Artist Profile - Owning Her Art

When Susan Baxter decided to exhibit her art for the first time in a public setting, she told herself the same thing she tells her pupils: don’t be afraid, put it out it there, own it.
The former H. Olive Day School art instructor, now teaching in the Holliston public schools, held her first art exhibit in the Norfolk Public Library during the month of August, with a reception on August 19. It was, she said, the first time she felt confident enough to show her paintings.
“I’ve been very, very shy about my artwork and putting it out there in a public show,” said Baxter. “I’m learning to have more self-confidence as I expose myself to judgment.”
Art has been an integral part of Baxter’s life for a very long time. The Norfolk resident grew up in Boston and attended the Boston public schools, and while in high school won a prestigious scholarship to study at the Museum of Fine Arts. Three days a week, she was dismissed early from school and traveled via trolley to the MFA.
“I kind of thought it wasn’t a big deal. I had no idea it was so competitive,” she said of the scholarship, which exposed public school students to the museum and its world-renowned collections.
Her experience at the MFA was transformative.
“I got to walk around the museum like it was mine,” she shared. “It was so rare and different from everything else in my life. It gave me a sense that art is mine, and this building with all these fancy people, it was my place.”
That sense of awe and inspiration never left her. Baxter knew art would always be a part of her life, so she went on to study fine art at UMass, and at the same time became certified in early elementary education and art education. The combination made sense, she says, because she was passionate about art and also loved working with children.
While raising her children and teaching, her own art went on the backburner. Eventually, Baxter started taking classes at the Danforth and Attleboro Arts Museums, where she refreshed her skills and went back to creating for herself.
Baxter says she paints because it is a way to capture the moment, a way to call attention to the here and now.
“I feel like I’m a conductor on a train, saying ‘here’s the stop, people. Look at this,’” she said. “It’s so easy to be in your head and not in the moment. So I hope my exhibit has people stop for a few minutes and reflect. And they may say ‘this is stupid,’ or they hate it, which is totally fine, but at least it’s a reaction to what’s going on.”
Baxter’s art ranges from the realistic to the abstract, with many paintings inspired by nature. She and her husband moved a few years ago from Stacey Road to the Norfolk Town Center Condominiums, and several of her works are based on the views from her second floor studio, as well as the area around Keeney Pond.
Her favorite work, however, reflects her activist leanings. “Not In My Backyard” is a painting of the marshy area on the Walpole line near MCI-Norfolk, where the controversial MWRA sludge landfill project would have been located. In the late 1980s, Baxter and her husband became involved in the fight against the project, which residents and town officials claimed would pollute the local water table.
Baxter’s ideologies surface in her other works, too. “Unpresidented Act” and “The Fish it Rots from the Head” were painted soon after the 2016 presidential election.
“I need to use what I do to express my feelings,” Baxter explained. “I want to call attention to things. I’ve always been political. I was against the Vietnam War. I am a pretty leftist person.”
Art, she says, can be a way to make sense of the world, or to point out what’s wrong with it. Her work, she says is a deeply felt response to what she sees. Someone else, however, may see something entirely different in a piece.
“That’s the thing I love about art,” said Baxter. “People see what they want to see.”
Contact Baxter at [email protected] for more information about her artwork, or to purchase her paintings.