Suzanne Galazka

Featured Artist

Courtesy photo

May 26, 2005

Go Figure. Drawing, a fundamental, if not

the most elemental skill in an artist's tool kit

is losing status in some academic quarters.

Not so for teacher and accomplished draftsman

Suzanne Galazka, whose inspired hand and elevated

talent has instructed so many scribblers and

doodlers to see for more than two decades.

"I'm certainly not the first to ever have said

or taught it," Galazka acknowledges, "but maybe

the most critical ingredient for an artist is the

ability to see and make contact with his subject.

I try to instill that in my classes (she teaches

at both Artlink and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne)

along with the idea of not drawing what a subject

is, but what it is doing."

Galazka's reputation as a driven, if not

demanding task master in the studio is some ways

the opposite of her own work. Her soft,

sensuously contoured ink-and-watercolor figure

renderings are of textbook and collectible

quality. They can often be seen at Artlink

exhibitions and regularly populate the walls of

the Castle Gallery and in private collections

elsewhere around the city.

Renderings of male and female nudes are the

artist's forte. In some cases a work may take

less than 30 seconds to complete. The addition of

subtle watercolor enhancements might lengthen the

elapsed time to 30 minutes. The brief ones expose

her rigor of seeing and interpreting her subjects

as if her pen had been held aloof for inspiration

before suddenly becoming energized for engagement

with the paper. The result is a kind of

automatism. Spontaneously capturing and freezing

a moment in time. Underline here the notion that

Galazka's work is not that of a copyist but as an

interpreter.

It all sounds and look easy, like the oft-heard

cliched comment of a museum visitor upon seeing a

Picasso: "Oh, my three-year-old could do as

well."

In no way defensive, Galazka points out, "It's

easy to draw unless you know how."

Like all successful talents in any number of

fields, Galazka's roots go back to an early age.

In her case it began in a blue-collar section of

Detroit where she was raised.

"My father was a pipe fitter by profession who

invented several methods in his craft, and he was

tested to put his ideas on paper, and maybe I

inherited my gifts with pen and pencil from him,"

she confesses. "But from a very young age I took

to drawing. I remember imitating the 'Draw Me'

ads from comic books, and at one point I remember

doing a portrait of my mother when I realized, in

just a line or two, that I had a gift for it.

I've been pretty much pursuing that line ever

since.

"Other things I recall from those days were the

images of the civil rights movement and the

events happening in Detroit from TV and the

newspapers. I tried to incorporate them in my

studies. There have been many influences

throughout my career, but the singular one is

probably Egon Schiele, who saw what I see in the

human form.

"In any event my father was very supportive of

my efforts, supplying me with paper and pencils

or whatever I needed at the time."

As to any erotic components in her work Galazka

is left perplexed by some viewer's reactions.

In 1912 the Viennese Schiele was arrested,

charged with producing "seductive" pictures and

spent a short time behind bars. Galazka's nudes,

though anatomically correct, could never be

considered "prurient" by today's standards. There

was an instance a few years ago, however, when

her works were subject to a form of

censorship.

"I was living out East and was invited to hang

some works in a gallery associated with a

Catholic church," she recalls. "Each morning when

the priest who invited me to exhibit would come

to the gallery and find all my pieces propped

along the hallway face-forward against the

walls. Apparently the night cleaning woman took

offense. The priest would then return each piece

to its spot on the wall each day of the show.

"I've had people ask me to do 'erotic' things,

but I've never gone that way. I admit that the

human form is beautiful. Feet, hands and curves

are my favorites, but I admire them for what they

are not exactly as turn-ons," she says.

However reticent she is to explain her art the

artist challenges us to sweep away the veil of

glancing perception. "I can't explain what some

people read into my work. I would just encourage

them to look deeper, perhaps into themselves."

By the way, like other wanna-be sketchers, I

took advantage of my meeting with Galazka to

present four examples of my "work" for her to

critique. I don't think I would receive a passing

grade with a batting average of .250. My irises

connected just before I started to apply some

shading. ("You have to known when to stop.") The

remaining three brought comments like "Your

perspective is totally off" "Yes, they resemble

wind chimes, but ..."; and finally, "What's

that?" (It was supposed to be a backyard sun

dial).

No solace here. I guess I'll stick to the left

side of my brain for awhile longer and just be

envious of this accomplished artist who rightly

deserves our attention.