 Yeah, one o'clock rock. I'm Jay Fidel on Think Tech. Welcome back to Creative Contributions on Think Tech Hawaii. Today we have the honor of having Susie Anderson, Susie Y Anderson in our studio, to discuss her work. She is an unplanear artist, and that means she paints outside in the outside air, in the air. It's very important in Hawaii. So we're calling this show Susie Anderson on Planear. You'll find out exactly how that works. Susie can do all kinds of art, including seascapes and landscapes and people, and all kinds of art depicting the incredible sights and scenes of Hawaii. But she has gone beyond that. We'll talk about her common denominators, the common denominators of her art, and her view of the world. We'll try to understand what she sees in our islands, and through that appreciate her work and ours, and our view of the world, and how it comes together. Welcome to the show, Susie. It's great to have you here. Thank you, Jay. It's my privilege. So, first, on Planear, can you tell the people exactly what that means? It means, basically, in the fresh air, literally from the French. And it means that I take my easel outdoors, and I painting from wife, rather than indoors in the studio, where everything is a set known quantity. But the outdoors has lots of surprises. Yes, and challenges. You need to go outside. And I took you painting with me one time. You did. I'll never forget that. We did a time-lapse thing, okay, and every minute or two, I would take another picture of Susie painting, and the whole thing was coming alive, stroke by stroke. We went to Makapu, wasn't it? Makapu. Yeah. And that's the challenge of being on Planear. You have to go out in the on Planear and find the light, and find the place, and find the colors, and see through the photograph. It can't be photographic. You've got to see through it into the essence of the environment. And it's a timing thing, because it has to happen within a very short period of time. You can't be chasing the shadows. You have to get the painting down very quickly, and then not change your mind, despite what the weather is throwing at you. I think of it as like a fishing expedition. Sometimes you go out in the middle of the lake, or the sea, and you cast your line, and you reel them in, and they just fly into your boat. It's so easy to catch that fish, and then other days, you can't catch a fish to say. For beans. No, you can't at all. So you never know, and that's the kind of challenge I love. But in any day, in any experience, you have to schlep. You have to schlep your artist easel, and your canvas, and your paints, and whatnot. And you have to go to remote places, in the rocks, along the sea coast, and the like. It's not so easy. No, it's not so easy, but it keeps you in shape. So let's do a short slideshow here of some of the photographs you brought down, including photographs of the people around you, and painting itself, and the results. Okay. Let's start with these photos. You can describe them as we go. Ah, there you are. Ah, okay. Well, this is actually the reception for the American Society of Marine Artists show that I was just attending back in Maryland, which I was so excited to have a plein air painting of mine of Alona Cove accepted to this national show. And it just happened, we were in New York for the seven days before this reception and found we could drive down and be there for the opening reception. So there I am next to my painting. There were about 125 paintings and sculptures, and it's a show that travels to five states and six museums over a 17 month run. So I was very excited to have a plein air painting from Hawaii accepted to this national show. Yeah, and just PS on this photograph. The photograph looks like it is also a painting. Right, isn't it? It's just more than just an ordinary photograph. It looks like it was painted, and so you have a photograph of a painting of a painting. Yeah, that could be. And where is that, where did you pick up the, you know, the, the, the scenery there that you of Alona Cove? Where is it? That's Alona Cove just before Sandy Beach and each East Wahoo. It's where they filmed the famous love scene Kirk Douglas and Deborah Carr rolling around on the surf and from here to eternity. Is that right? Yes. It was supposed to be Waikiki, but it was Halona. And Halona has always inspired me. But you have to hike down. It's a very, it's a little beautiful keyhole beach and you have to hike down and perch on the rocks. And so I was delighted they chose that painting. Yeah, that's really historically significant. From here to eternity. That's an unforgettable image. Yes, exactly. Okay, let's see the next one. And the next one was the poster for it at, at the, at the show. So you can skip through that. So keep, but the, the, the Marine Artists Association. Yes. That's very prestigious, isn't it? Yes. It is. It's a national organization. Been around for since the 70s and it has more than 500 artists in, in 40, 40 states, I believe. But the interesting thing about that is that that's the organization has been around for years, but there's a brand new one called the Pacific Rim Institute of Marine Artists Prima. And it's prima online.org. And it is an organization that was just created this year to do much the same thing that the American Society is doing, but for the Pacific Rim. So there are artists now, members that are from China and New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, Alaska, all through the west coast of the United States. And they hope to attract more artists in South America and all over and link the art between all these nations and even in the trust territories and whatever. But it's just getting off the ground. You're a member, aren't you? I'm always named the fellow for Hawaii. A fellow? Okay. A fellow for Hawaii. So you were shown in the national and now you're a fellow in the, in the Pacific Rim. I'm impressed. Okay, let's go to more photographs, photographs. All right. This is not a plein air painting, but it is a studio painting based on a plein air image from down at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. And I love to paint canoes. They're one of the hardest things you can paint and a very difficult outdoors, but you can get a start on it. But this was a fairly large painting and I, I just love the graphic nature of it. And you asked me earlier about what's my future and whether I want to stay doing the landscape seascape thing. Well, I started out doing a lot of abstracts. So this painting feeds my abstractness. I, I really love the abstract nature of that painting. And that's kind of the direction I'd like to. Really? Well, the comment on, comment on that is that sometimes we see abstracts and we wonder whether there's any talent there. And as in the case of Picasso, who, who is a realist kind of painter in the early stages of his professional career, that was confirmation that he could actually paint. And then you look at the abstract later on, you see more in the abstract because you realize that he's a real painter, not just, you know, doing Jackson Pollock. Although Jackson Pollock could probably paint pretty well too. So Susie has proven that she can paint. Now she can do whatever she wants. Now I can do whatever I want. In terms of abstract. Well, let's go back to that, the canoe for a moment. You said that that it's hard to paint canoes and I'm curious why. Because there's not a straight line on those boats. Everything is curving, absolutely everything. And so you have to get the design down. You have to get the structure down properly or nobody's going to believe it's a canoe. But this one had such great color and the reflections in the water just really attracted me. So it's the reflection, you know, the light. Yeah, the light. It's the light. The light of the canoe against the water, the water against the canoe. That sounds very complicated. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a lovely painting. Thank you. I call that I call that captain and crew. Really? Great name for it. My husband named it. He names a lot of my paintings. Well, I'd say that your paintings I just paint them. He names them. Your paintings have really wonderful. I'm reminded of one, was it one you showed me of a of an old piece of farm equipment. It had been retired. It was back from the thirties and the forties and the plantation somewhere. It was a big, wonderful painting and you had this fabulous title for it. Oh, well, you know, since you brought this up, this is a little early Christmas present for you, Jay. Really? Yes, really. I was going to wait till the end. You know my taste, then, eh? I'm going to open this up because I have a feeling I know what's here. Oh, yeah. Of course. This is an original painting from Susie Anderson. This is an original painting. Okay, let me show you. This is the one I, this is not rehearsed, you know. Merry Christmas. This is a wonderful painting of an old piece of plantation farm equipment. This is called Out to Pasture. Out to Pasture. And I think you called it old yellow, I think, when you saw it a few years ago. And this was done on Plenaire at Kapa, a sugar plantation on Kauai. Yeah. Yeah. So now it belongs to you, my friend. Thank you, Susie. Out to Pasture, 2011. Susie, Susie Y. Anderson, on Plenaire, Kaloa Sugar Mill, Kauai. I will treasure this. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. You walk right into that. Walk right into that. That was the surprise you referred to. That was the surprise, yeah. Thank you, Susie. You're welcome. So where are you in the world of on Plenaire? I mean, we know that you're exhibiting nationally. I'm out there. You're out there. Now, for a long time, for 27 years, as I recall, I have a recollection for numbers like that. You were a member, a partner of the gallery in Ward Center. At Ward Center, I wasn't part of that that long. I was only part of that for 14 years. But still, that was a wonderful experience. And I was doing a mix of, like I am now, of Plenaire and studio pieces. You can't always set up your easel in some places that you want to paint through photographs. You have to rely on photographs in your memory and how impactful the scene is. But I love the Plenaire just because it's exciting and challenging, much more. And to be a partner in the gallery is interesting. I think it probably doesn't happen very much. And you have to have a number of artists who, on the same page, who are willing to spend their time, maybe invest some money, and pay the rent every month. Well, it's a business. You have a, and a lot of galleries are closing because the internet and, you know, social media, all of these things are, are um, trumping brick-and-mortar places. Don't use that word. Okay. Sorry. The feeling is going to become more popular as we go forward. Let's go on to a different subject. Would you like to look at the next couple of pictures? Yeah, let's look at the more pictures now. The next couple of pictures are really interesting. We'll get off the politics for a minute. Okay. This was a Plenaire painting of a spot that I'd love to paint out. I don't know if you recognize it, but it's off of Beach Road at the very foot of Diamond Hood. And I took my easel down there one morning about six months ago. And it was a beautiful morning and there were two fishermen out on the end. So this is the completed painting. But if you would change to the next picture, I'll show you. This was the two fishermen that came up to my easel afterwards, and we're so excited to be a part of that. And at that point, I had only painted one of the two guys out there. So I had to paint both of them. They were so happy to be included. Yeah, I was wonderful. And so these are the kinds of things that I absolutely love about the painting in Plenaire. Because you get to meet interesting people, you get to go to places that you may never have had an opportunity to go to before. And it's just, you know, look at the joy, the joy. I don't know who is grinning more. Those guys are me, but we all had a great time. It's a lovely photograph, too. Before we go for our break, I just want to go, I want to return to the previous picture. Just the picture just before that of the painting itself. So there it is. Now, you know, my reaction, and I'm no expert on this, is that this picture has so much heart. You are seeing through the detail of what a person would see in his eyes. You are breathing life into the ocean. It's more than what you would see with a camera. And the sky is more than what you would see with your eyes and the trees and so forth and the beach. I mean, it has a quality beyond reality. It is sending a message. It is sending a number of messages. Do you think of those things when you paint? I can't paint unless I have passion for the subject. And I particularly, I love painting skies. I love the ocean, and I'm passionate about it. And if I can get some, if I can transfer that excitement to the canvas, and then for somebody who has never seen the painting before, pick that up, that just makes my heart sing. So, yes, thank you. And mine, and mine. We're going to take a short break so I can run out and get this thing framed over here. We'll be right back in one minute. Aloha, I'm Carl Campania. I hope you please visit us this summer. It's a wonderful summer. It's actually a cooler summer than we're used to. But I hope that you come back and visit us and watch our show, Education Movers, Shakers, and Reformers here on Think Tech, Hawaii. It's at noon every Wednesday. See you then. Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas, everybody! Feliz Navidad! Prospero a new y feliz sida! I want to wish you a merry Christmas! I want to wish you a merry Christmas! I want to wish you a merry Christmas, brother! Hello, and aloha. My name is Raya Salter, and I am the host of Power of Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to figure out how we're going to work towards a clean and renewable energy future. We have exciting conversations with all kinds of stakeholders, everyone who needs to come together to talk about renewable energy, be they engineers, advocates, lawyers, utility executives, musicians, or artists, to see how we can come together to make a renewable future. Tuesdays at 1 p.m. We're back. We're live with one of my favorite people here on, what is it, creative contributions, one of my favorite shows. I'm talking with Susie Y. Anderson, who's an unplanned air painter. Are there many unplanned air painters? I mean, that's an unusual term. Oh, there is. Usually people drop beyond, but it's just plein air. And yes, it's just taken off like wildfire all over the world, really. Because people are finding out how much fun it is. I guess they all have the same kinds of subjects. They're at the beach, or they're in open spaces. Yeah, but you could set up a still life out in your garden and call it unplanned air. Because it's basically painting from life, and usually outdoors. You could do a figure outside, and it would be considered unplanned air. So my apartment is capturing the air. Right. And I have a couple of friends that do beautiful abstracts. And standing next to me while I'm doing something representational, and it's marvelous to see that. Is that unplanned air? Yes, it is. You can do unplanned air and abstract, too. Sure. You can be inspired, of course. So how long have you been painting, without revealing any personal data here? I've been painting seriously and professionally, as a painter, as a fine artist painter, since 2000. But I had been painting throughout my earlier careers. I had two other careers before I became a fine artist, and would paint as I could, you know, between jobs and things. But you have to have the time to devote to it, and now it's a hundred percent. So, besides the trouble. Yeah. Why did you become a professional? What led you to that? Gosh, well, I was always a professional artist. I was a medical illustrator with the med school first. I had a 20-year career designing litigation graphics for attorneys. Oh, I remember that, yeah. And so that was the graphic part. You were training, actually. Yes, exactly. All that was in training for becoming a fine artist, a plein air artist. But at some point you said, enough of that. Yes, enough of that. I want to paint for myself. I want to paint what my heart tells me to paint. And the mortgage was paid for at that time, so that was a lucky stroke. Yeah, big factor. Don't give up your day job otherwise, right? I mean, the art, this field is very difficult if you are depending on it to make a living. Because, you know, a lot of people are enjoying getting out there and painting themselves and doing plein air, and they may not be professional, but they're having a great time with it. But the galleries are struggling, generally, all over. It's not just in Hawaii, but it's kind of all over. Well, you know, you can go on the Internet. You can use any number of computer programs and come up with very attractive looking graphics. And we're surrounded with color and graphics of all kinds and movies and animations that you name it. So you have a lot of competition out there for people's attention. Yes. And also the web, it has all kinds of online courses you can take, workshops that are wonderful. But one of the experiences that I had recently in early November, and I would encourage anybody that's interested in doing plein air in Hawaii, is that there is a group called the Plain Air Painters of Hawaii. And it was begun in Maui, it's still headquartered in Maui, but it's open to all artists across the Hawaiian islands. And they have paintouts once, and paintouts are once or twice a year on the different islands. You sound like a hackathon. Yes, that's about it. And we were on a beautiful island of Kauai, my favorite, for four days, it was solid painting from sun up to sun down. And we painted everywhere, in North Shore, West Side. I'd like to be there just to watch and take pictures. It was amazing. Amazing. And so sometimes there were as many as three paintings done a day. The energy level is incredible. There were 23 artists from Maui and Kauai in Oahu doing this. And the camaraderie is fantastic. It's just exciting. And those are the kinds of things that I live and breathe for, I just love it. Yeah. Well, that's part of, we have a lot of science. And scientists, as a professional matter, have to be able to explain their work. They have to be able to engage with a non-scientific community. I would say the same thing exists with artists. You can't paint in a silo. You express yourself, but then you have to express what you express. And you have to be able to talk to your peers, your other, your artists that may work with you or paint with you and paint outs and the like. And you have to be able to talk to the public, whether it be in the gallery at Ward Center or here today or, you know, whoever you're talking to, to try to convey what you're doing and why it is relevant and important and better than a computer program. That's right. Let's hope so. Yeah. So you have that gift. And I mean, have you been doing that from the beginning to talk to people and express yourself? Well, I think so. Yes, I do. And, you know, every experience builds on the next one. And it's like those two fishermen that came up to talk. I mean, that was, that was just so joyful for all of us. That's what this painting is. This is joyful. Yeah. It's not talking politics. It's creating something wonderful that has perhaps legs, you know, that painting right there, you know, is a kind of a historic painting because that's the other issue is that I love to paint things that may not be here next year. Yeah. Like the sugar and the pineapple hold all those subjects. I've painted lots of those paintings. And they're all sold because they're a piece of Hawaii history that have been preserved for future generations to enjoy. So, you know, when you pass, you pass that on to somebody else. And so what other kind of career can you say that gives you that kind of wonderful feeling of continuity and joy? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, you touched on, you know, the idea of nostalgia, of seeing things in a historical context. So, you know, this one, Out to Pasture, or Old Yeller, as the case may be, that touches me because it makes, you know, historically, historical Hawaii recapturable somehow. I have a piece of the past. That's the message to me. And it is a beautiful past. It's like proust. You know, it floods into your mind. It touches some nerve in your mind and makes you remember all the things that you and your mind associate with this period of time, this kind of thing. So, it gives you a special treat, a special dessert. But there's more than just nostalgia here. When I look at the painting of the ocean, I get all kinds. I get fireworks of messages about the environment. I can feel the water. I can feel my feet on the beach. My whole life is, you know, becomes tactile because of what you did in that painting. Thank you. Wow. You made my, you made my year, Jack. Thank you very much. May I quote you? What I'm saying is it's more than nostalgia. Yeah, it is. It is human sensibility. It's sensory perceptions being delivered to you by the painting. Well, that's why it's important to fund the arts so that young kids coming up understand the importance of what they're doing. And it's just incredibly important to round out what we're doing in all the different fields. Well, let's talk about that. I think, you know, I don't should be modest about this, your leader in this, in painting in Hawaii. And it's not only because you're a terrific painter and you have, you know, the sensibility to deliver the message. But because you've been doing it a long time and you have in fact delivered the message for a long time. And so I look to you to talk to the next generation and to try to encourage them to do this because this is not only good for the painter, it's good for the community. What is it? A great state deserves great art, right? It's a living example right here next to me. Well, there are many wonderful artists in this state. And one of the opportunities for the public to see wonderful art is at the Punahou Carnival Art Show coming up in early February. So I hope anyone who's listening to this program will take the time to go to Punahou and see this because this show is open. It's not a closed show. It's not a curated show. It's open to all artists. Anybody can put a painting in there. You could put a painting in there if you wanted to. Well, that's going a little far. Yeah, okay. But it is a benefit for the school, but it benefits the artists as well. And just a couple of weeks ago, I loved doing shows like that. The North Shore, there was a benefit for the, oh gosh. It was the Community Foundation for the North Shore, and they had a benefit auction. And I participated with my paintings out there. And it's a wonderful opportunity, again, to support these charities or these nonprofits so that they can continue their good work. And I think that's one of the things that artists like myself try to do as frequently as possible. For the common good. For the common good, exactly. And you know, I mean, the important thing, if you want to have a take-home on this, is that we need to have art in Hawaii. We need more Susie Anderson's going forward. We need more of her work. We need to capture those seascapes and landscapes and even the abstracts so that we, you know, it's food for the soul is what it is. And we can't let that dry up. We can't let the computer-assisted graphics take the field here. The last thing I'd like to talk about is the dynamic of an artist. You know, we talked briefly about Picasso and all that, how we went through various stages in this life. And after the gallery at Ward Center closed, it was in early 2015. You know, you went traveling, you had more time to reflect, to maybe see the world more intensely and to translate that into your work. Can you talk about, you know, the dynamic process of an artist who can get out either in the work or in the travels and how that changes your way of thinking, looking at the universe and how it changes your art? Well, we had an opportunity to travel both to Italy last year for five weeks and Spain this fall for a month, as well as New York City just recently. And all of those places, we make a beeline for the different galleries, the museums, because so much fine art is in each of these cities that we never see. You don't get to see the everyday kind of art. And so it's an education, it's totally an education. And for instance, we were in New York just a few weeks ago and went to the New Whitney Museum and they had an exhibit, a fantastic exhibit of portraits, everything from very, very contemporary abstract portraits to very representational ones. And it inspired me, the New Whitney, and it inspires me to learn how to do portraiture, just even in an abstract format. So those are the kinds of things that are absolutely critical to the life of an artist because you don't want to stay static, you want to keep moving. I've painted just about every beach there is on this island and on many others also. And so the challenge for me is to go back and paint it in a different way and going on doing these trips and seeing how other artists have captured their local scenes and their beaches and their landscapes inspires me to go back to the same places that maybe didn't inspire me so much the last time with new eyes. See it differently. What about portraiture? What's in your future? Will you move on to other subjects? This is really an important question. Where is it all going for you? I don't know. I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm interested in everything. I really am. I'm interested in portraiture. I'm very interested in going back to the abstract and getting more abstract with my representational work because with every painting that I do that's representational, you can take a corner out of it and you can say that would make a wonderful abstract painting. You don't have to look any further than that. But painting abstract, I paint from the inside out, painting landscapes and seascapes, I paint from the outside in. That's the difference. The abstract is more self-generated and it's more thoughtful in some ways. But it's all great. Hawaii has such great possibilities for art. We live in a beautiful place with beautiful people. Right now there's a ceramics exhibit going on at Linnikona, which is just across the street from the Honolulu Museum. We ought to see that. We ought to participate in that. We ought to enjoy that, revel in it. We ought to do it. The other thing I want to say in closing, Susie, is that a reminder of Rodin. Rodin carved out of a block of marble and at the end he found his statue in the block of marble. In a way, what you describe as the artist herself is a block of marble. And as she trips away to life, she finds in the core of the block of marble, she finds herself, she finds her ultimate artistic destiny, and I think that's what you're finding. I hope I never see the end of it. I don't want to get to the very end of it. Thank you, Jay. Thank you, Susie Anderson. I'm not there. The life will always. Thank you.