Passion of an artist.
Vision of a leader.
Dedication of a teacher.
Suzanne Fetscher holds an MFA degree and taught studio courses for five years at several central Florida colleges and universities. After teaching, she moved into supporting the work of Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenqvist, Roy Lichtenstein, and many others at the research/production studio and fine art press, Graphicstudio in Tampa.
Suzanne was then recruited to Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. There she worked in the program department for three years and then became Executive Director for five years. While there she worked with Edward Albee, Trisha Brown, Lukas Foss, William Wegman, Alex Katz, Donald Sultan, Molissa Fenley, Louis Andriessen, Milton Babbitt, and Faith Ringgold, among many others. During her tenure, she finished the capital campaign for and oversaw the $3.5 million expansion project of six newly constructed discipline-specific studios including a dance studio, black box theater, music rehearsal and recording studio, and sculpture and painting studios. The expansion project, the Leeper Studio Project, won a national AIA Award.
Suzanne was then recruited to serve as founding CEO of McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founding the Center was an adventurous and strategic opportunity for Suzanne to establish an ambitious international artist-in- residence program with a strong connection to the local community. During her tenure, Suzanne established the Center as a thought leader in the field of residency programs and cultural organizations nationally. Alumni Artists-in-Residence at McColl Center include Nick Cave, Mel Chin, and Joyce Scott.
In 2005, Suzanne created and launched the entrepreneurial Innovation Institute, an artist-led personal and professional development program for executives focusing on creativity and innovation. Since its inception, over 4,000 professionals representing more than 60 organizations, many of which are Fortune 500 companies, have participated in programs across the United States. Suzanne retired from McColl Center in October 2017, having secured more than $1.9 million in grants for the Innovation Institute and another $1 million for its Environmental Artist-in-Residence program. The annual operating budget for McColl Center was $2-3 million.
Suzanne now explores her own artistic and creative expression in painting, and conceptual and textile work.
Artist Statement
My studio practice began in 2020 to divert my attention away from the devastation I felt after losing my husband of 40-years. I did not anticipate that the deep trench of grief would lead me to creative discoveries. But it did. My studio work allowed me to explore and navigate through that trench of grief. Thus, I created highly conceptual pieces centered around some of the most difficult emotions with which I have struggled: death, mortality, resilience, loss, and recovery.
The process of grieving is long with an undeterminable outcome. Painting has allowed me a way to explore that process as deeply as I could with no timeline. I dwelt in the ideas and emotions that plagued me. Visualize these emotions helped me acknowledge and recognize them so I could go deeper and then recover from the wounds of loss.
My paintings are explorations of my internal landscape: the texture, space, shape, light and color of my internal struggles as expressed during my long period of grieving.
I use words that vibrate with the wrenching emotions in me. What does that idea stir in me and how best do I evoke those thoughts and emotions through the work? I considered its composition, scale, font, color, how the word may be embedded in the painting.
Ultimately, my work creates a sense of deep space to contemplate an idea or an emotion especially where the two merge. The space, word, scale, color, texture, and density of the paint have an atmospheric and sensual quality to pull the viewer into the idea and the emotion. I create a way for viewers to meditate on an idea and share my emotional response.
