Featured Image: “Imprinted” from the “Portrait of a Woman” series by Susan Detroy

By Lane Johnson

Susan Detroy is a visual artist, mobile photographer, printmaker, and filmmaker in Eugene, Oregon. Her series “Portrait of a Woman” is published in our Spring 2021 issue, and Susan’s other works have been featured in galleries around Oregon and the world.  Find her work here:

www.susandetroy.com
https://www.instagram.com/susanlynndetroy_art/
https://www.instagram.com/more_susandetroyartist/
https://www.youtube.com/c/SusanDetroyArtist/featured
https://www.facebook.com/SusanDetroyArtist/
https://www.facebook.com/ArtConsultantSusanDetroy/

Lane
Tell our readers a bit about yourself and the art you’ve been working on lately.

Susan
I lived and went to school in the Midwest. My art career solicited in Oregon. I have created six series in my art career, most have been hard copy. I also create in photography, transfer prints, ink drawings, mixed media, digital still, and video. I create from my experience, my surroundings, and what I care about. A lot of my work is informed by my love of photography which was sparked as a child by movies and large magazines such as Life and Look. Most recently, I am creating photographic digital imagery and video. I use my iPhone and iPad as my tools.

Lane
What is your connection to Lane Community College?

Susan
Over the years living in Lane County, I have been a student, taking classes and workshops. I also worked at LCC as gallery director and instructor in the art department and as gallery manager at the David Joyce Gallery.

Lane
You said you moved to Oregon, and then that’s when you started your art career. Was being in the Pacific Northwest part of how you came to doing art?

Susan
My art in the 70s and 80s was mostly related to whatever I was doing in my life. I had an older camera that I used–a Yashika. Then, I was mostly just taking photos about myself and doing little drawings, that kind of thing. I didn’t identify so much as a photographer until probably the 90s. I didn’t think of myself as an artist. I thought of myself more as a dancer because that’s what I did a lot of.

Lane
What kind of dance did you do?

Susan
I did every kind of dance you can imagine. When I was a child, I did ballet, tap, acrobatics, ice, skating, tumbling, all of that. And then, when I was in college, I did what people called modern dance. There are different forms now. When I moved to Eugene, I did tap dancing, Hawaiian dancing, folk dancing, and ballroom dancing. I didn’t do clogging, but I did square dancing. I did dance a lot. And then I just kept doing that throughout my life. I think what took me into that artist consciousness was when I was part of a media arts collective. In the 70s, I lived in a media arts sort of communal, cooperative house. We made films and had media festivals. I made little short films and I did photography, and then other people were photographers and filmmakers who made bigger, more monumental films. But I don’t think I would have thought of myself as an artist then, although I basically was. When I returned to the U of O in photography, that was a big marker. When I started in classes with Dan Powell, and Terry Wabinski, those classes really just opened up a whole different new world and I got involved with infrared film and started my first real series in red film. After that point, I thought of myself as a photographer, and then I did my photo business.

Lane
It’s interesting to me how some people find their way to artistic pursuits while for some people, it’s a drive from very early on. You mentioned that having a mentor can be very important, and also I think having a community of people who are doing creative things can be hugely influential.

Susan
Yeah, in every part of my art making, I’ve always had some kind of group experience, like the film media collective. Of course, when you’re in school, you have your classmates, and so you’re working with them. Then later on, I was in a variety of different organizations. Now, I’m part of three really big ones, international ones right now: the mentor group ANL, IOAC, and Techspressionism.

Lane
I was curious how you came to the medium of mobile artwork with phones and iPads. What draws you to that format?

Susan
It’s a good story, and it’s solidly part of that series. What was happening was that I was experimenting a little bit with an Android Samsung phone, and two major things happened. One was that I took a workshop at LCC that Susan Loudermilk put together with a woman named Susan Bain, from Portland. I believe it was two or three days, and it was a small group. That workshop completely changed my ideas about what mobile photography was about. I was so excited! I was like, very, very excited. So, I was using the Samsung a whole bunch and feeling pretty happy about that, and excited and learning. And then I’m not sure when it happened, 2014 or 2015, something in there. So I probably would have been in my late 60s; I started experiencing really uncomfortable. . . thoughts about aging, about being female, about my body and what was happening. I can’t remember how long it took me to get to this thought. But at some point in that process, I felt and had kind of miserable feelings. I was unhappy. I thought, “Well, what if I try to turn the camera on some parts of my body and try to make art with parts of my body?” So I was experimenting, and then I started seeing work that other people had done that were blended portraits, more exacting, like a single portrait with some tree or something like that. And so my feelings about myself, my despair, and my opening and getting to know people in the mobile arts world combined.

I started learning more about apps, and then I got an iPhone, which totally changed how I was making. I started using the iPhone as a tool. I got an iPad, and then I took some classes. When COVID happened, I took it in a similar way: “Okay, I’m in lockdown.” And I just started; I made a documentary film. It was a documentation of my life for 80 days. And then I just happened to get a small commission to make another film. That was a big deal. Once I did that, it was a confidence builder, for sure.

Lane
That’s a really incredible point. Our life experiences often fuel our art, but also that art can be an outlet for trauma and for depression and very difficult periods in our life. It’s incredibly powerful for many, many people.

Susan
Yes, art is a tool. It’s a tool for all kinds of ways that it feels hard to be a human. I think that’s how I use it a lot. It’s a way for me to. . . it’s a coping tool. Partly, it’s a coping tool, but it’s also something to put my thoughts into. I can go there into the iPad, away from the other things or fears I might have about COVID, or some other thing that’s going on. I have a place to go. I feel the same with–now that I’m not dancing anymore, my body doesn’t really support it–I’ve shifted into bicycling. So I know those two things are going to be okay with me, and helpful. They help me cope in the most positive way. I’m using the word cope in the most positive way: to adjust, formulate, and organize thoughts. Biking is changing my brain chemistry every day. That’s why I do it. That run or workout–they talk about endorphins. It’s true. I have pride and feel accomplishment in both of those things. I can track my biking: how miles I’ve gone and how I feel better when I’m back. Also the art: I can feel pride like, “oh my, look what I made!”

Lane
What were some obstacles you had to overcome to make your creative life what it is now?

Susan
Difficulty finding financially lucrative and supportive work, being able to support myself and create. I believe I experienced and still experience misconceptions about aging, homophobia, and misogyny.

Lane
What does your creative process look like?

Susan
I use my everyday experience, thoughts, inclinations and impulses, logging imagery and video almost daily. I use these pieces to create still and moving art . I generally do not pre-conceptualize. I use my exercise, music, and movement to inform and stimulate my art making.

I think of what I capture with my phone as just a kind of raw material. I’m generally just finding things and putting them into the box, like the phone is the box. So just like today, I have this thing where I like to take my picture when I’m in places where I know I’m not going to get interrupted, like in a medical office when they leave you in there for a while. This is funny, I don’t talk about this very much. But they leave you in there sometimes for a while when they’ve already finished with your appointment. Sometimes I do self portraits in those offices or in the bathrooms because you can lock the door. People don’t come in and the walls are blank. Also, I do a lot of self portraits outside. But I’m bringing that up because that’s a place I’m just gathering material. It’s the same as when people go get paint or pencil or paper. I’m just gathering material and I’m putting it in my box, which is my iPhone. I’m gonna look at it later. I’m going to go onto my iPad and ask, “how can I put these things together?” That’s exactly how I do the video. I’m not visualizing exactly what I’m gonna do with what I’m capturing. I know that it looks good right now, but I don’t know how it’s going to fit. I know I’ll have a whole bunch of things to look at later that I could pull from, and so I’m just kind of being in the moment. Just the same as when you’re drawing or writing. That’s how I’m working right now.

Lane
That sounds very intuitive.

Susan
I do trust myself. That’s one of the things that I would say to people. It’s a hard thing to do. It’s a hard thing, still, for me to do; I see something and I just want to keep going, like in car, on the bike, or walking. I have to think no, go back, because something has called to me. What did I see? What was it that I liked that I saw on the ground, you know? A dead bird or something unusual about the way the light was on those trees. . . So yeah, that’s what I’m doing. I’m saying, “Hey, just trust yourself.”

Lane
That’s great advice. Do you have any other advice, either for people looking to go back to school or for students in school right now?

Susan
Connect with other people. Break down the idea that you’re by yourself. I would say, if I were in a class, I’d look for those people that I feel, for whatever reason–it has doesn’t have to be logical–I kind of like that person’s work or I like how they talk. Ask to connect with them in some way. The other thing is, which I said, just be more trusting of yourself.

Find a few people, people that you maybe already know, who just like your work. I have a couple people like that in my life, where I just go on a walk with them–this is how I formulate stuff. I just go on a walk with a friend and I start talking. That’s how I came to decide to turn the iPhone on myself. I mean, I was thinking about it off and on in my brain, but just being able to talk out loud and let your thoughts go with another person helps a lot. Just say you want somebody to listen to you talk out loud, you know, ask them for advice. Say, for example, “I’ve been thinking I might do this,” or “I have this idea for a series, but I’m not sure.” Find a trusted friend, colleague, or professor that you feel is going to be kind to you. You don’t want somebody that’s going to be critical, you just want to be able to talk out loud. I think that’s really important. Super important.

Also, you can start anytime. I was never a digital artist. I’m in my 70s and I started doing digital art. I mean, I do digital and video art all the time now. I’m connected with people all over the world. Be as open as you can to what other people are doing because there’s always something that other artists are doing that might be able to help you formulate what you’re going to do.

Lane
Yeah, there’s this kind of process of inspiration and connection between creators and also people who just enjoy seeing art. Once you initiate something, it’s going to give back.

Susan
One of the things I did–and I don’t know if this would be helpful to anyone, but it might–is that I tried to think of a single concept that I wanted to follow through for the year. This past year, it has been “collaboration.” It just meant that I had an attitude and a focus on the idea that everything I was doing was a collaboration. So it opened up my thoughts about being more connected to other people. Now I’m involved with a couple of projects that I wouldn’t have been involved with before. I’m currently in a two-year collaboration event with people from about six or seven countries. It’s called International Online Art Collective, and currently we are 15 individuals. We meet on Zoom once a month, we have an Instagram account, and we do projects.

Finally, anybody that has an opportunity to talk about themselves and share their work at the same time–if you’re not overloaded, always do it. It helps other people, but it also helps yourself. It helps me formulate, out loud and in writing, what I am doing and who I am. It’s an opportunity to do that over and over. So I always try to say yes, because there’s something in it for me too. So thank you.