Sue Havens Talk

   Today in class, the artist Sue Havens was gracious enough to meet with my peers and discuss her artistic journey. Sue Havens has been creating art ever since she could remember. From a young age she expressed herself through drawing, her style, and plenty of different mediums. Her artistic carrier extends in many directions because of her continuous curiosity in making art. Sues reflection of the nonlinear path she's taken in her 40 years of creating art, leaves me courageous to stride through my own creative journey. These are highlights of Sues Artist talk that captured my focus the most. 

    Sue has always had in interest in sewing. Her strong skill in sewing allowed her to take on projects such as handmade hoods, crafting hats, DIY toy making manuals, and sewing outfits. Although her sewing projects range very widely, all of them embody a cohesive style. In the following photo is a helmet Sue crafted and photographed on her friend Yan. The unique proportion combined with the linear pattern creates a warp in between two dimensionality and 3 dimensionality. Whilst the helmet itself has an illustrative almost cartoony depiction, the pairing coat and photographing techniques invoke a stylish elegance. 

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    Sues earlier paintings explore both dimensionality and flatness in figuration, creating whirls of intriguing paintings. Her rebellious use of shapes, color, and composition creates an optical illusion for the viewer.  Sue says her figure paintings were a small connection before she moved on to her more abstract artworks. 

Before/After (Green) 2008 Acrylic on panel 12" x 16" x 1

Sue's abstract work is created with her curiosity in the elements of a painting's dimensions. She finds motivation in natural objects and the challenge in incorporating them into paradoxes of normalcy. The work "Cruciform" was one of Sue Havens bigger scaled paintings. Her professor had motivated her to translate her sketch into a large painting. This painting's order of color and structure of shapes creates a scattered movement from every perspective. 

Cruciform 2004 Acrylic on canvas 54" x 68" x 2"

    The artist spoke about her time working in the Danbury Mint business. The Danbury Mint is a business that markets a variety of collectibles. She painted figurines and had to duplicate many of the sculptures from the company. With her time working here, she says she learned to mix any color she saw. Although she said it was not the most interesting job, the company was good to her, and the experience allowed her to become extremely skillful in color mixing.

Danbury Mint 

In 2013, Sue Had a child named Wesley. Sues life changes in motherhood led her to apply to jobs all over the country in hopes of finding better opportunities and a more dependable job. She acquired a job in the University of South Florida and has been teaching there ever since. While teaching in her university, she was allowed access to the ceramic studio. She began to work in clay and create slab sculptures. Just like her paintings, her sculptures incorporate her taste in patterns and shape. Sues ceramic works allow her witty attentiveness of dimension to be pushed into a completely three-dimensional way.  

Untitled 2018 fired clay, glaze 22" x 14" x 8"

Bolt 2017 acrylic paint on fired clay 17" x 5" x 6"

During Covid, Sue Havens paintings became much looser and freer. In the midst of a paralyzed world and state of mind, she began to reinvent her painting process. She experimented by throwing her paint down, and what she describes as "digging into the paper like clay". Sue says she was almost trying to reiterate the feeling of clay through painting. While her earlier works are much more uniform and tighter, her newer paintings feel as though they breathe with you. They present an ongoing journey of movement between the shapes and different fields of color, creating a more humanly interaction. 

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Hearing Sue speak about her journey, and her art process presents her passion so clearly. Her impressive range in artwork, and continuous exploration motivates me deeply to always indulge in all my creative interests. Her endless curiosity has furthered her artistic work into something grander each and every time. Her style is clear throughout all her mediums, yet each piece is distinctive and eccentric. It was lovely hearing the artist speak, and I am enticed to see her future art works.