Susan is a native of California, born in September,
in San Francisco.
She began being artistic from an early age,
being influenced in junior high by a wonderful crafts teacher,
who helped inspire her to make many projects.
She did well artistically in high school, but got a lower grade
for talking too much.
In college, at the University Of The Pacific,
she started her art career by drawing campaign posters for
class elections, then was introduced to the art department by
a friend, which lead to her BA degree in Fine Arts. - a broad
background in art, but nothing specific in the
way of making a living. So, it was back to further education
at Art Center College Of Design in LA, and another BA,
this time in Advertising. After several graphic design jobs in
New York, she began freelancing in graphics
and watercoloring back in California.
In 1981, after the untimely death of John Lennon, and with the
inspiration of many dreams and music, Susan painted over
forty paintings of John, of which a selection can be seen in Rose Gallery 5.
She has won several awards for fine arts in California, and moved
to Oregon in 1984 with hysband Bob. She has continued her watercolors,
with
paintings of landscapes and irises, (see the Iris Page) and has been handicrafty
throughout.
Susan has also enjoyed drawing editorial cartoons which have appeared
in her local paper and even inspired letters from prominant people.
She has had Macintoshes for over eleven years and enjoys the graphics
- computers made for people who don't know how to use computers,
but will click on anything colorful.
"We, Bob and I, started on the internet in 1993,
trying to find out anything and email anyone related to the Spin
Doctors. We picked boxess for our internet name; after all, he
was Bob Boxess, who made magical wooden
boxes! I joined a web-based women's group called Spiderwoman and
learned a lot about web-page-making and the internet, and created
web pages full of information about peacocks, derived from the
avalanch of questions from peacock owners and lovers, and tiredness
from repeating emails to questioners. In 2000 I got in the "bird
biz," which meant that I believed from parrot sellers, who
assured me of bountiful parrot babies (which someone else would
hand feed) that I would make a lot of money while matching wonderful
baby birds with people... No one tells you about the endless parrot
poop and exotic, expensive foods they excrete and need! Well,
they may not produce many babies, but they are a joy, and tell
me daily that they love me (but don't stick your finders into
the cage or they will bite them off!).
And, they drop wonderfully colored feathers which
many people seem to like, so that is good."
