E101 Guest Suzi K Edwards
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Beth: [00:00:00] Hello, my creative friend. Welcome back to another episode of Create Today with Beth Buffington. Today I have a special guest that I cannot wait to share with you. Her name is Susie k Edwards, and she is a former New York clothing designer and a renowned public artist. She's an author and she's an illustrator.
She's written a series of books called The Doggos, which features original characters and exciting illustrations that she's created on her iPad using procreate. The books are inspired.
And they show the love between children and dogs, which you guys know I love dogs and I love children. So what could be better? So Edwards is a philanthropist and she contributes to animal rescue organizations across the globe. She's a [00:01:00] mom and she's a grandmother, and she's served as a mentor in a foster home, and she's been an artist in residence at a large pediatric hospital.
and we're gonna talk about where you can find her, where you can find her books as we dig in and talk to Susie k Edwards. Susie, I am so excited to have you here today. Welcome to the Create Today Podcast.
Suzi: Thank you, and I'm excited to join you.
You're marvelous. And we have so much in common kids. Can't beat that.
Beth: I know. Children's and dogs. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah. So let's first introduce yourself to the listeners. Tell us a little bit about your creative background, how you got started, and how you know where you are today.
Suzi: So I've always been created as a child.
I grew up in the Virgin Islands and I used to draw and paint. And I remember I won a little contest, a national contest. when I was maybe 10. And, and I always, [00:02:00] I had little dollies and I'd make clothes for the dollies. They were terribly sewn. I never could sew. But, so then I went to college.
I went to Cornell briefly. I didn't like, college wasn't for me. Then I went onto London and found that I really had a penchant for clothing design. It was the time, it was the sixties, and I would go to the Victoria Albert Museum and I'd draw and I'd come up with ideas. And I got accepted at the London College of Fashion, which is a great school.
And it was right off of Oxford Circus and Carnegie Street was there. And I was making clothes, and through this amazing synchronicity. I got to New York and I landed a fantastic job in New York for a, a big company, and that's not easy to do. So before I landed the job, I had to pay dues, and that means get offered jobs to be the assistant to the coffee maker and work as a sales girl and Bond would tellers.
And you know, nobody wanted to offer me a job until this amazing synchronicity happened. And should I tell you that story? [00:03:00] Yes, let's hear it. Do you like to hear that one? Absolutely. Fasten your seatbelts. So I'm in London and I'm just about finishing up my studies and I'm living with a family, friends, friends of my parents.
And they had kids my age and I remember it was a Saturday. It was a particularly rainy. British Saturday and I went into the living room. The kids were playing cards, they were hanging out, and I put on the TV and I just switched around the channels and I found a show about fashion around the world. It was an hour long show and they had four 15 minute segments and one was, I think London, one was Paris.
One was New York, and in the New York segment it showed this young guy driving around in a sports car and it showed a showroom for a fashion house with like rock music playing strobe lights. It was like exactly what I was into and exactly what I wanted. So anyway, I watched the television show and then, a few months later I went back to the States and I'm living in New York and I'm trying to find a job and I'm schlepping my.
Portfolio [00:04:00] around and people are like slamming the door in my face or not answering my calls or, you know, the drill. It happens to everybody. So, so anyways, I got the job as a salesgirl in BWA tellers. I needed money, so I got a job working in baat tellers, um, just selling clothes. So that went on for a few months and then it was, it was holiday time, it was Christmas time.
So I went to the Virgin and Islands where my family lived. And I was very close with my grandparents and they just lived up the hill from where we lived. And I went up there and, and I was just telling them what was going on. And a friend of theirs was there visiting for the holidays, and she had a blouse business that she'd had with her husband in the garment center for like 30 years, 40 years, very long time.
So she's saying, Susie, you're a designer, you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, oh, yes. And I was telling her, you know, I'm trying to get a job. I said, when I was in London, I told her about the television show. Lo be, I know those people. The father, I, I almost married him
And then the son, I used to hold him on my lap when he was a baby. I [00:05:00] said, you know them, can you introduce me? She said, of course. So I go back to New York and it turned out that the designer that they had that had been very successful for them was from the Netherlands. And at that time it was in the sixties, I guess it was trouble with her work permit and they couldn't keep her on, so they were looking for a designer that had the, the European look that was American and there was me.
So they hired me on the spot and it was tremendously successful.
so that's my crazy synchronistic story.
Beth: Oh my gosh. So I don't know, the universe leans in when it needs to lean in. Right. Um, yeah, that was amazing. It is amazing. And, but uh, the networking, the breadcrumb dropping, all of that worked really well for you to get where you really, really wanted to go.
Suzi: I know it's just an amazing story with lock and then, but you have to have, you have to know what you're doing. So I was very good. I actually, when I worked, I was like 22 I think, and I had five [00:06:00] people working under me. I had, so the way it works in the garment center is a designer comes up with an idea.
You do a sketch and then you have an assistant, and the assistant takes your sketch and she turns it into a garment. She makes a pattern. I pick out the fabric, I pick out the buttons, I pick out the trim, whatever I wanna do. And so the assistant makes the pattern, cuts it out.
And then there's four seamstresses that are sewing samples. So I have to come up with a lot of ideas and my assistant has to make a lot of patterns. So that happens. Then they take these, these garments, then they put 'em up and I change 'em, correct them, whatever. And then they put 'em out in the showroom.
And then. All the buyers from like the big stores, Bloomingdale's and Sacks and small stores, boutiques come to the showroom and they base orders on those samples. the good samples, um, you get lots of orders for, and the samples that they don't like, which turned out to be my favorite. I always made the samples at my size because then I, so if they didn't sell.
I was pretty skinny. I was like a five back [00:07:00] then, you know, 22 now I'm a 12. Exactly what happens, right? Of course. Yeah. But it was, it was just a tremendous amount of fun. It was great and, and very successful.
Beth: Oh my gosh, that's a great story. That is amazing story. So, okay, so you're in clothing design. Um, and then tell me how, how you transitioned from clothing.
Into learning procreate and, and writing books. Like how did that happen? She's talking like a lifetime.
Suzi: So, so yeah, so I did the clothing design and then I met this adorable English guy and got married, and that lasted three and a half years. But I, I madly loved him. It was, uh, you know, probably if I met that guy now, we'd still be together.
But anyway, back then, so after three and a half years we got divorced and I just, I was devastated and I didn't want to be in New York anymore. So I hitchhiked up to Woodstock and I lived in a teepee.
So, and I got into yoga and I stayed up and lived in Woodstock for a few years. Then it was actually [00:08:00] 1972, and McGovern who ran for president as a democrat. And against, against Richard Nixon and lost badly. But anyway, so my father was his finance chairman, so they were in dc. So I decided to move to DC and help with the campaign, which I did.
then I got into yoga. I really got into yoga, and that was just at the beginning of yoga and I met this really cool couple. There were artists in DC and they took me to the Harry Krishna Temple, and I loved the Harry Krishna temple.
I thought that was just, I love the music, I love the food, I love the smell of incense, and I decided to go live in the temple. So I did that for three years.
And, and, and through that I met my second husband, Roy Edwards, who, who was my second and only other husband.
And, and he was an artist. And we left the movement. We were doing art. I I, I was living in DC and I was making couture dresses for fancy ladies like, um, senators, wives and socialites. And there's another girl that I met in the temple who was a fabulous seamstress. I could never sew. I mean, my soul looks like chicken scratch.
It's the [00:09:00] worst. But she was a fabulous seamstress, so I would. We get the fabric, and since we're into that whole Indian thing, we're making these beautiful gowns outta s for people. And, and we did that for a while. then I went, I moved to Florida.
and I started getting into public art my husband and I split up.
and I started doing, um, mosaics.
I met another guy in a Mosaic class and we started, um, doing mosaics together and we made a bunch of samples, put them in a showroom. I knew about making samples and putting 'em in the showroom from the. Fashion business, but it's the same thing, whatever you do. So I made the samples, put 'em in a tile showroom, and then the first public art job was a park in, in, it's called the, um, Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, and I think that was in 2000.
And they commissioned us to do. This big mosaic bench and all these, um, we did them on boards, on, on cement boards. So I learned what you can do to be outside the first job. I mean, if, if it still exists. I'll feel very blessed because we didn't know what we were doing. we kind of had confidence.
He was a good [00:10:00] salesperson. We were both, I, so I learned to sell and the Harry Krishna movement, I learned to sell. So I said. The best sales training on the planet, you get in the Harry Krishna movement. 'cause if you can get somebody to cough up 20 bucks for a Krishna book at an airport, you can sell anything.
Beth: Anything. Yeah.
Suzi: Anyway, so that's how I got into public art and then kind of got good at it and started getting more jobs. So.
Beth: I love mosaics.
And it's just amazing. there's. Just a lot of beautiful mind work that's going on while your brain is picking out shapes and colors It's very meditative. Yes, it's
Suzi: very meditative and you don't really need a lot of skills.
So, you know, I've been teaching mosaics at the Omega Institute and, and mostly to people that have never done them before, and people come out with really good stuff. I mean, it's like, it's kind of like collage. It's the same thing, you know, but you're working with stone and tiles and glass and you're using other tools to cut them and to break them, but then you just kind of put them together.
As, you don't have to have a lot of skills.
and you can make mosaics with literally anything.[00:11:00]
Beth: Oh, I love that. So it's
Suzi: 3D collages basically.
Beth: Oh, I love that. Okay. So let's talk about, um, let's talk about your books a little bit. the doggos, how did that little creative flame just sort of burst into being?
Suzi: Well, I started doing children's books when my kids were little, you know, and I just would write them and do illustrations, but they never got anywhere.
So my first book I wrote, this is my memoir, quiet Mind, crazy Heart, and I wrote this during the pandemic and the way that it got published is I have a niece. Um, my brother's daughter, Emily Kimmelman, writes mystery books. They're sort of for young people, mystery books called the Sydney Rise Series, and she's self-published, so she has a format or so.
You need an editor, you need to, so I got a bunch of people to edit them. I paid, paid them. You gotta pay. If you wanna self-publish, you gotta have some money. It's not a tremendous amount of money, unless you have some history or some. Some career [00:12:00] as a writer, a a regular publishers are gonna look at you.
So the only really option is to self-publish unless you have great contacts. But anyway, so self-publish, you get editors, you get the book edited, a couple of, a couple editors I had. Then you get a formatter, and the formatter takes the final version that's been edited about 12,000 times and formats it.
the person who formats it. Also puts it up on Amazon and then they're for sale. you get reviews, you, you can promote them. You know, I go on, um, Instagram and Facebook quite a lot, and now I started TikTok just doing that stuff, which is, it's kind of fun.
I kind of like to do it.
Beth:
Suzi: you have to do stuff to promote yourself. Doing this podcast is self-promotion for me. So, and telling you about what I do.
that's part of the process. Now the dog goes. So that was the first one. So I did that like during the pandemic,
I just gotta tell you something really cute though. So I was just looking for a copy of this to show you. And then, and the cupboard. I found this book and this book was done by my great-grandfather who [00:13:00] lived in Poland, Russia. Um, I'm not exactly sure. I think the Ukraine, and, and this was done, I guess, you know, it was done in the late 18 hundreds and, and he wrote five copies of his memoir by hand, and then a cousin in London translated, it was written in Hebrew, translated it, and then my father had it published.
And then my father, the one who was George McGovern's finance chairman, he wrote his memoir. And, and again, self-published. It is not, well, it's not for sale. He just did it for his friends and his family. And then I did mine and mine's for sale, so I thought that's pretty good, but that's a, oh, I love that.
but just when I was looking for this in the cupboard to show it to you, then I found the other two books and I said, so cool. You know, this is something I hadn't realized. You know how that all went from generation to generation? So this is the first Dogo book, Simon and Butch, and it's a story about a bullied boy who meets his pit bull and the pit bull [00:14:00] he's scared of.
At first, the pit bull is a junkyard dog and it belongs to his neighbor, and he passes on the way to school every day, and his mother gives him these sandwiches. He wants to be a vegetarian. His mother gives him these sandwiches. Called SP squat, which is like a takeoff on spam. So he hates them. So he throws them to the pit bull, and the pit bull loves them.
So when the pit bull sees Simon coming, he gets very excited. He wags his tail and Simon throws him the sandwiches. And then when bullies attack Simon, they knock him to the ground. Simon doesn't like his sandwiches, so he. Saves all his money and he puts a dollar in his sock to buy pizza at school.
So when the, when the, um, the bullies see that he's putting the money in his sock, they, they attack him. They knock him to the ground, glasses go flying, and he's screaming, help me, somebody help me. And Butch hears it, and Butch breaks his chain goes after the guys. Chases. One [00:15:00] guy up a tree, grabs his baggy jeans, pulls him off so the kid's climb in the tree in his underpants.
Love that. Even little kids, 'cause the books are basically from seven to 10, but even little five year olds, the fact that the guy's climbing the tree in his underpants, I mean, you got that. You've got a kid.
Beth: They love anything with underpants. Anything but under pan. No,
Suzi: I know. Yeah. So anyway, that's the first Dogo book.
Then the second Fiona and Dora, then this is the sixth Theo Young Prince of Harlem, Charlotte, and Boo Boo. there's six now on the market. They're all stories about particular kids, in particular dogs and how that dog comes into that kid's life and changes the life of the dog and of the kid.
Beth: I love it. Um, I love doing them. It's my favorite
Suzi: thing to do.
Beth: There's so much goodness in that, number one, uh, just your creative passion, being able to be put somewhere, and then two, uh, giving people the idea that [00:16:00] that, uh, the vulnerability of an animal. it is so, uh, hinged on the care that a human will notice and then give to the animal then the bonding that you have with an animal once you've let it into your life.
I mean, it is something that is indescribably beautiful. I cannot imagine my life without a dog. I cannot, likewise, likewise. Always have that. Yes.
Suzi: I have two, two little long haired chihuahuas. 'cause I, I travel back and forth between Florida and New York and I take the, I take 'em on the plane in their little bags.
Ah,
Beth: yeah. Everyone, that listens to my podcast, knows I have a Westie named Raspberry, She's always here in the studio with me She comes upstairs and exercises with me. she likes to lay on the couch and watch me draw. I mean, she's, she's nice shadow
so I lo I love how your books are. Are reaching out about important messages [00:17:00] that children need to hear. And so it's, it's just such a great idea. Very well done. I mean, your illustrations are gorgeous and, um, you know, as we talked before we started interviewing that I am a huge procreate fan and the fact that you've done all your illustrations in procreate, that's super cool.
Suzi: It's my favorite thing to do because I can just sit on my chair. if I'm drawing, I often listen to an audio book. I listen to a podcast. Um, and just, and I just draw. And, and, and there's something too about when you're drawing and you're listening to something and, and so you're hearing words at the same time as you're drawing.
So the kind of left brain that's verbal is engaged in the right brain. That's visual spatial. It, it can just be free because the verbal part of the brain is already listening to something. So I find that's really useful.
Beth: I do too. a lot of times when I'm drawing, it's when I watch television at night.
'cause I don't need, you don't really need to look at the television screen all the [00:18:00] time. And I've done a lot of my licensing work on the couch and watching television with my husband. One of my most popular licensing projects I drew during the The 2020, uh, presidential debates.
It was something I needed to do.
I was drawing mermaids and narwals while I was listening to the debate and it's what got me through, um, all that tension.
So, but yeah, you can take procreate on the plane. I mean you don't need to be hooked to the internet to do it. and it is as powerful. An application as Illustrator or Photoshop and yet it's very inexpensive, incredibly affordable. If you have an iPad. It's wonderful.
Suzi: there's the quality of a mosaic or a collage. 'cause the way that I do my drawings So I found a girl and I changed it to my girl. I found a dog and I changed it to my dog. So I found a room and I changed it to my room. So I basically collage together [00:19:00] images and then I draw over them.
Beth: that's the lovely thing about procreate it meets you where you are with your, with your skills in, in sketching or drawing or painting.
And, uh, it, it makes it a lot of fun to explore and experiment and the, the distances you can go in your skills as an artist will be. Totally changed when you work with procreate because it allows you to undo things. If you don't like something you can change. I know. Instantaneously
Suzi: erase change them.
Beth: Yep. Or you put things on layers and you can turn things off and on It's, very forgiving as a piece of paper is not.
Suzi: So anybody who's listening this is another little good synchronicity, um, of how I found out about procreate.
And it was about 10 years ago, my youngest son is a doctor. And he had finished his, uh, medical school and he was going to do his residency. And we were in New York or Florida and he was in, uh, Minneapolis. So I flew out with him [00:20:00] on the plane and, um, you know, helped him get his place together.
We found him a little rental and got furniture and got 'em all set up for his, his residency where he met his wife, who's now his wife. So it's like these two gorgeous young doctors. It's a television show, you know? Oh. Anyway, I was flying out there and then on the way back, I'm on the plane, I'm by myself and I'm sitting next to a guy and the guy's got an iPad and he's doing this very kinda sort of anime illustration and you know, being, being a talker, I said, what are you doing?
And he said, oh, it's appropriated. He said, what's that? And he said, oh, it's a program for artists. And he said, I just came from teaching it at a workshop. And I said, wow. And he said, yeah, you can download it for five books. So I did, when I got home, I downloaded it and then I had it for a while and then maybe I did a little drawing for something.
I was gonna do And then when I realized that I can import things, you know, it took me a few years to kind of get into it. And, and I guess for this first book I did, I did these, these got illustrations I did in procreate two, the same deal.
But these are black and [00:21:00] white, so you can take it, you can import images that are in color and then you can turn off the color and make them black and white. So, you know, I guess around 19 20, 19 19 is when I first started really getting into it. And now it's like my favorite thing to do.
Beth: Yeah. Oh yeah.
It's, um, it's my favorite go-to application for a drawing. It really is. I know,
Suzi: I, I don't do, I don't even have drawing pads anymore. Yeah. I just do everything on, on my iPad. I got, I got a big iPad, and then I got my little mini traveling iPad.
Beth: Yep. It's great to take on the plane because, uh, I know they're usually smooth enough that you could draw.
so I love, I I love that we have that, that, uh. That commonality we lot
common.
We do. We do. So let's talk a little bit. I mean, when you talk, when I talk to you, Susie, uh, just the confidence that you have in yourself, it just exudes. I mean, I'm feeling it over here and hard won my dear.
Yes. Many battles,
Suzi: [00:22:00] many wars,
Beth: hardwar. So, so talk a little bit about how you gained your confidence. Two, a couple things to be creative and then to push your creativity. I mean, so many people listening to this podcast are creatives who are trying to get their art out there, you know, and Right. And it is. It is a hard thing to do, and it is often very scary.
No matter the skill level someone might be as an artist. Putting your work out in front of people to judge and critique or accept and to purchase, that is terrifying. So how did you get, how did you get your work out there? How did you get your confidence to allow yourself to sell your work?
Suzi: I think the confidence came when I was a clothing designer
and you know, I was not a confident child first of all. I was born, I'm legally blind, so in my [00:23:00] good eye, my vision is 2200. So my bad eye, the vision is uncorrectable. So this left eye, it doesn't see, I mean, I can see blur, but it can't be fixed.
This one, what I, you can see across the room, I can see six inches from my face. So I've been wearing eyeglasses since I was two years old. And in school I was brutalized, I was picked on horribly, especially in elementary school because you know, when you have bad eyesight, you're also not good at sports.
And sports is really important in elementary school.
Beth: Oh, yeah.
Suzi: So, so anyway, so I was brutalized and you know, this is, this is like a Dickens story. So then my. my, I didn't get along well with my parents. my parents, for some reason, they didn't want a chatty daughter with eyeglasses. They wanted, my father wanted like, I guess a little Doris Day, a little blonde, Grace Kelly, little daughter, and I was this funny little kid with glasses and my hair was brown.
Now it's blonde because, you know, we got beauty parlors and stuff these days. So anyway, [00:24:00] so I didn't have a good relationship, but I had a beautiful relationship with my grandparents and they just adored me. My grandfather was a mobster. He was a famous mobster. He was, he's part of the bugs and Meyer mob back in the 1920s, and he was, he had a, he had a Dick Dickinsonian childhood.
I mean, he was born on the lower side of New York. I'd never heard anything about his dad. He had a single parent mom, and he supported the whole family, so he. He became a prize fighter and he won fights and he got money and he bought, he, with his first money, he invented a formula for nail polish that he sold to Max Factor, and he, he was a chemist, so he sent himself to, to Columbia Pharmaceutical School and then when, and he became a chemist.
And he bought with this, when he sold his formula, he bought a limousine and a wardrobe, and then he started running with Bugsy Siegel Meyer, Lansky Arnold Rothstein. And he was part of that mob. And he made, millions of dollars during prohibition and after prohibition, he went to the Virgin Islands and to Puerto Rico.
He opened [00:25:00] rum distilleries and bought land and built hotels and it, but he, he. He came from nowhere and he made a great life for himself. And unlike my father, who just really couldn't relate to me, he just thought I was the sun, the moon, and the stars, as did my grandmother. So that love gave me confidence, because you gotta get confidence somewhere and it comes from other people.
Okay.
Beth: So the
Suzi: people that tell you bad, then the good people that tell you you're the best. You know? And if you start hearing that voice and you know, we all have a, a negative inner voice, it's just part of, the psychological makeup of humans. And, you know, sometimes I look at something and it's not great and sometimes I take my drawings and I throw 'em away.
But usually I think they're pretty good. And the good thing about procreate is if you don't like 'em, you can change 'em. You
Beth: can.
Suzi: Yeah. So you just have to get confidence from other people. But then you just have to, to do it, you know? And don't doubt yourself. Just do it. And if you don't like it, throw it away and try something else.
And everybody's not good at everything. You just have to
Beth: be good at something. [00:26:00] So the two things you said there that I want everyone to understand, these, this is the golden nuggets. Number one, find the people that support you. And then lean on them. we talk a lot on the podcast about community finding the people who will support you, who will cheer you on, who will be your allies in your creative endeavors.
So that is important. And then the second thing that you said is just do it. If you want to do something, you have to get yourself out of your comfort zone. Just give it a go. And sometimes you're going to get, uh, you're gonna get negative results, and sometimes you're going to get someone who says, not now.
And then sometimes you're gonna get someone who says, I like this. Let's do some things together. But if you don't just do it, you'll never know where you are on that scale. So. Yeah, she'll just be hiding, you know? And
Suzi: the process should [00:27:00] be enjoyable. I mean, if I had an auntie, she passed on and she was a good artist, but she just never had confidence.
She never thought her word was work was good. and when she was creating, it was torturous. 'cause at the same time as she was creating, she was judging herself at the same time. It's one thing, you do something, then you put it on the wall, da like that, move that over there, do this, do that. But self judging, negative self-talk is really the enemy of creativity.
It's the enemy. Yes. So, so you have to just do it and then see and then show it to other people. And as I say, everybody isn't good at everything. Maybe drawing isn't your thing, but maybe music is your thing, or maybe knitting is your thing, or sewing is your thing, or cooking is your thing.
Creativity is godliness 'cause we have been created, The world is created. So if you can take something, take a blank page and make a picture, or take some flour and some eggs, and make a cake or knit a sweater. and it should be pleasurable.
I mean, it's not pleasurable every minute. But, but the thing is, if you don't [00:28:00] take the drive, if you don't start the car, you're not gonna get to your destination.
Beth: Amen. Amen. All the things you said there, I mean, everyone needs to always remember that life isn't easy. We, every day you get up, things are gonna happen that aren't what you expected.
Yet, there will always be good things that will happen too. So if you focus on the things that don't go well, or flaws you think you have, that's where the day is going to end for you. But if you lean into the good things that you have in life and allow yourself to have some moments where things don't go well, and you just say, you know what?
It's the way it goes, but you lean into. The things you see in yourself,
Suzi: So you have to appreciate yourself, who we are and how hard we work and how we try and, and, it's hard. it's hard work. Life is hard work. and nobody gets outta here alive.
That's the other thing that people don't talk about. Nobody gets outta here alive. So it's all temporary. It all changes all the [00:29:00] time.
It's all moments, But if you can create creativity is godliness 'cause creativity is. How we are here. So if you can take something and put it together and make something new, then that's your purpose.
Beth: Yes. And, and that needs to be shared. That's your creative voice speaking aloud.
And those messages need to be shared. So, very well said.
Suzi: Thank you dear.
Beth: Yeah, I love that. I love that. So this is leading right into my very next question, uh, four people who are listening to our chat. Today, we have, we have new artists that are just figuring out how to get started, and we have artists who are trying to figure out how they can be a productive, creative.
While they are juggling family and job, and we also have people who are transitioning into new seasons of life where suddenly they have more [00:30:00] time, but they're now wondering, is it too late for me to start? So what kind of advice do you have for the creative who is in these different seasons?
what do you tell them?
Suzi: First of all, it's never too late as long as you're alive. even, Ika ud, who's married to John Batiste, and she's been fighting cancer for decades. I mean, it's amazing what this woman's gone through.
And she started creating in the hospital, she'd been in the hospital, she's had all these, terrible things, terrible cancer, but she continues creating she journals and she started painting and drawing and doing watercolors on the little tray in the. Hospital. I mean, so you can always find a way to create, and it's never ever too late.
And, and if somebody gives you negative feedback, just don't have that person around. If you have a partner or somebody just say, Hey man, just leave me be, if you could be mean to me, I'd be outta here. I'd be gone, you know?
Beth: Yes.
Suzi: I don't put up with, I have a zero tolerance for abuse.
You know, as I say, I had a lot of abuse [00:31:00] in my childhood and when I got to be an adult where I could make my own choices. Anybody who's nasty to me, they're just not in my life, you know? And people know, 'cause I can be quite a toughie, and they don't dare, they don't dare. but the thing is just don't let anybody be mean or tell you anything that isn't kind.
I mean, life is too short or too long to, to have anybody who isn't kind to you. and likewise to be kind to everybody. I sort of said I'd take the Hippocratic Oath just in my own life to just do no harm.
And because of that, I have a lot of great people in my life, people that work with me, my family, my friends, and it is loving.
It's great. And, and and I'm grateful for that because I learned not to be a nasty little bitch.
Beth: I love that so much. So yes, do not be a nasty little bitch to others. But mainly don't be that To yourself. To yourself.
Suzi: Absolutely.
Beth: Right. Right. So I, I love how you're approaching the [00:32:00] seasons, wherever you are right now with your creativity, just figure out like, what do you need to get started today? What are those little next steps that will help you go to bed at night and feel like you've made some progress?
Suzi: So I think the first thing is you have a thought and then this is something I learned, I learned this in metaphysics, that you have a thought and then you go to paper, then you write it down. You can write it on your phone and your notepad. You know, what am I gonna do today if I wanna say, okay, I wanna, I wanna it a sweater.
Okay. So the first thing, okay, I wanted a sweater then. okay, maybe I'm gonna go online. I'm gonna look at pictures of sweaters. See what kind of sweater I wanna make.
And if you've never knitted before, I wouldn't do a sweater with 16 colors and stars and patterns. Do something simple.
But, but start with something that's reasonably that's within your scope. You know, if you've never baked a cake before, don't think you're gonna do somebody's, wedding cake. No. Oh, maybe my birthday cake for your son. Make a cake for your [00:33:00] husband.
Make a cake for yourself and just get a recipe. Get the ingredients, and do it, but you have to do it. You you just have to do it.
Beth: Yeah, and, and I think you've already said, just have fun. Make sure fun, whatever you're doing with your creativity, that you're allowing yourself to just have a good time doing it.
Suzi: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So get started. But don't think, I've never done a picture before. I'm going to paint the Mona Lisa and I'm going to have a gallery show. It's hard. I mean, I, I can't get a gallery show. I'd like to, I do, you know, I'm doing these procreate big, bigger pieces that, that I had them on Perold.
Um, and it was such a Wayfair and para gold. Getting stuff on any big major company is so hard to do. But I did it. But, I sold a few, it wasn't particularly successful, but, I'm still doing it, I would like to get a gallery show with my procreate paintings, but I just hasn't happened yet.
And maybe it's not the time, maybe it's the connections. 'cause everything is connections. If you know [00:34:00] somebody. And they say, oh, I have a friend who's got a gallery in San Diego and they're looking for somebody just like you. Great. You know? Yeah, there you go. Just gotta keep doing it though. Don't give up because you don't think it's good enough, because you can't judge yourself.
That's the other thing. Self-judgment is like a weird thing, I try not to judge myself good or bad, Other people tell me I'm good, so I Oh, that's nice. That makes me happy. Nobody tells me I'm bad because I say I don't put up with abuse. Nobody dare. Oh, but you know that, that's how it goes.
You just wanna be happy. So you just wanna bring things into your life that make you happy. And if you are happy, you will spread that to others. the people that tend to be mean are people that are unhappy.
Beth: I think something else you said that is worthy of repeating again, is like when you were, back in your twenties trying to get started in fashion and you'd watch that television show.
You talked about your fashion and you talked about your desire to do things in fashion, so because you were talking about it, [00:35:00] that's when that networking opportunity happened. Exactly. But if you would've told yourself, this is what I'd like to do, but I don't think I'm any good at it. I can't sew.
how could I be a fashion designer? And then you don't talk about it because you have these thoughts about yourself that you lean on in a negative way instead of a positive way, and so that keeps you from just talking then you'll never run into those people who do those very things you just said.
I have a friend who is here who's looking for someone just like you.
Suzi: Spread your dream. if you have a dream, don't just keep it hidden away. spread your dream. Tell people, likeright now, you know,
I want a traditional publisher, so I'm telling everybody, if anybody here is interested, they all tell you how to get in touch with me.
Yeah, absolutely. So you just have to do it and not be afraid. fear is the enemy of love.
Fear is the enemy of reason
when you have negative thoughts, that's what you manifest. Yeah, so you manifest what you [00:36:00] think about. So if you think about creative stuff, if you think about, friends and loving stuff, and things you wanna do, and planning trips and anything that's positive, that's what you're gonna bring into your life.
If you think about negative stuff,that's what you're gonna bring into your life. that that's gonna manifest for you.
Beth: Oh my gosh. I love that you said that.
glass half full, you know, is your glass half full or half empty? And it is what you concentrate on. That ends up being what you get in life. Right. Yes.
Suzi: Is the glass full of water? Is the glass full of wine? My glass is getting pretty empty here, but you know. Okay. I'll fill it up again when we finish our talk.
Beth: Yeah. Yeah. The glass
Suzi: Right. You wanna have in your glass something that's nourishing.
Beth: Yes. Yeah. So be kind to yourself, um, and lean into. Your strengths, your joys, the things you're interested in, and talk about those things and [00:37:00] see what ends up happening, because that's where the goodness in life really starts to catapult, is when you allow yourself the confidence to talk kindly about yourself.
Yep.
Suzi: It's true. Yeah,
Beth: absolutely. So Susie, can you tell us what projects are you working on currently? How, how should we go about finding the things that you're excited about these days?
Suzi: Okay, so I'm doing Doggo book number seven called The Adventures of Mary. And Mary is born in the jungles of Tanzania, Africa.
'cause her parents. Both work on a cruise ship called the Norse Princess, and they're supposed to be going back to have the baby in America, but the baby comes a little bit early. So the baby's born in the jungle, and that's the beginning of Mary's life and I'm not going to tell you anymore. So that's Dogo book number seven.
I am not gonna self publish this book 'cause somebody who works with agents, literary agents says that a lot of publishers don't want something. It's already been on the [00:38:00] market, so this is gonna be totally new. the other six doggle books you can get on Amazon
So I'm working on the story and the illustrations, and I just moved. So I just moved. I built this beautiful house on a lake out by the Omega Institute and it was gorgeous and I lived there and I found it was very lonely and isolated.
So the realtor brought over a couple who totally fell in love with the place. They bought it on the spot for full asking price. I found this terrific townhouse in the village of Rhinebeck. It's like two minutes to get to everywhere. I'm very happy here, so I just moved that. Luckily, I have good friends in my life, so I, so my friend Robert's always worked in art galleries his whole life, so he came
And he packed up all the art and we got the move done. So that's just, that's been a big project that's been going on all summer. So, but now it's finally settling in and then the two hours and I fly to Florida where we go for the winter, so.
Beth: Lovely, lovely. So one of the things I wanna [00:39:00] mention is if you have children in your life, check out the Doggo books on Amazon.
Christmas is coming up. These are amazing books. and I think that the Doggo books are going to be gifts for my grandchildren because they love reading and all of them love dogs. I mean, what's not to love?
So. Let's, let's support Susie and get on Amazon and and help her out with her Doggo books. so anything else that you're working on right now that you'd like to share about?
I'm gonna make Feng Shui toilet seats.
Suzi: I'm like a Feng Shui fan. So in Feng shui, the toilets are always a place where you lose energy. Yeah. And when you have toilets, well, this is the townhouse, you know, it's new, it's only five years old. It's great, it's gorgeous. And there's three bathrooms and toilets are where you lose energy. And having toilets in the middle of the house isn't such a good thing.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to [00:40:00] take re toilet seats and I'm gonna take little mosaic mirrors and I'm gonna mo, I'm gonna mirror them. With little mosaic mirrors on all the toilet seats, so when the toilet seats, you should always close the toilet seat anyway. This is feng shui, so when the toilet seats are closed and they got the little mirrors, it reflects off of them.
So any energy that would be going down the toilet. Will be reflected off. So I'm gonna make those. So I may wait until I get back up here. I'm going to Florida for the winter. I may do them down there, but I may just wait till I get back up here in the spring and make them, oh my gosh.
Beth: That sounds beautiful.
Like so the lids on the toilet is where,
Suzi: yeah. Up and down thing.
Beth: Okay, so, um, I, I love you needed to send me pictures of your toilet seats and I will
So Susie, oh my gosh. I, you and I could sit here and talk until the cows come home this evening at midnight. It's midnight. Absolutely. We've just scratched the surface to the goodness that you could share with, my listing audience.
So I, I [00:41:00] appreciate you coming today. Can you tell us, how we can find you online? And everyone that's listening to this know that this information will also be live links in the show notes, but where can we find you?
Suzi: Okay, so the way that I spell my name is Suzie, SUZI. Then k, which is my, the middle initial for my maiden name, Edwards.
So So Suzy k edwards.com is my website. Susie k Edwards won on Instagram. Susie k Edwards on Facebook. Susie k Edwards on TikTok. So I post quite a lot. Um, I have fun. I did one today about dog yoga 'cause I was doing my morning yoga and the dogs came over. They're very interested. So I did a little dog yoga post.
And then also I do substack. I do substack from time to time. Um, I've considered saying myself more a visual artist than a writer, but I do love to write. So when I have something that I really need to say, I'll usually do a sub stack post.
So just remember my name and just put my name in [00:42:00] on, on, you know, just, just write my name. Google it in Susie k Edwards.
Beth: Okay. That's gonna be an easy one to locate, and I'll have Susie k Edwards information in the show note so you can have a live link. To her TikTok, to her Instagram, to her Facebook.
Easy to find, so, oh my, oh my goodness. Susie, you are just a wealth of creativity and confidence in moving forward with the goals that we might have in our lives with our creativity, with how we take care of ourselves.
I thank you so much for coming here today. Thank so much for having
Suzi: me. I've enjoyed talking to you. You're charming, delightful. So positive. What good energy you have. Thank you so much.
Beth: Oh, thank you.
Suzi: And Namaste. .
Beth: Namaste. Everyone that's listening here today, I want you to think about the goodness you need to unpack in your life.
Make sure that you always consider your glass to be half full and move forward with the [00:43:00] positivity in your life, and make sure that you talk about what you wanna do, where you wanna go, so you can drop those breadcrumbs into the universe and manifest the goodness that you can do today.
And no matter where you go, no matter how full your glass is today, my friend, stay creative. Bye bye.
