Susan Atwell, artist and teacher at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, has spent her life studying and practicing the arts in all different forms. Now, she is sharing the same joy she feels through the arts with a multitude of people every chance she gets.
Born and raised in Valparaiso, Indiana, Atwell attended Valparaiso High School where her interest in art piqued. Much of her time throughout school was spent in the art rooms working on different projects and enhancing her skills in art, clay, textiles, and photography.
“I spent a lot of time in the art rooms before and after class,” Atwell said. “Even in junior high, I would go before the day even started and work on stuff.”
Because of the number of credits she had during her senior year of high school, Atwell spent half of her day in class and then was able to spend the rest in the art rooms, even staying after school ended to continue working.
“Most of the day, I would just stay in the art rooms and continue working on different projects,” she explained. “During that time, I focused on photography. That made up my after-school activities.”
After graduating from Valparaiso High School, Atwell went on to further her education at Ball State University, where she continued to study art. While Atwell knew she was on the right path, that path did venture a bit until it eventually corrected itself when the Valparaiso native found a passion from her childhood.
“When I went to college, I thought I was going to be a ceramics major,” Atwell explained. “Then I went upstairs to the textile weaving department and that reignited all of that within me. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”
Atwell’s passion for textiles goes back to junior high, but as she moved on to high school, she found that the textiles wasn’t offered as a class. But then she was reintroduced to that passion and stayed on the path that has lead her to a career that she wouldn’t give up for anything.
“You get into a zone and it is almost like a meditation,” Atwell said. “As we get older and we have to adult 24/7, we lose that desire or that ability to be creative. But I believe art adds so much to everyone’s life.”
After graduating from Ball State with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Textiles, Atwell moved back to her hometown and began working in retail. She kept up with her art during this time, dyeing, weaving, quilting, and knitting textiles. It wasn’t until within the past few years however, that she stepped away from retail and fully dedicated her time to the arts.
“Last year, I did the Lubeznik Art & Artisan Festival as a vendor and sold my art there,” Atwell said. “And I knew Hannah Hageman, who is the Director of Education at Lubeznik Center for the Arts. She asked me if I wanted to teach some classes and I said yes.”
As a teacher at the Lubeznik Center, Atwell works with people of all ages who are looking to get back to their creative side by leading them through a number of projects. Her upcoming class for this fall will have students creating an incredibly soft Nuno Felted Shawl Wrap, a project that, while everyone learns the same technique, allows students to let their creativity and originality shine through.
“What I insist on in my classes is that everyone does their own thing,” Atwell explained. “Everyone learns a technique, but then they get to choose their own colors and their own way of doing that specific technique. So, everyone’s is their own original result.”
Bringing out that creative spark that lives in everyone is Atwell’s goal when teaching at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts.
“I love getting people tuned into that excitement when they realize that they can do these things,” she said. “We lose that when we become adults because we don’t participate in those activities and don’t practice it much. But when people have that interest and say, ‘Oh I used to take art classes as a kid,’ I know that they have an interest and a desire to get back in touch with that. That’s what I love the most is teaching people that are stagnant or haven’t done anything like this in a long time, because you can see that spark in their eyes and that enjoyment in their face.”
Along with teaching at the Lubeznik Center, Atwell works for an up-and-coming company called Hoof-To-Hanger Fiber Mill in Bridgman, Michigan. There, Atwell is able to satisfy her love of working in textiles and being hands on in her art.
“It’s a brand new business and what we are doing is we are processing raw fiber,” Atwell explained. “It goes through several processes and is turned into either batting, yarn, and more. It’s a lot of fun and it’s a lot of hands on work.”
While Atwell isn’t teaching or continuing her passion with textiles, antiquing, gardening, enjoying the proximity to Lake Michigan, spending time with her family and her cat, Blue Kitten, who is a bit of a local celebrity in La Porte, and even riding motorcycles.
But Susan Atwell’s time is made up of art, and for an artist living out her dream of working in a career she loves, that line between work and pleasure is often nonexistent. And now she is sharing her passion of the arts with anybody looking for that creative spark, making art accessible to anybody who needs it.
For more information about the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, go to www.lubeznikcenter.org. For more information about Hoof-To-Hanger, go to www.hoof-to-hanger.com.