Local Artist Interview: BYP Night at Boise Art Museum

For an artist with the domain name “steelsue.com”, Susan Latta is anything but cold and sterile like the metal from which she gets her moniker. In fact, with the attention she’s gotten from the Boise Weekly, Idaho Statesman, and a selection as one of the twenty five featured artists at this year’s Triennial, you might say her career is heating up.

Latta’s statement on her website tells the reader as much about her as it does her art. “Each piece seems to become what it wanted to be all along,” says Latta. “I am simply the tool that allows it to get there.”

With a perspective like that, it’s not surprising that Latta’s interest in art seems just as predestined. “I took a photography class in college,” says Latta. “The teacher looked at one of my photos and said ‘This is a photographer’s photograph’. That's all it took, I changed my major from psychology to art. And now many years later, artmaking is still something that I can't not do.”

Latta is mostly known for her mixed-media sculptures that include a myriad of different materials including resin, aluminum, rubber, and latex, just to name a few. Though she is a prolific sculptor, Latta does work in other mediums such as printmaking and photography. “I am at the beginning of the next phase of my career,” says Latta.

Like most artists in the area, Latta has seen a lot of change lately in Boise’s art scene, mentioning the Visual Arts Collective specifically as a boon for the city. “The VAC [features] artists who don’t necessarily get shown in mainstream galleries,” says Latta. “It is also a place where artists gather.”

However, again like many other local artists, Latta sees room for further change. “I would like to see more collectors,” says Latta. “Also, an audience that is more open to edgy work.”

Career or not, Latta is a true artist at heart, believing that arts in a community are what make the community interesting. “I make art for people to live with,” Latta says on her website. “To enrich their lives as a unique aesthetic experience.”

Talking with Latta, one gets the impression that, behind the imposing sculptures and molten alloys, she might be a closet Taoist. One thing is for sure, Latta’s success is anything but happenstance. Check out Latta’s art at the aforementioned http://www.steelsue.com/ or experience it in person at the Triennial this Tuesday at BYP’s Night at the Boise Art Museum.

Written by Blake Bowyer, BYP Marketing & Development Work-Team