About the Artist

As a child, I wasn't particularly interested in art. I took the usual art classes that most kids take but I didn't pursue it at home.

It was when my husband went into the army as a dentist that I finally started becoming interested in painting. Up until that time, I had worked full time at an insurance company and I lived in Brooklyn near my family. All of a sudden, I was in Texas, had no job and my family was thousands of miles away. The only plus, as far as I was concerned, at the army base in San Antonio where my husband had his basic training the first month, was that they opened the craft building for the dependents during the day. I and two other army wives whose husbands had gone to dental school with my husband went to the craft building most days. I remember one of them was working on a ceramic chess set and I was doing my first painting with the acrylic paints that they supplied to me.

His permanent post for the next four years was Fort Hood Texas. Unfortunately, Fort Hood only opened its craft buildings during the hours when the soldiers were off duty so I wasn't able to go to them. However, I bought myself a set of paints and occasionally painted to fill in the hours.

After my husband's tour of duty, we went back East and settled in New Jersey. I was now a mother with a young son and had a lot to keep me busy but once a week I went to a local adult education class and took art lessons which I continued to do after my second son was born. Finally, when my younger son was old enough for nursery school, I also decided to go back to school part time. I enrolled at duCret School of the Arts in Plainfield, NJ and started my formal art education.

Although DuCret is actually a three year program, it took me 7-1/2 years to finish. I was only able to go 2 days a week at first, although later I was able to take 7 classes a year. I thought I would never graduate. When I started, there were only a few older students and I felt a little out of place because the majority of my fellow classmates were just out of high school but I didn't let it bother me. I received A's in most of my classes and one of my paintings that I had done in the painting class was chosen to be one of the selections on the DuCret brochure. Some of the teachers that I have studied with who helped and influenced me were Rhoda Yanow (figure class), Bill Longcor(photography), Bill Senior (watercolor), Chuck Nelson (beginning painting), Joe Dawley (advanced painting), Dr. Furman Finck (portrait).

It was while I was in Chuck Nelson's beginning painting class that I painted "Hat Box" from a wonderful still life that Chuck set up for us. This painting was later chosen to be part of the cover of the DuCret information brochure

I finally graduated in 1989.

I feel that an artist has three choices as far as their career is concerned. They can earn their living by fine art directly (painting plus teaching), they can get a job doing commercial graphic arts and paint in their free time, or they can get a job that is completely unrelated to the art field and paint in their free time. I've known artists who have used each of these choices. I feel that choosing any of them does not make you more or less of an artist because it's the paintings themselves that count. I personally chose to work as a commercial graphic artist.

I now have a job as a computer graphic artist at an electronics company working on their catalog and technical manuals. I am also the web master of their website, Electronix Express, which I created and still administer.

I also have a sister website Flower Designs by Susan where I am selling my original flower designs on a variety of t-shirts and gift items.

I also am always working on a new painting. I have recently made some of my painting available as fine art prints at The Untapped Source. More will become available in the future

Whenever someone tells me that they wish they had learned something as a child but it's too late now, I always tell them that you can start learning something new anytime. I know that's what I did.

Article about my work in the November 4, 2004 issue of the Westfield Leader, my hometown newspaper.

Please visit my sister site Flower Designs by Susan

Copyright © 2000-2007 Susan Savad
Last Modified October 7, 2000