Suzannah McEntire
Self portrait, acrylic on canvas, 22" x 30"
Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina Suzannah McEntire gained recognition at a very young age at South Carolina State Fair’s juried shows. This fueled her pursuit and love for creating art. She organized and hung her first one-woman show at 15-years of age at the Weekend Gallery in Columbia, SC. From that point forward she continued to create and exhibit her work to share and express her love for art. While spending a year in Italy she was able to study many masterpieces that enriched her respect for art history and architecture. Her love of Italian Renaissance painting is still a subject of great interest. While in Italy Suzannah also learned manual 35mm black and white photography and became fluent in Italian. Upon returning to the United States Suzannah studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and thrived in the artistic environment. Accepted early to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Suzannah decided to forgo her senior year of high school to pursue her dream. After a year and a half in Chicago she returned to Columbia and was fortunate enough to attend the University of South Carolina and share studio space with fellow undergraduates. This was a defining moment in her studies, she was “forced” by a teacher to “do something different” which was when she created and found her style of color energy painting. Suzannah graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2000 acquiring a bachelor of fine art in painting. After receiving her degree Suzannah moved to Asheville, NC, and studied restoration, decorative painting and faux finishing through A-B Tech's imported restoration program from The City and Guilds of London Institute. She opened her own faux finishing business for a short period of time after returning to Columbia, SC and has been employed at the South Carolina Department of Education since. Suzannah recently received a master of arts in art education from the University of Florida and seeks to work in K-12 education or to continue her research on the benefits of art making for military veterans suffering from psychosocial issues such as depression, Post-traumatic Stress and anxiety disorders.