The unexamined life is not worth living, according to Socrates. The life of Artist Sue Lorenz expresses the value of not only examining the life, but taking steps to make it worthwhile.
At age seven Sue created masterpieces using all eight colors in her crayon box, documenting her first trip away from her home State of Indiana. Through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York she recorded the sights, sounds, and smells of the outside world. All was new. She had never seen mountains, turnpikes or tunnels. She never seen anything like New York City. And she’d never seen people whose skin was different from hers, people who spoke many other languages and ate food she’d never seen before.
Sue held onto those experiences, and although other interests took precedence over her love of art and travel, she always believed that someday she would be able to satisfy her cultural curiosity and her desire to create memorable, thought provoking art.
Growing up as the eldest of nine children in her family, Sue took on adult responsibilities at an early age. From childcare to cooking, laundry to sewing and eventually starting a family business at age fourteen. The family knew they could count on her to be a successful contributing member. These experiences formed her outlook on life, teaching her to always look for possibilities, even when seemingly hopeless.
Life led Sue to make her home in Houston, Texas. After earning her accounting degree at University of Houston and JD at South Texas College of Law, she helped hundreds of new entrepreneurs become successful business owners for over forty years. Her life was extremely stressful during those years and she came to rely on her love of art to bring relief to her busy schedule. In the late 1980’s she began to educate herself as an artist, experimenting with materials and finding outstanding coaches, studying under Jeanine Campbell (deceased), Wayne Floeck (deceased), Dalhart Windberg, George Gonzalez and Nancy Medina. Although she is a natural artist, she seeks out opportunities to learn from the best. She paints on a regular basis, often every day.
Because Sue believes that travel inspires art, you can ask several residents of a certain quaint section of Paris about the artist lady from Texas who paints on the sidewalks of the local streets and who stays at the local hotel and has coffee at the shop next door. In the beautiful French language, they will tell you that she is an honorary resident who paints on these streets, reminding them of the beauty that is Paris.
Before the quarantines of COVID-19, Sue planned to be well into a world tour, traveling to further inspire her art. Instead of Spain in March and France in July, she is waiting for the friendly skies to reopen. She was able to postpone the world tour and is happily painting from years of photos of her travels. Drawing on the lessons she learned as a child, she is poised to take advantage of the possibilities presented by this current travel ban. Will the cost of travel become more reasonable—half price, maybe? It will surely be less crowded. More than thirty new places to visit fill her schedule for the next few years. You don’t want to miss this whirlwind finale to a life well worth examining. Stay tuned!