I’m so excited to bring you an interview with the very talented Susan Tuttle. I have been following Susan’s work for many years now, and she never disappoints. She is so very creative in the art she makes, the classes she teaches and the books she has published. I hope you enjoy this interview on what keeps her pushing forward in her creativity as much as I did! xoxo Denise

Tell me a bit about your background and what inspires you to be creative.

The arts have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My early experiences were actually in music! I began to play the flute at age nine and excelled rather quickly. I soon discovered it was a way to feel alive and strong, and a medium through which I could express my sensitive self. It was a relief and a gift to be able to play in musical groups where sensitivity and emotion were encouraged and valued. The musical opportunities that unfolded allowed me to connect with kindred creative souls to make music together and form meaningful relationships.

As a teen I played in the New Jersey Youth Symphony, which brought culturally and spiritually rich experiences like playing at Carnegie Hall and participating in a life-changing concert tour in Poland, which opened my eyes to a greater world, the joys of adventure, and the importance of connecting with people on a global level. We visited Auschwitz, which was very difficult, painful, confusing, and so important for a youngster to digest and understand. I studied at Tanglewood multiple times (the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and worked hard to obtain degrees in Flute Performance and Music Education from both Rutgers University-Mason Gross School of the Arts and the Boston Conservatory. I decided I wanted to give back and share the joy of music with youngsters. I taught K-12 public school music over a span of ten years, in both the Greater Boston area and in my current home state of Maine. I continued to teach until 2003 when our son was born.

After a serious car accident in 1996, I also began to explore the visual realm of the arts, first with simple charcoal drawings, then with abstract painting, which I further embraced while struggling and healing through sad years of experiencing multiple miscarriages. I dabbled in collage and found-object assemblage and ultimately found my niche in photography and digital art.

What started your photographic journey and how has it evolved?

I connected with the art of photography in 2003 when our son was born — of course, he was the best subject matter and he immediately sparked a deep, inherent love of photography in me that has been growing and evolving ever since. I started shooting with a digital SLR and taught myself Photoshop, and later incorporated mobile photography (and editing with mobile apps) into my creative repertoire.

I am in love with my various DSLR lenses and Photoshop, which I’ve now been using for over 15 years. My favorite styles of photography are portrait and macro nature. The privilege of photographing that spark of soul in someone’s eyes is magical and elating, stunning and heartbreaking. Raw and real. Heaven. When I photograph flora with my dedicated macro lens, going inside a bloom is an adventure, where I get to observe and linger on fine details I could not see with my naked eye.

I developed a passion for iPhoneography when I started shooting with an iPhone 3 way back when. The iPhone camera kept improving with each new phone release, and many high-quality mobile apps have come on the market over the years, allowing me to do more with the medium. I look forward to seeing where this technology will go in the future, after all, one of the latest covers of Time magazine was shot with an iPhone. I use this medium to create portraits, still life, and landscape photos that have a worn yet timeless aesthetic to them. I often use myself as the model in my mobile artwork, but I don’t tend to think of these images as self-portraits; rather that I am using my body as the model, to dress up in costume and tell stories with. Sometimes I use this medium to explore the form of my earth suit female body. My mobile photography has been internationally recognized and exhibited in Paris, London, Rome, New York City, Prague, Budapest, throughout New England, and Hollywood.

What drives you to keep growing creativity?

Being a creative person is just something I am naturally drawn to and want to do. It feeds and nourishes me. It provides a natural high and makes me feel alive and whole and crackling with energy, it’s fun, and it connects me to the essence of my spirit and to other creative energies and sources out there in the Universe. Magic, really! I absolutely love the feeling of getting completely consumed and lost in the passion of making something. There’s nothing like it, and I’m definitely addicted, so I’m confident I will forever be chasing ways to stay in that creative flow.

When I look back at some of my photos and edits from 15 years ago, it’s amazing for me to see how my style and techniques have evolved over time. Sure it’s natural to cringe at some of the first attempts, but it’s important to honor them as part of the growth process, I think. In the same vein, I look at my art now and wonder where it will be in another 15 years, and if the mediums I use will even be the same.

Creativity takes on many forms for me, so as long as I am exercising my creative muscle, whether it be through photography, painting, decorating my home, designing my gardens, creating herbal medicinal blends, or writing, I feel like I’m fulfilling my soul’s creative desires.

What or who has been the biggest influence on your creativity and why?

I have no idea. 🙂 But what I do know, is that there is no single person or thing that has had the biggest influence on my creativity. I think that at any given time there are creative energies and examples all around us that can spark creative ideas and direction within us. We just need to be open and receptive to them. For me this can come in a variety of ways, like enjoying another artist’s work, tasting and savoring artfully-prepared food, enjoying an afternoon at a museum, taking a walk in the woods, watching a brilliant independent film, listening to a moving piece of music, having coffee with a fellow creative and discussing ideas, meditating, drawing from dreams, perusing Pinterest, traveling, even drawing upon experiences that are challenging and emotionally difficult… these are just some examples, as I could go on.    

What do you do differently to bring authenticity to your art?

I rely mostly on my inner knowing when I make art — shooting from the gut, often breaking the rules, entranced by the mystery of what makes a powerful image. When I see something special I wish to capture, I can literally feel my heart rise in my chest. I follow those gut instincts. Not to say that I don’t think about camera settings, composition, form, color, tonal value, etc. — I absolutely do and I am meticulous about these aspects, but I seem to generally follow an internal set of rules as opposed to ones that have been imposed upon me. As a formally-taught flutist, I know what it is like to be instructed to follow pocketfuls of rules and technical procedures. In college, my flute lessons over-emphasized the technical and were far from nourishing, positive, or encouraging due to my instructor’s teaching style; in fact quite the opposite, as if beating me down would allow me to blossom. Upon reflection, I realized that this type of teaching style crushed some of my creative spirits, which took time and a reinventing of myself to regain; so with my explorations of photography and digital art, I made a conscious decision to have full ownership of my training, output, and growth. And, as a teacher myself, I am very careful with my own students; my intent is to encourage, nurture, inspire, and open doors.

What has been the most challenging part of creating your art?

I’m going to guess my answer here will resonate with most people. Time (lack thereof) is the biggest challenge for me. I wear many hats. A lot of my time is dedicated to my family and raising children, everyday life responsibilities that keep us all nourished, healthy, and active, and working with my family to keep the homestead running smoothly (for those who own a house, you know it’s not for the faint of heart). I also like to set aside plenty of hours for ‘family time,’ where we get to connect with each other and enjoy life.

Creating online courses, tending to my website/blog, developing newsletters with fresh content, and trying to stay on top of social media is at the core of my photography/digital art career activities. In addition to these endeavors, I have been investing a lot of time and energy in my loves of herbalism, gardening, mycology, foraging, and preserving wild food. In fact, I am currently creating a second business which will be dedicated to selling my herbal products. I have not figured out how I am going to balance my two businesses yet, and that is okay. Things are shifting, and I am staying open and listening.

Then there is social media (insert your nod and sigh here). I have two Instagram accounts: one that features only my mobile art and the other that focuses on herbalism, foraging, and living an artful, magical life (this is the account that I post to frequently). I’m also on Facebook (both a personal page and business page). And I’m still hooked on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/susant/) because I like to look at beautiful things and get inspired by them. Social media is a tough one for me, as it probably is for most folks. I love using the platforms to share, connect with like-minded creatives around the globe, and get inspired by what others are posting, but the amount of time it takes to do all this does not sit well with me. Has anyone figured out a balance for this? Let me know if you have. 🙂

I am also making time to be activist and politically involved, which not only takes time but a lot of cerebral and emotional investment.

I think the key to finding and working with balance is to (1) prioritize what is most important at any given moment, (2) simplify as much as possible without sacrificing quality, (3) find the places where your passions and responsibilities intersect (For instance, I love to set up still life scenes that artfully record aspects of my herbalism practices), and (4) realize it’s normal for the scale to constantly tip, and that it will always require effort to aim for balance. And sometimes it’s okay for life to be out of balance for a period of time, say if you are working on a really important project that has a deadline, but it’s also important to follow the frenzy with a less active period.

No matter what, I need to make sure to slow down sometimes and dedicate time for relaxation, rest, doing nothing, sipping wine, reading books, or whatever it is I am drawn to do for me.

What was your biggest fear when you started to follow your passion and how have you overcome that?

When it comes to following my creative passion I really don’t have fear. I’m not exactly sure why that is. I have fear about other things in my life, but this area is not one of them. Think about people who can jump out of planes without an ounce of fear (that’s not me, BTW, LOL), but, I can jump into following my creative passion in much the same way that they skydive. It’s the part of myself and my life where I feel most natural and comfortable in my skin. Creativity is such a personal thing. It’s an expression of who you are inside. So when I do share this part of myself, some people will like it and connect with it, and others won’t like it, for whatever reason. I am okay with that. I don’t think my soul has come here to be liked, necessarily. I am human, nonetheless, and rejection doesn’t feel good, but deep down I’ve never been interested in fitting in. It took me some time to realize that was actually an asset and something I now like most about myself. I’m here to learn and grow and become a better soul and that requires staying on my own personal path.

I don’t share everything I make, but when I do, it has to live up to high standards I set for myself. If I don’t love it, I don’t share it. If I can get a work to a place where I feel what I call my ‘inner ping’ (that ‘aha’ moment when you know you’ve nailed it), then and only then, do I share it.

I’ve learned how to take strong criticism because of my music background and countless high-pressure/high-stakes auditions. You get grilled in the music field and you learn how to cope and deal. I have written four books (published by F+W Media) that have been well-received overall. But, there are people in our society who have no problem leaving a scathing review and playing expert on Amazon, especially because it involves something they’ve purchased. Yeah, I’ve gotten a couple of those kinds of reviews. I guess you can say I’ve developed a thick skin. But another thought, is that not all criticism is bad. Sure, sometimes criticism comes from a place of ill will and the baggage that people carry, and with that type of criticism, it’s about them and not the person they are targeting. There is also constructive criticism and feedback that is naturally a part of the learning process. Of course, it may not always feel good, but I do welcome it and I think I have become a better artist and teacher because of it.

What do you do when you find yourself in a rut or you are feeling uninspired?

I embrace the rut. I don’t fight it. I’ve learned that there really is no such thing as a rut. I believe the soul and body are asking us to sit quietly. Go inward. Reflect. Refresh. Renew. The creativity will come back. Always. It’s not meant to have endless working, optimal output. Sometimes we need to rest like plants in the winter. Without apparent death, there cannot be a rebirth of creativity.

If you could share one truth… from your creative heart to ours… what would you want us to know?

Just be yourself. Make the kind of art that you want to make. In a broader sense, do the things in life that you want to do, even if you think they will be perceived as quirky or strange. When you give yourself permission to be yourself, even if what you’re doing is different and not the norm, you, in essence, normalize these things, and invite others to be their own unique selves.

Do you have any tips, tricks or advice for those just getting started out in photography?

Yes. Know that the most important part of photography, and what makes it moving, captivating art, has very little to do with rules and technical skill. Sure it’s important to learn and deeply understand the rules and technical aspects of the craft, as they will provide you with tools to best realize your creative vision, but at the core, what makes a great photograph is seeing and capturing life with your soul. Shoot from the gut. Always.

What is the one piece of photography equipment you absolutely cannot live without?

I try not to get too married or attached to any one piece of equipment, because technology changes and bodies change. Some day, holding up a big camera with a huge lens may feel physically uncomfortable for me, and most likely, current technology will become obsolete and replaced by new technology.

I think that finding the tools that work best for you and your art is key. Keep in mind they don’t necessarily need to be super-expensive. For instance, if you enjoy shooting mostly outdoors and in natural light, you can get away with a cropped-frame digital SLR that has less features than a full-frame. If Photoshop is overwhelming to you, use something simple like Pixlr as you learn the ropes of PS.

Right now, my favorite tools are my iPhone XS Max and my dedicated macro lens made for my digital SLR camera. When it comes to desktop software, Photoshop is still my favorite. For iPhone apps, my current favorite is iColorama.

I know you offer some wonderful courses and are a published author of several photography books, so we’d love to know where we can find you and what’s next? Where do you see your artistic vision leading you?

Thanks so much!

You can check out my books here: https://susantuttlephotography.com/my-books/

I’ve actually just launched a brand new online course called iColorama Creative PLUS, co-taught with the lovely, talented Nicki Fitz-Gerald, who you are also featuring in this interview series. I invite your audience to come and check out our course offering here: https://www.myphotoartisticlife.com/p/icolorama-creative-plus

Last words… what is the question you wished I’d ask that you’d like to answer?

I’ll make this quick because I tend to be a prolific writer, and I’ve already shared more than my fair share of words in this interview. 😉 I just wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on teaching and my heart intentions around that…

…I honor my calling to share my work and what I have learned, and I am grateful for opportunities that allow me to play a small part in the creative and spiritual becomings of individuals. Some of these people will, in turn, share what they have learned with others. All of us can play a part in passing it on. It is my belief that if more and more people living on this planet are in touch with themselves and making things, there will be more joy, greater peace, meaningful human connection, and less destructive behavior. It is harder to destroy when in touch with the creative spirit.

Dream big!