An Interview with Susan Pickering Rothamel.

In the interview that follows, Susan shares her history as an artist, her reflections as a teacher, and her passion for art.

H.G. You didn’t always want to be an artist and teacher did you?

S.P.R. I once wanted to be a doctor, medicine still being a favorite topic of discussion. However, I believe that in the wink of an eye, at age 28, I was sincerely directed to follow another course. I believe that when I heard that voice saying to me, “Art can do far more to heal a soul then medicine ever will,” I had no choice but to listen. The voice was not wrong. Many people have entered my world over the past 25 years. Sometimes they are filled with pain — from either mental distress or a physical disability. Yet, armed with only a paintbrush in their hand, they are — at least for a short time — healed. The transformation from pain to serenity never ceases to astound me.

My journey has been from initial baby steps in oil painting, to teaching classes less than a year later, to my explorations into graphic arts (pre-computer), watercolor, acrylic, papermaking, ceramics, enameling and then to the work I do today. My work has evolved and matured as a natural course of events. However, more importantly, directly as a result of those first steps, I have had the opportunity to live the most wonderful life imaginable.

H.G. Was your education a formal one?

S.P.R. I once took a wheel-thrown pottery class for no other reason than I had to discover what others found so appealing. I have had a love affair with ceramics ever since. Having gone back to college as an adult, I was eligible for a program that allowed me to write my own curriculum — which, when approved by the professors, required a thesis written and a grade given. That meant color theory, chemistry, creative writing and art history could be lumped into “one semester” with nearly a single book written as the outcome. It was an excellent education because of the necessity to do investigative research, develop and execute a program, writing and presenting the thesis — all the while fostering great respect from the teaching staff.

H.G. Tell us what led you to become a full-time artist and what you learned from it.

S.P.R. It didn’t take me very long to realize that making even a modest living as an artist was a tough row to hoe! However, I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and I learned from dinner-table conversations and observations that an entrepreneur wears many hats ... and I love hats! Therefore, I not only did art — networking and marketing to galleries — I became an art instructor, finding a niche that was yet undeveloped.

The class that launched me as a full-time “art instructor” was an art materials safety class. I became an advocate for providing artists with the information and the tools necessary to work in a safe environment — no matter what their media. Before that, there was nothing promoting that subject, even at a collegiate level.

H.G. As a teacher, your work has truly expanded. What do you try to instill in your students?

S.P.R. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. I am a firm believer that artists must get all the information available about a specific product. What is it supposed to do? How is it supposed to be handled? What is it made from? What has the manufacturer actually said about that product? Then, our job is to push the product to its extreme limits — only then fully understanding all that media’s capabilities. It is studying first and then experimenting to the fullest that allows us to be the most creative.

H.G. Speaking of creative, tell us about your art.

S.P.R. For a number of years now, I have worked mostly in the paper arts/mixed-media arena — paper is the most versatile of all the media I have tried to date. My work is inspired and directed from God’s Word. Therefore, I use the Old Testament to derive visual images and stories that are transformed into what I call my “good art.”

Keep in mind that I also own and manage USArtQuest, an art materials manufacturing and distribution company, and at the same time produce magazine articles, develop classes and do morning stints on television.

Additionally, I also create an extraordinary amount of art “on demand.” This work is challenging, because I want it to be representative of my strong beliefs. It is not however, the work I take to galleries or sell on consignment. Nonetheless, it is extremely satisfying art, because it still seems to speak to people on a personal level.

H.G. Please describe how you create your pieces.

S.P.R. I have many journals and sketchbooks. During my time of meditation or even in the middle of the night, I will work out my thoughts into a sketch. I work from those sketches, especially when I really want to create art, but am not feeling particularly creative.

My two resources are always at hand — my Bible and my sketchbook. From those ideas, I select the papers to be used to make the art. Using only archival materials is very important to me, such as watercolor board, Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA), mica and natural-based pigments.

I work at an easel, much as I did when oil painting. Each piece of paper is placed much as a painter places paint. The PPA works both as an adhesive and a sealant. I use nothing else. Occasionally, I work in multiples, but mostly I work at one piece until it is complete. Then I thoroughly clean up my workspace and begin again.

H.G. You have a home studio, don’t you?

S.P.R. My home studio has been a journey of its own. When I began, I worked in the middle of the living room floor, moving my art up high during the day. After all, one cannot have oil paints around small children. There was never a convenient way to work — yet I managed to create 60 paintings for my first one-woman show — less than a year after I had begun my creative journey. Can’t you just see me sitting on the carpet with paints and paintings strewn all over the room?

In our next home, we converted the formal living room into a studio. Working there was a real experience with teenagers wandering in and out demanding computer time, graphics customers sitting at my drafting table waiting for their hand-drawn logos, and my husband begging for dinner.

When my husband and I designed the home in which we live now, I was given full encouragement to design and build the ideal working studio. By the way, it will be featured in an upcoming book, entitled Women’s Spaces, from Sterling/Chapelle publishing. Little did I know when

we started that house that USArtQuest would begin here and quickly outgrow its 1000-square-feet of working space — in only four years! Now I have two studios, one here and another at USArtQuest, Inc. in Grass Lake, Mich. We’ve been there for six years. Of course, it helps to have a husband who is a woodworker, too. Imagine all the lovely “manly” tools available to me and just a few steps away!

H.G. How has your involvement in art helped you, expanded you, and so on?

S.P.R. Through art, I have been given myriad unique opportunities. There is the exciting, innovative part of me that is a product developer — working on new art materials and marketing them to stores and consumers. These are the hard parts to my multifaceted art career also.

I’m a business owner so I must design a tradeshow booth, meet ad deadlines, write articles and edit a book that may also needs lots of art. Although, all of this is part of a business I have chosen and love, it’s also important to find my emotional balance — which often comes by simply making a greeting card for my favorite aunt, creating a special piece of art just for my home, or preparing for a gallery showing of my “good art.”

I’m very fortunate. Thanks to an enormously supportive husband, family and staff — as well as amazing friends — the exciting is made more interesting and the hard parts more manageable. Beyond the challenging work is still the part of my life that continues to be the most satisfying — it’s the part I share with as many people as possible, either personally or through my art.

Harriet Gamble is a free-lance writer from Indianapolis, Indiana.