What Stops Me in My Tracks

Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: Winter 2022

When you’re a Highlands native, you’re born wealthy – wealth that’s measured in Mother Nature’s bounty. That beauty makes for a very rich soul, if you’re an artist/photographer like the remarkable Susie deVille.

Susie is a gifted artist, coach, and writer. Rather than try to sprinkle glitter on a Monet, I am going to share some of Susie’s own eloquent words in a Q&A format.

When did you and Art fall in love? 

As a child I was primed to pay attention to the alchemical power of Art. When I began making my own discoveries through playing in the woods, reading literature and poetry, going to museums to see works of art, viewing handmade artifacts, listening to music, and going to performances, I paid very close attention to what the artist was doing or had done and the effect it had on me.

How did Art show you that being an author, entrepreneur coach, and artist was your true calling? 

While the power of Art has been revealing itself to me my entire life, a catalytic moment was in 2006 in an Innovation & Creativity class that was part of my masters in Entrepreneurship program. We watched a Nightline episode which featured the Palo Alto design firm, IDEO, and their design-thinking process.

As I watched the film, my eyes darted back and forth trying to take in every detail, every comment, as if I were experiencing REM sleep with my eyes wide open. And then one of the design leads said, “Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius.”

The top of my head came off. 

Name a few photography inspirations/mentors.

I became interested in photography through my dad’s fascination with capturing images. I had a Brownie camera growing up and took a ton of really awful photos. We’d drop the film at the pharmacy on Main Street and pick up the prints a week or so later. Even though the pictures I made were truly terrible, Dad continued to encourage me. He gave me pointers on how to frame my subject and remarked about the power of cropping a scene in your mind so that you and the viewer would see something compelling. Little by little, I began to understand how to direct my point of view in a way that excited me and prompted new ways of seeing and appreciating even the most seemingly mundane objects.

And about the Photograph Capture on Whiteside Mountain?   

I spent last winter working on my book at the family house on top of Whiteside Mountain. On Christmas morning, I was writing in my journal while seated at a table near the wall of windows in the living room. As the sun peeked over the distant ridges, the room began to be filled with the most impossible pink and orange hues. I looked up and gasped. I grabbed my camera, ran outside, and began clicking away.

Susie is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build wildly successful businesses by rediscovering their creativity and leveraging the power of their true nature. An author, coach, and entrepreneur who built and sold a highly profitable real estate firm, she has been researching innovation and creativity since 2005. She is the founder and CEO of the Innovation & Creativity Institute. Her first book will be published in 2022.  Visit InnovationAndCreativityInstitute.com for more information.

Read all of Susie’s Interview