Interview with a Dreamchaser 🌟 Suzanne Heintz 🌟
Her work, described as equal parts photography and theater, makes Suzanne Heintz an unusual Artist.
Tell me about a time you had to start over, or a dream you accomplished.
As an artist, the hardest success is your 2nd one. Unless you’re playing the 1 trick pony game, you need to re-invent your own wheel, and at least to some extent, start over. I worked on a project for over 20 years, as the elements in it, allowed for exploring endless topics about human need. But when I realized I had exhausted the project, I knew I had to end it and start something else. It took time, but I did, and it is different than what people came to expect of me. My advice is to expect that if you’re growing and changing your work, it will not be as well received as the 1st. Just keep going. Being an Artist is not a gimmick or a winning formula. It’s continually starting from the unknown, and making sense of it for others.
A career artist must hustle to sell themselves and their work. What’s your #1 Hustle Tip?
Own your story and your message, don’t let others tell it for you. They have their own agenda. The Press coverage I got for being a sensational story is what initiated interest in my work. But they twisted my work to make it fit their own agenda. Being ready with an articulate statement, owning my own messaging, having my act together, and making my own Social Media Videos, have all been key in continuing to get my work seen and understood, rather than exploited.
What big hurdle did you overcome to reach your goal?
Ironically, I don’t set “goals.” That’s a mental framework that I simply don’t find helpful. Being an Artist is not like having a fitness goal. It’s not tangible like that. Artist - it’s simply the kind of thinker I want to be. I can’t help but do it. I feel terrible, like I’m rotting, if I’m not making something that uses the best in me. That mindset kept me working over a lifetime, creating a body of work that I cared about, that was honest. It wasn’t a grand design to make work that sells. That’s not Art, that’s Marketing. I kept my head down and out of attachment to the concept of “success.” It was a series of happenstances that made my work become well known. I was doing the work, it was only a matter of time that it was noticed. The success came out of that. The “hurdle” I had to overcome is believing that I’d never get anywhere.
What’s the main lesson you learned?
Never B.S. yourself. If you’re doing it for the right and personally honest reasons, success comes. And that success is an emotional state, not financial.
Do you have another goal or dream?
I want to create change my medium to have a more visceral impact on people. I want to create interactive installations. Been there, done that with photography. Onward ho.
What’s your advice for someone who’s starting over, or wants to achieve a dream?
Make little tiny work commitments to yourself that are not difficult to manifest, and are not controlled by outside circumstances or anyone else.
Her work, described as equal parts photography and theater, makes Suzanne Heintz an unusual Artist. Growing up Mormon in New York was more influential than her formal education. Not only was she surrounded by a multitude of cultural influences, but the Mormon idealization of the role of Wife and Mother left a particularly strong mark. That, together with her work as an Art Director for Television and Advertising, where she “made a career of wrapping subliminal messages in an appealing candy coating,” converged to shape the focus of her subject matter. External pressures of culture, and the internal pressures we place on ourselves to fit its image of success, is at the core of her work. Heintz continues to excavate this duality, from the standpoint of Identity Manufacturing for Success in Business, targeted at the Social Platform, LinkedIn with her newest work titled, “BEST FOOT FORWARD.” In her self portraits, Heintz uses herself as a role playing character, acting out the life Society intended for her in meticulously staged tableaux. In this way she challenges, from within, the cultural assumptions she contests.
Connect with Suzanne at:
Email: suzanne@suzanneheintz.com
Really inspiring! I needed this today. I especially appreciated what she shared about the hurdle she overcame and how, “that’s not art that’s marketing,“ and the discernment there and her staying true to her path as an artist. Thank you for this juicy interview!
Quite a crazy journey she is on!