Artist Susanne Scherette King

On the Season 3 finale of Rodney Veal's Inspired By Podcast, Rodney speaks with Susanne Scherette King to discuss her unconventional path from teaching and garden design to becoming a celebrated self-taught painter. This episode was recorded in-person at the Edward A. Dixon Gallery in Downtown Dayton. 

Learn more about Susanne's work on her website: https://www.ask-art.com

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Susanne Scherette King, Rodney Veal

Rodney Veal  00:00

Hi, I'm Rodney veal, and I'm the host of Rodney veal's inspired by podcast, and thank you for tuning in. And today, I get to talk to someone who I've always admired and loved because she is a gentle, loving, talented spirit and really super cool lady, and I and I told her that she is the only person that I own four pieces of her art in my house. She's the she has the I have the largest collection of her art. So everyone welcome. I can't wait for you to get to get to know and Meet Suzanne Scherette King. Suzanne,welcome.

Susanne Scherette King  00:37

Thank you. It's great to be here. 

Rodney Veal  00:40

Super awesome. I'm glad you're here. So okay, I've known you through the art world, because when we travel in the same circles, but a lot of people who don't know we got to go into hot top Time Machine, back to where it all began. You did not start off as an artist. So what led you to guard? You were in garden design.

Susanne Scherette King  00:58

I was in garden design. But by education, I was a teacher, really? I taught Junior High English. Wow. What school district did you teach at Oakwood?

Rodney Veal  01:11

You taught in Oakwood, so, but did you were you painting or doing anything? No, no. And what drew you to teaching writing in English. I mean,

Susanne Scherette King  01:21

it's just there was an opportunity, and I was able to take advantage, and I loved it. How long did you teach about 12 years. Wow, until my I wasn't able to

Rodney Veal  01:39

anymore. Until you're unable, as you were so, so. But where did the, where did it kick into, like, all of a sudden, it led into garden design, and then it led into art. How did gardens I kick in? I mean,

Susanne Scherette King  01:50

I've always, I was always a avid gardener, and people would stop and ask me questions about the gardens. And I finally, one day, said, You know, I'm gonna just hang out my little shingle and say, I'll, I'll be glad to help you so, so I did that for a long time, really, yeah,

Rodney Veal  02:21

I guess, I mean, I mean, what's I'm kind of just curious about gardenism Because they've just put you in the outdoors. That means you're just, you're an outdoorsy kind of person. I'm not an outdoorsy person. So,

Susanne Scherette King  02:34

yeah, I was, you're just very much. So, yeah, everybody

Rodney Veal  02:38

I talked to who talks about gardening said it is the most meditative of

Susanne Scherette King  02:44

experiences. It was, yeah, I did it. 24/7, it seemed like,

Rodney Veal  02:56

yeah, one of those things. So okay, you're doing gardening design? Were you just kind of sketching and painting? I mean, I'm trying no like how

Susanne Scherette King  03:06

now there was no painting. Ironically, my business, my garden business, was called paint. A garden had never painted, ever No, no. Painting didn't start until 2002 I bought a incredible mid century modern house, very organic, 17 sets of sliding glass doors. It needed art. Needed art. I needed art. I couldn't afford any art

Rodney Veal  03:55

well, and especially the artists in this town, because we've got like, yeah,

Susanne Scherette King  03:59

yeah. So, I decided to start painting. I had dabbled in it a little bit, and when I said dabbled, I took myself to Michael's. I bought a bunch of craft paint and a flat piece of something to paint on. And started that way, and I'm completely self taught.

Rodney Veal  04:41

I honestly, I mean, I honestly thought that you were teaching art in school. I mean, this is like, I just like, it's just an intuitive

Susanne Scherette King  04:49

you're not the first person to to kind of make that assumption, yeah, but no, I which

Rodney Veal  04:56

speaks volumes about your creativity and the way your mind works. You four pieces of your artwork. Like it's fun. It is really fun. So, I mean, just, just picked it up. You get a flower house full of art. I love is a mid century house, by the way. That's pretty, pretty cool. But just,

Susanne Scherette King  05:17

yeah, I am, I copied, I copied work from famous artists, from magazines, from anywhere I could find work and I copied it. Some turned out great. Some was just God awful.

Rodney Veal  05:45

But, you know, that's the thing. I don't think artists even talk about that. Sometimes you create good stuff and sometimes it's God awful. That's the process. I mean, it

Susanne Scherette King  05:54

is in the process continues then, because you're just paying over the bad stuff. And keep going.

Rodney Veal  06:01

Keep going. So when did you start showing the work? Do you like it was in your house. What inspired it all of a sudden, inside the house to outside the house? Well, kind of curious about

Susanne Scherette King  06:13

that. I had a party at my house. It was a retirement party for a teacher, and I had a lot of people come in and look at the work. And you might remember Kay Carlisle, yes, Kay was the art teacher at Oakwood, and she encouraged me to show my work. At that point, she was at the cannery. I went to the cannery and showed work, sold work, made some good connections.

Rodney Veal  06:58

She knew now Kay is not the one to sniff out, because if Kay didn't like it, she'd tell you about it. Yes, yes, she was not shy. Lydia wrote in the audience. Know Kay Carlo was definitely, I will tell you if that works or not, but she was a delightful woman. So I remember, for folks who may not be from Dayton to cannery was really interesting, it was like this kind of it's now residential, but at one point it wasn't residential,

Susanne Scherette King  07:28

yeah, big, huge open space and divided By makeshift portable walls, yeah, and I do remember that, yeah, it was great. It

Rodney Veal  07:44

was a great time. So, so you're like, you just kind of leaped into this world. And how did that feel? I mean, because it's really interesting that, like, I mean, you go from teaching to gardening, and

Susanne Scherette King  07:57

now it was, like, very surreal it was, but it was fantastic. I got to meet a lot of people, and one of the people that I met was the famous Mike Elsa. And Mike always told me repeatedly, you got a chance. Kid, you got a chance.

Rodney Veal  08:29

Well, what do you mean by you got a chance

Susanne Scherette King  08:32

with my art? Yeah, he invited me to go on a little trip with him. We went to Atlanta. He was taking art to some galleries that he already had relationships with, and he was also trying to get some new ones. So he picked me up, and when he picked me up, he said, Where's your art? I didn't have any. I ran inside and I grabbed a piece. I watched him do his do his thing, the consummate sales person. And the last place that we went, he told me to get my art, and he literally just had me talk to this wonderful gallerist who was not interested in my work at the time, and that was fine, but he encouraged me to find the gallery. So I. I with the same piece of art, went to Columbus and walked up and down High Street and found a gallery that I thought would be a good fit for what I was doing. I was creating my own work at that original art at that time, and formed a relationship with the terror gallery in Columbus, in Columbus, and I was there for quite a while. Wow.

Rodney Veal  10:36

I mean, you just beat the pavement. I mean, I just got a that's a gutsy move. You do realize it's kind of gutsy? I mean, yeah, well, I mean, I mean, wow, like you just went for it.

Susanne Scherette King  10:51

I did. Oh my god, one of the other great things that happened to me at the time Divac was doing their gentle critiques, and people could bring in a piece of art, and I did, very sheepishly, brought in my piece of work, and I had multiple pieces

Rodney Veal  11:21

right then at that point, you're like, Okay, you know, yeah, critiques are daunting, folks. Well, just let you know. But

Susanne Scherette King  11:31

Andy snow, Terry Welker, Joel Whitaker, all were there, looked at my work, were incredibly encouraging. This was just prior to the art auction. Told me to put a piece in the auction. I did. Well, what a night. The piece sold for $700 now, little did I know I had some very nice friends who were going back and forth and bidding it up. They could afford it if they ended up with it, but they didn't. I still don't know who who bought it and where it is, but, yeah, I was on a roll. That

Rodney Veal  12:42

is this one loving about that because, I mean, because that's why I say it takes. I mean, you know, this is, I mean, I've been doing this all my life, and I read critiques like dread them. I wouldn't be like anything, but I'm sick that day, you know, I would just try to avoid it in college, and you did it. I'm like, I'm impressed. Like that impresses me. That tells me

Susanne Scherette King  13:07

every ignorance is bliss.

Rodney Veal  13:11

So you just kind of went with and you hit the heavy hitters. So folks, Jill Whitaker, Terry Welker, Andy snow. I mean, they are like the heavy hitters of art making. They are and they know their stuff. They really know they were so kind. No, it was, it was more than kind. They knew. They knew. And there's what I love, what, and the reason why I have four of your works is the fact that it's a sense of motion and emotional vibrancy between the colors. I know that's, that's where you're, you know, you know how artwork speaks to a person and their personality, and I see that in the in the work. And so that's what drew. Draws me to your work. We always go, oh, Suzanne, okay, we can reach in our pockets. And, you know, this is before a better, better paying gig, you know, now it's like, hey, and I love that, and so, so off to the races we go. And, you know, with it's got to be an interesting thing. So how did you kind of cultivate the style of painting? Once you got to you're off to the races. Because you sell the work in auction? That means it did someone. It spoke to them. Yes, does. And so what do you do next? What did you do next as an art maker? Now,

Susanne Scherette King  14:34

many artists strive for that consistent body of work. I have an completely inconsistent body of work. I just try new things. I'm always trying new things, new colors,

Rodney Veal  14:53

you know, forms and shapes, different styles of paint. I mean, I see knife, I pay attention. I. Watch, I've watched progress, but it's just like, what is it about that process of, is it different than, you know, there's some things that are like, like, with garden design and gardening, it's knowing the technical things, knowing that there's certain plants that work this kind of oil, sunlight versus shade, you know? But art is pretty much the wild, wild west of like, well, let me see if it'll hurt. Let's see if it'll hold together on a canvas. Or,

Susanne Scherette King  15:29

oh, there, there are a few out there that didn't quite that might,

Rodney Veal  15:34

might not, yeah, not sure, but that's a real, I mean, but that mean, I mean, Suzanne, you're not, you know, this is not that Voyager discovery at 1015 this is you're an adult, and you're taking these chances and risks, and you didn't even think, like, no, nope. This seems natural. This seems right. Yeah,

Susanne Scherette King  15:57

it, it does. It did, and it's gotten me, it's gotten me through a lot of emotional Yeah,

Rodney Veal  16:13

we talked about that, you know, we talked about, we've talked about that. And, you know, you had the, you know, you had the automobile accident. Yes, I remember that. And, you know, that's just a for most people that would have been like, you know, you know, you kept going. I mean, how do you? How do you? What do you say to people like, when you think back about that, like

Susanne Scherette King  16:42

that time, I don't, dude, you don't. I just had no it's fine. I just, I had to change how I worked, believe it or not, I used to work on my hands and knees. I never used an easel, really. I I don't know why. It's just how I felt comfortable, and I mentioned that beautiful organic house with all the beautiful windows, and I painted in the smallest little area in the basement

Rodney Veal  17:25

just be

Susanne Scherette King  17:27

with fluorescent lights. I felt comfortable there. It was kind of like a little cocoon, and that's how and where I painted. I I was not able to paint for a number of whiles. I don't know if it was years, months or what, but it I knew that I wanted to get back to it, and I did. I then started painting with small canvases on my lap. Okay, that's all I could do,

Rodney Veal  18:10

okay? And I remember the you went from these really large scale pieces, yeah, but, but they didn't, they weren't small and presence. That's the thing that I'm fascinated about. Because they weren't small in presence. You still have the they said, the emotional,

Susanne Scherette King  18:29

yeah, I think you're right. I I like working on the small ones. They're They're fun, they're challenging. They're more challenging to be able to get all of that emotion, all of that design in that small space and not have that, those big, swoopy,

Rodney Veal  18:52

swooping Yeah, we started moving. It's like, I remember the swoops in this way. He was like, but you can do it on our scale. I remember having, I had, just recently a conversation what Scott gives Scott, I can't wait. He may be a little too theoretical for us on a podcast, but, but one of the things he did say was he talked about large size, and I kept thinking myself, it's not, if it's not 60 inches of a canvas that it's, you're not saying anything, and I'm, I kind of wanted to say, I think you can go small.

Susanne Scherette King  19:27

And, yeah, I own a piece of his, and it's not that large.

Rodney Veal  19:33

So well, this is the mythology of Scott. We won't it's, you know, but, but Scott is a very, really, really incredible artist, incredible, but I, but I just kind of want to counter like a little gentle push back, like, Dude, you can make small and still pack a punch, and your work does that. I mean, you know, you still pack a punch, and so you didn't let the accent stop. You just waited your time. You. Um, you know, to what like, when it feels right? I mean, as opposed to, I think you have a healthier approach to art making, because you're not basing everything on the art making.

Susanne Scherette King  20:14

Do you know, I'm saying, like, yeah, that's a good, that's a good way of looking at it, yeah?

Rodney Veal  20:20

I mean, because, you know, like you because it's like some artists, like, if I don't dance, if I perfect my foot, I'm like, Well, you

Susanne Scherette King  20:29

know, I don't know what I don't know, you know, I just do it, yeah, and it most of the time it works,

Rodney Veal  20:43

and when it doesn't work, you paint over it exactly. So, so, you know, you've jumped back into how, how soon was a diagnosis of leukemia after you started going back into painting, I'm sorry to, kind of sorry investigative journalist, I do my homework. Yeah, you

Susanne Scherette King  21:04

did. I do my homework about 18 months. 18 months in, yeah, I had the accident in 2010 and then

Rodney Veal  21:23

a diagnosis, but yet again, didn't stop, nope. You mean, you are still, and you like, I mean, you just, I mean, do you know, sound like other like, and I'm sure people that people, because I didn't ask about it. You told me you knew and but it's not like some people, like you didn't like go you didn't do a woe is me. Ever still don't do a woe is me. I mean, you may think that personally, internally, when there's not a camera or microphone, but we all do. We're human. We are human, but I don't know. I just ever sense of not that, not a sense of No,

Susanne Scherette King  22:10

what good would it

Rodney Veal  22:14

do me? I agree. I mean it because it's not stopping you from making art. I mean, yeah, you know. So see, what do you because a lot of people that would just lay down. I mean, I think that that's a

Susanne Scherette King  22:30

Yeah, that's no fun.

Rodney Veal  22:33

That's why we get along. That's why it's no fun. I mean, I, I told somebody, somebody asked me the question about, did I miss teaching? I said I was in the classroom for as long as I needed to be in the classroom, I impacted positively and negatively those who I needed to positively and negatively impact.

Susanne Scherette King  22:56

That's interesting. Yes, I just

Rodney Veal  22:58

took it from a different vantage point, but because I reason why I'm thinking about that is the fact that I get this pleasure in a couple weeks of sharing a bill on a stage with a former student. Wow, she's she's come, let's come full circle. I've noticed since the seventh grade, but now she's well, she was out dancing me in the seventh grade. So this is be very clear. I just knew she was that talented, um, and she's has this flourishing dance career. And, you know, it's fantastic, weird sort of moment. Like, okay, maybe I can close the door the performing part, but then it's like, I gotta get the point part back in the art part. You know how that goes? And so because I remember, we're talking about getting you on the podcast, and I said, Why are you painting? You said, I'm not, I'm not inspired yet. You talked about, it's not nothing sparking it. How do you feel now? Like it's still sort of in that non spark phase, or is it just

Susanne Scherette King  23:59

sort of in that non spark phase. I tried painting last night, and I think it's the worst thing I've ever painted. But I have a friend who is a he's kind of my coach, and I always run things by him, and I showed it to him this morning, and he completely disagreed with me and told me, I better not paint over it. So I don't know, but it didn't

Rodney Veal  24:34

Are you your worst going critic? I mean,

Susanne Scherette King  24:36

well, I think so. Sure.

Rodney Veal  24:38

Okay, sure. Well, I think we all are, yeah, yeah. We're having these conversations. But he told you, like, No, you dare. Nope, go do it. I would throw something out at you just to consider like, especially when you're painting like you, it's not right or wrong anymore. It's not good or bad. It's

Susanne Scherette King  24:59

just you just. Is that's weird, and it's

Rodney Veal  25:03

a hard place to get to too. But I say that, and I'm going to as I create, people

Susanne Scherette King  25:09

continually ask me, What was I thinking when I painted this? And the honest answer is, nothing, void. Of anything

Rodney Veal  25:27

you know, which goes into that statement I made about mythology. We want to create a mythology behind a process. There's no great mystery. Sometimes it's just in the doing. Yeah, it's just the doing. Yeah, is what it is. Did Mike? Mike also ever say that? Because I always felt like, Mike is that kind of person goes, I'm just doing it.

Susanne Scherette King  25:48

Oh yeah, yeah. He's a riot to watch, because he

Rodney Veal  25:55

is a care. I love him. He's a character I Michael is you're listening. I adore you. I think you're just a gr with a great character, because that's what we need. It was like, you know, like he just, he just said, Get in the car driving me to Atlanta. You know, that is pretty that's a wow. That's wild. You did it. Oh, so this is kind of like, Do you realize how fearless you are,

Susanne Scherette King  26:24

I guess, yeah,

Rodney Veal  26:26

just kind of curiosity. I mean, I it was not something when one thinks about oneself, but from an outsider observer,

Susanne Scherette King  26:33

I go, Oh, thank you. I take that as a great compliment. Thank you

Rodney Veal  26:37

little fearlessness. And that's like, yeah, yeah, because we're having these comments, like, in the in like I've had, I think we're well over 40 something of these podcast interviews, and there seems to be this common thread of themes, and one of them is, you said it like, you Don't know what you don't know. Every part like, well, I just did it. Oh, my God. I always kept thinking, Yeah, wow. No fear. I'm like, I need and then I realized everybody you gotta look at it through your lens like you walked in and basically decided to become a ballet dancer 25 so let's stop there you go. Stop asking that. Stop acting incredulous about the fact that people just fearlessly do this thing, but, but for over 40 people, and there's always that common thread. One of the common threads is that one, there's like, okay, the one said I couldn't. And the thing is, I mean, that's what I mean it's like, because you tried on styles, but then you shut it, start your like, do things your way, and it shows and the work is strong and vibrant because of it. Thank you, yeah, yeah. I think it's pretty cool. Thank you. So, yeah. So as we're coming to the end of the podcast, what would you say to people who who may think there are certain things or obstacles, because, I mean an accident and a diagnosis, you know, this notion that you don't have all the I call it street cred to be an artist. But in fact, I don't believe in street cred for artists. I just don't. I'm like, what would you say to them? Like, maybe, like, I shouldn't try. I shouldn't

Susanne Scherette King  28:23

Oh, I think you have to, you have to try. Everyone has to try whatever they want to do. You know, if you have a vision and thought that you might want to do it. What's holding you back? Except yourself.

Rodney Veal  28:49

I totally agree. I that's always seems to be the biggest, biggest hang up, and so you've never is a question you were trying out. You're, you're my experiment, my guinea but it's a good question. It's like, it's this question of never, because you, I don't think you've ever externalized a thought about imposter syndrome, but have you ever in your head thought, man, what am I doing in these circles, doing this

Susanne Scherette King  29:25

as an art maker all the time? Yeah, I have no training. I have no nothing. I just have my sense, my internal sense of, is it good, or is it not? And that's just fine with me. There's

Rodney Veal  29:53

that confidence again, that fearlessness, even in face of the What am I doing here and these really. Rooms, but you deserve to be in these rooms. I think that's the reason why. Thank you very much. You know that's it's a question of it's hard to battle that thought process in a world that's just filled with people, right? You know, being sane and being an artist, well,

Susanne Scherette King  30:18

this community has some of the most incredible artists I've seen. And it's sometimes daunting to think that I hang with them. Sometimes

Rodney Veal  30:39

pretty cool. It is pretty cool. And, well, they, I think they think the same thing about you, too. So just hang with Suzanne, you know, because, you know, some people emanate it the it just emanates an energy, and it is, it is so refreshing. Thank you. Enjoy so I'm glad you took time out of your schedule to sit with me and have this conversation.