About Susan Lince

Susan Lince

As a lover of art and nature, two mantras have followed me through my adult years to remind me of how grateful I am for all the wonderful things there are to see in this life: “The more you look, the more you see, ” and “Beauty and ugliness exist side by side” ( words written by my wise daughter when she was about 8). I have produced art, studied art, taught art, collected art, and married an artist. But well before I had mantras to raise my awareness, art was there for me when I was very young, as a spontaneous and intuitive process –drawing, painting, doing collage, and designing.

My B.A. in Fine Arts increased my skill in creating two-dimensional art, especially drawing, printmaking, and painting. Since I earned my degree in the sixties, I was immersed in the modern art of the times, including Abstract Expressionism. The understanding of basic art elements that are necessary for producing and appreciating this kind of art has been an important stimulus for me ever since. I have used this appreciation not only in my own artwork (drawing, painting, batik, collage, and photography), which I have done primarily for my own enjoyment, but it has also been one of the bases of my influence on others.

In using art in the elementary classroom, in teaching art classes to children and middle schoolers, and in coaching students for art contests, I have used the personal joy I experience in the creation of art to push others towards this joy. Even more importantly, my role as an “Art Encourager” has helped people of many ages and abilities to use art processes to understand themselves better. I believe strongly that visual art is a window to intelligence; it allows others to see new complexities of thinking in the artist and allows the artist to reflect with confidence on what he or she feels, thinks, and understands.

Reflecting on my work of the last ten years, I have been most energized and successful in creating three kinds of work: mixed media abstract paintings around color, shape, and texture; figurative paintings of still life, people, animals, and landscape; photographs of natural subjects, often abstracted.

I still see the influence of artists such as the later Impressionists, the German Expressionists, Mark Rothko, or Paul Klee on my paintings and my photographs. I love color and line. In our wanderings, my husband, John R. Hopkins (J.R. Lince-Hopkins is his painter name,) and I have seen incredibly beautiful scenery and wildlife, and it is always rewarding to share seeing, observing, and visioning with him.

A number of my works on this website are either painted or photographed in Alaska, where we lived for 4 years in Alaska Native villages. John and I are “Art Encouragers” for each other. Hopefully, my work shows how rich my visual experience has been since becoming a life-traveler with him.

Recent personal journeys into reflections on aging and spirituality have been more inward, and have resulted in series of abstract paintings. Some of these have been been painted as interactions with poetry that I have written on the same themes.