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

Suzanne, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have always loved to draw. I always did. At school I chose art as a subject and then I knew I wanted to pursue it in some way further when I matriculated from high school in 1974. I went to the Johannesburg College of art and enrolled in Interior Design. It was a 3 year diploma and after 2 years of experiencing a very rigid course, I had to leave knowing I definitely wanted to study Fine Art.
My parents, luckily for me, were so supportive of anything that would make me happy.
What I didn’t take into account is what lay ahead……what career was I following, IF there was one to have?
No one advised me, no one guided me, I went full steam ahead and did an honours degree in Fine Art majoring in drawing.
What a wonderful four years I had. I experimented in every medium, from sculpture, to printmaking, to painting and it fulfilled my soul. This is where I wanted to be. I learned the history of art and I loved each and every minute of my studies.
I still never knew where or how it would serve me as a career when I left.
Well in 1980 I married in my final year at the tender age of 22. I worked at an inhouse graphic design company for a group of architects and it was as if I was transported back to the college studying design once again. The job gave me an income for two years till I had my first child in 1982. I stopped work and took on a new role, as mother. Three years later my second daughter was born and at that time we decided to move away from South Africa as there did not seem to be a safe and happy life for our family as we were in the midst of an unjust and sickening apartheid system. We did not want to bring up children in this system and so moved to Toronto Canada in 1986 with two small children.
Life was hard and to make ends meet I started, with the encouragement of friends, to teach their small children art. This was the beginning of one part of my professional art career. Little did I know my tiny basement art studio would build up over the years to a small business teaching children. I loved this and they loved my classes. I developed a unique way of teaching as I was not interested in having a child copy anything or draw realistically. I wanted the child to draw/paint what they felt, what they think they saw and what was meaningful to them. Nothing they did was every “wrong” and erasers were not a part of the tools as all their ‘mistakes’ I helped them understand were NOT errors, just added gorgeous marks that would eventually enhance their paintings.
Years later many adults came to me requesting that I start an adult class, which I eventually did. This became a figure drawing class as well as an abstract class. Small, but very successful and very fulfilling.
Meeting the director of a large Jewish community centre allowed me to start teaching in a more institutional setting but I was not going to teach like many other instructors before me, I continued my path of allowing students to feel and paint and experiment and take risks, continually pushing each one, gently, to explore further and further.
I still teach and the students give me as much as I give them.
During this whole time of teaching from my home in the late 1980’s I started to explore my own work as I was dying to put pen to paper (so to speak). How can you teach a trade that you dont do. I had built a beautiful studio at home and had the luxury of being able to go work there in-between my classes. This has been my ongoing pursuit. I have painted now for well over 35 years in a serious manner. Entering shows, exhibiting at trade shows, having group as well as solo shows and thus, selling my art steadily over the years. It is not an easy career to pursue as it is not consistent. One month you may sell three pieces and for three months you may sell nothing. My backup is my teaching, financially, but looking forward, my art career as a professional artist has always been there, hovering in the background, always awakening me to the task at hand.
Social media has become big and is a huge outlet for me to show work. And my work is in numerous galleries and most importantly, as I tell my students, my work (as should theres) is ever evolving and always fearless.

Suzanne, 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?

I paint mixed media works of art on paper or on canvas or birch boards. They are exciting graffiti based works that usually incorporate words , spray paint, collage as well as dry mediums such as charcoal, pencil and paint of course. I do commissions based on what size people need, rather than their telling me what to paint. They obviously need to love my style and then the relationship will work well. Since covid started and I was restricted to going out or meeting friends, I started “making”, literally, my own new friends, I made plaster casts of torsos, painted them and named them and since then (2019) they are a hit. People love them, they are reasonably priced and they are sculptural and visually exciting to the eye. Each one is individual and no two are alike. A new branch off for me in the past few months has been to create assemblages which are relief like sculptures that are easy to hang, lightweight and again, extremely well priced. My website is suzanne metz.com and my instagram account is suzannemetzart and all the new work I make is available on these forums.
I am most proud of the changes and developments I am making in all three parts of my artistic processes. I am never stale and the same, I am ever evolving and a huge designer, namely, Ali Budd, picked me up as a potential artist for creating works she needs to fill in the gorgeous homes she designs. I am proud of this achievement. I am also proud of the fact that my work is gracing some magazines , like House and Home , chosen randomly from certain galleries and has given me wonderful attention to my art.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is discovering your creative potential over and over. This may not always be seem by the public, but just knowing I am constantly evolving is reward itself. The word creative or artist for me is not a noun. It is verb. It is about doing, taking action and being constant and consistent about the process, even if it making a small sketch once a day. It is an ever evolving practise.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

This is an interesting question as I find that the general public who are not creative or dont know about the creative process needs to understand that this is such a personal journey and that to put a price on a painting for example, is not an easy thing to do. They dont understand the work, the energy, the chi, that goes on behind the scenes, the expenses for the materials etc. The time is a question I get asked often. How long did the piece take you to make. I answer by saying 65. Thats my age now. It took a lifetime to get to the place I am now. There is no one hour or one week or one month answer to that question because in the end it doesn’t really matter, If you love the piece then you love the piece. Whether it takes an hour or a year to make, does it really make it a better or worse painting. No, I want the lay man to know that if you love a work of art, the artist has priced it to sell. It has to be worth that to you!! People dont hesitate to spend 3000.00 on a console or couch, but they hesitate and hang their mouths open if they hear this as a price for an art piece. The couch was made in a factory, the painting was hand made, literally. Understand this and you will understand the preciousness of an art piece you love.

Contact Info:

• Website: suzannemetz.com
• Instagram: suzannemetzart
• Facebook: suzannemetzart

Image Credits
1. mixed media on paper 2. mixed media on board “UP” 3. Mixed media on canvas “Magnify-cent” 4. Plaster torso Eve.