” or “have to” just don’t enter a creative’s mind when we are creating. We move into a “zone”, or “flow”, where we lose track of time. And if we are lucky, we lose a sense of the space we are working in. One might say that we have moved into “infinity”. And, then, if we are really blessed, we lose ourselves and let the process happen. At times while I am working, I move into a space where I am only aware of the paint and the brush painting on the canvas….and that is all!

When I finish working, I am so refreshed, invigorated, relaxed and joyful. It is nothing like anything else I know…. when working in the un-namable creative space.

I couldn’t be anything else than an artist!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.suzannefrazierartist.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeArt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/contemplativeartist/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ContempArt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SuzannefrazierContemplativeArtist
• Other: Blogger: https://contemplativeart.blogspot.com Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/contempart/ 9 Dots Gallery: https://app.dotfolioart.com/artists/5842/artworks