“Get a timecard and track the number of hours actively spent making. Being creative is a skill that is improved through lots and lots of practice.”
Quick Facts
Education: Undergraduate
Years of Experience: 23 Years
About
Susan Lenz built her creative life in a familiar way to the arts: a little late, on her own terms, and with complete conviction. She was forty-two years old when she finally let herself say aloud what she wanted to be: a fiber artist.
She rented a studio in a cooperative artist enclave. With no formal degree program and no one to guide her through a process, Susan taught herself everything she needed to work professionally. She figured it out by doing, logging the hours, and treating the crafting process as her full-time job.
What she makes is entirely her own. Every piece is an original, born from a threaded needle, an object, and a specific way of seeing the world. For over two decades, she has built a full working practice of gallery representation, commissions, teaching workshops, and a daily studio habit that has never ceased throughout her artistic journey.
Her advice to anyone starting is to be practical and direct as “being creative is a skill that is improved through lots and lots of practice.” Track the hours. Treat the making like work, because it is work. Creativity is not something to either have or not. It is a skill, and like any other, it only gets better with more time and care invested into it.