OACG Featured Member: Sue Steiner
Animals, people, faces and flowers define her work
Sue Steiner, of Dalton, Ohio, is a painter.
She works in a wide variety of media but favors oils and acrylics - and she paints big.
Sue shares her residence/workshop in Dalton, with her husband, R. Daryl Steiner, and their three children.
"My largest project was one I completed in the spring of 2008. ... I painted a team of life-size Amish (owned) work horses at a hitching post in the buggy barn at Lehman’s (in Kidron)," she said. "The horses were first drawn freehand with chalk and great care was taken to get the harness correct since I knew the Amish would know if it was not accurate. While I was painting I would ask the Amish as they came in if I was getting it right. They often smiled and said I was doing a good job."
The horses joined several other murals at Lehman’s: Her first mural at Lehman's features a cow, and the murals featuring life-size farm animals. Sue is adding on to the murals on an ongoing basis most Fridays as a painting demo at the store.
Sue enjoyed drawing horses as a child and continued to draw through middle school, but years passed until she was nearly 40 before she discovered painting is her artistic calling.
"I picked up some colored pencils in 2003 and drew some pansies as a way to relax," Sue said. "I was going through a particularly stressful time and the drawing was one of the only ways I could relax. I began from there to draw birds then drew my first portrait. I really had no idea I could draw or paint so I enjoy telling people, when they say, Oh I could never do that, to give it a try. You won’t know unless you try.
"I painted my first painting, an acrylic, in 2004. I took two art classes through the Wayne County Center for the Arts in 2005, (and) in 2006 I tried watercolors and fell in love with them. This past winter she started painting in oils and now considers that her favorite medium.
"I have yet to take any watercolor, oil or pastel classes, although I would love to do so as I want to learn as much as I can. I am self-taught and have progressed intuitively through experimentation and play. I believe I am drawn to oils because of the versatility and control they offer. I love detail but I don't aim to sustain intricate detail throughout the whole painting. I choose a focus and satisfy my desire for intricate detail but spread out and loosen up as I move away from this center. I think this fits my personality because I liked to zone in on things but need freedom, movement and color."
Sue did her first mural in 2007. "How did I choose my craft?" she said. "Well, with the murals I like to say I didn't choose them but they chose me."
"I am very pleased to have such a busy, visible area in which people can see my work but I just kind of fell into it," Sue said. "The fact they wanted animals in a barn suited me just perfectly even though I had not painted on that scale before. I painted the murals during store hours and the busy tourist season so that was both a challenge and a pleasure especially as my first venture as a professional artist. I loved interacting with people and getting immediate feedback to my art.
"The OACG opens up some opportunities to paint and meet people during First Friday events satisfying a need to be more public with my art. I love the energy and interest in the art district in Canton. I think the kids are the most fun. I remember a young boy in particular during one of my first times to paint in public, shyly watching me paint and then giving me the thumbs up when we made eye contact. I smiled, thanked him and asked him if he likes to paint too. He went on to tell me all about what he likes to paint and that just made my day."
She characterizes herself as "an animal lover at heart" who is "continually inspired by nature." But her love for her art goes deeper than that.
"I have a special interest in using art as a form of healing and expression for children who have special needs, either due to trauma, abuse, illness or disability," she said. "I have a trauma history and have found art to be an invaluable tool for my healing. I am only sorry it took until I was nearly 40 to discover art as an outlet.
"I am in the beginning stages of pursuing some ways in which I can use my experiences to help others."
Sue also has done some murals at Wayne County Children Services in Wooster and has some paintings on display at the Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild office/gallery in Canton.
She had a three-part watercolor portrait titled "A Multi-Colored Life" chosen to be made into a billboard-size outdoor exhibit for the "Celebrating Our Differences" Art Exhibit in Wooster. The outdoor exhibit consisted of several large billboards encouraging tolerance and diversity.
A painting by Sue was used in the Clothesline Project put on by Every Woman’s House, a domestic violence shelter in Wooster. Several community agencies organized a traveling art exhibit in which victims of abuse and domestic violence were encouraged to speak out through artwork painted on T-shirts which were then hung on a clothesline to symbolize victims finding a voice to speak out against sexual assault and other crimes and to bring about public awareness and support.
Sue has appreciated being able to use her art to bring attention to serious issues but she also enjoys letting her hair down and just having fun.
"I am in the process of expanding on some earlier artwork featuring colorful animals in a more expressive style," she said. "I am calling them my Pop Art Farm Animals. I’ve had a great response to them so far. One of the favorites is my Pop Art Chicken category. I began a couple years ago painting rooster heads with lots of color and expression and I just expanded from there. Now I have a whole series.
" I thought about Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe paintings and I wanted to do the same but with chicken heads - I thought a whole wall of chickens in all kinds of wild color combinations would be a fun take on pop art. So now I have done the same with pigs, cows, goats and horses."
Some of her Pop Art Farm Animals can be seen at her Etsy Shop at or at her art studio White Horse Studio above Second April Art Gallerie in Canton, Ohio.
Sue also has a Web site at www.suesteiner.com, through which she sells her work. She maintains a blog at www.amulti-coloredlife.blogspot.com in which works in progress are often posted.
"I have found the blog to be a great way to draw people in and attract attention to new work. I do a lot of marketing and networking over the internet. I like to help the OACG in this way too if I can. I enjoy the marketing end of art," Sue said.
Notecards sell for 2.50, prints around $20.00 and paintings for $55.00 and up, murals start at $20 a square foot, and prices for commissions (pets and equines are a specialty) are listed on her Web site.
Sue participated in an Art Festival at Lehman’s, a first, on July 11, along with some other OACG members and she anticipates the festival will become a regular event. She has also helped to organize OACG arts and crafts demonstrations at Lehman's every week. A schedule for these events can be found at http://www.lehmans.com under Events Calendar.
An OACG member since May 08, Sue said, "I think it is vital to my growth as an artist to be tapped into an art community. I am thrilled to be a member of OACG."
"Art to me is soothing, invigorating, freeing and how I play," she said. "I am a better, happier person when I am creating."
- About Author Dave Crookston - Faceter and Silversmith:
- Dave studied faceting with published author and gemstone designer Jim Perkins, of Medina, Ohio, and silversmithing with Margaret Vukmanovich, of North Canton, Ohio. (Margaret was co-founder of V Rock Shop with her husband Leonard.) Dave has been faceting since 2001 and doing silverwork for more than 20 years. He has operated his business, Crookstons’ Crafts, since 1999.
- A member of the United States Faceters Guild, Dave won a gold medal in the 2005 USFG Single-stone Competition Novice Category. He exhibits and sells his cut stones and silver jewelry at area shows and festivals and does custom faceting on commission. He “cuts” on a Fac-Ette GemMaster II faceting machine.
- Dave retired in May 2002 as Features Editor of The Independent newspaper in Massillon after 40 years of employment there. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960 from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus. He is a life member and former treasurer and trustee of the Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild. Dave and his wife Sally live in Massillon.
If you are an Ohio Arts & Crafts Guild member and would like to be a Featured Artist, please e-mail Guild Manager or call the OACG office at 330-456-0477. Featured Artists are also spotlighted in the OACG newsletter Creative Ohio.
The Arts are ALIVE in Ohio!
Support the visual arts by becoming a member of the Ohio Arts & Crafts Guild. Established in 1963, the OACG is a non-profit service and informational organization representing practicing artists and craftspeople at all levels of achievement: amateurs, professionals, and students. Our membership represents people of all ages and walks of life who appreciate and support the arts and crafts. In addition, the Guild promotes the future of arts and crafts by awarding annual scholarships to Ohio high school and college art students.