Saturday in the Studio – Sue Eller

In the Studio with
Sue Eller

How did you start making art?

When I moved back to Washington State in 2016 after nearly 30 years of living in Los Angeles, I began walking the beaches and forests and collecting things, then it just came to me one day to begin to make sculptures. At the time I had not even heard of Assemblage art. A friend of mine who is a watercolor artist, started to encourage me to submit my pieces for juried shows and the first time I submitted, I got into a show at the Northwind Art Center in Port Townsend in 2016 with 3 of my pieces. It has grown from there and I have been in shows not just in the PNW, but also in California and in Florida.

Why do you create and what need does it satisfy?

Creating is a way to be totally in the present moment and clear my mind of the stresses of life. It has been rewarding to watch my work improve and evolve as I get better at it. I have been creative all my life beginning as a musician with a music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston Ma. I lived in Los Angeles where I worked on television shows as a music editor for 20 years. Expressing myself creatively has always been an essential part of who I am.

As an artist, what is your most important tool?

My most important tool is probably rusty wire. Most of my work incorporates rusty old items and organic elements and I use rusty wire to wire the various parts into a sculpture. It’s kind of like making giant jewelry. I do not weld anything together and I very rarely use glue, so without the rusty wire, my work would not be possible.

What is something that you can’t live without in your studio and why?

Something I can’t live without is my glass jars. I store much of my bits and pieces in glass jars and it makes it much easier to find things when I need them. Extreme organization of my chaos is something else I can’t live without. I actually wrote a blog on that subject awhile ago.

What is your least favorite part of your process?

Figuring out the pricing of items. It is very difficult to be subjective with your own work and because I have not done this for all that long, it is still challenging to value my pieces in a monetary sense.

What is your favorite part?

My favorite part is meeting other artists and learning from them and supporting them.