The Great Blue Heron on the cover of the summer issue of MOQ was painted by Minneapolis artist Susan Heath. We asked Susan to tell us more about what inspires her and to share her thoughts about art, artmaking, and being a nature-loving artist in the city.

What is the text in the background of Great Blue Heron?
I remember reading an article somewhere of a man telling the story of his family fulfilling one last summer ritual in the wooded lakes with their boat; but instead of finding peace in the whispering pines, the sun reflecting off the lakes, or the smell of fish caught with his own hands, he sees a great blue heron standing statue-still nearby in shallow water that personified beauty and mindfulness. It was so well-written that it seemed fantastic the next summer when I peered through the trees surrounding my family’s cabin to see The Great Blue Heron standing still on our dock and peering out at the morning water. I took the text from the article I read.

In fact, you incorporate text into a lot of your compositions, such as Radio Bird, shown here. Could you tell us about this, what you like about text as a visual element?
When there are words that surface above the palimpsest of dispensable media, I take them to my paintings and internalize their rich meanings, the scrolls of the letters often metamorphosing into drawn lines a part of the composition.

You’ve participated several years in BirdxBird, the annual art auction that raises money for the Audubon Center of the North Woods and Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary. [Perhaps you, dear reader, would like to read the 2006 Observer article about BirdxBird here.] How did you first get involved with that? Are birds a particular interest of yours?
I have participated in all of the BirdxBird shows except the first one (which I did not know about) and this last (because of my cramped schedule). I was attending Saint Cloud State University when I was introduced to the project by a professor who was involved (Bruce Tapola). Several of my professors at the time and co-students participated that second year and continue to remain a part of the community developed there -- it’s a good feeling to make art and give away money to a good cause. The beginnings of my bird-interest began in seventh grade when we were assigned to memorize all the birds of Minnesota, their calls, and habitats. It was the first assignment beyond art class where I found my mind ablaze with fascination.

Where do you live and work?
I live in Camden Minneapolis and make art in a hidden room in the basement that gloriously has a concrete floor where I can throw paint around as messily as I want. I currently work in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities and am a student in the field of family therapy [finishing up a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy at Argosy University in July]. I hope to someday combine art and therapy and make a living at it.

How does your location influence your art?
When I’m not in the introverted-lonerist daydreams of my head, the neighborhoods in which I have lived seep into my skin and pour out onto canvases. A former photography professor of mine once related a quote to our class by a well-known female photographer who said, “If it’s not in your own backyard, it’s nowhere in the world.” (Sadly, I seem to take words and forget the names of the people who said them). Growing up in mid-Minnesota with a green-thumbed mother, I spent hours in our backyard lying under the lines of drying laundry watching the birds peck at orange-halves nailed to the fence posts; bumblebees and dragonflies finding nourishment amongst the swaying flower gardens and bird baths; then we would walk to Clemens Gardens to see all of the floral magic, and to Riverside Park to watch the powerful forces of gravity take water over the dam.

Currently, living in Minneapolis, sights of downtown, graffiti on trains, and a walk in Loring park (especially around the little lake and across the Irene Hixon Whitney footbridge) get me excited to make stuff. These images might not make it into a painting of mine, but the energy of art-freedom creates motivation to contribute something.

Where can people see more of your art?
In my basement, my mom’s house, and on the Internet. Unfortunately, I seem to have taken sporadic sabbaticles the past few years partly due to grad school, and partly due to the heavy concrete weight of depression. However, with the upcoming breathing room of a less-overcrowded schedule, I hope to create a collection of works based on the Aesthetics of Disengagement movement, and propose a show to local venues.

What shows/events do you have coming up this summer?
There aren’t any events or shows on my schedule for the summer, as this tends to be my daydreaming time. But, come fall, who knows?

Radio Bird, by Susan Heath