Special
Features / August 2006
A Tschantz on Art
 Susan Tschantz
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Susan Tschantz can be quite graphic. It only took a lifetime and two years of technical training for her to get good at it.
The Illinois native moved to Teays Valley thirteen years ago when her husband was transferred to the area. She had been a quality assurance analyst and a pharmaceutical data proofreader before the move, but didn’t know what she could do for work in West Virginia. “I took a class about alternative occupations. It was an orientation for going back to work, job retraining, that touched on different possibilities like welding, and construction and drafting. I got interested in drafting and graphic design.” In her mid-forties, Susan enrolled in both of the two year programs, offered at the Putnam County Technical college and became a full time student. “I went to drafting in the morning and graphic design in the afternoon.” She graduated in 1995.
Susan says she went into mechanical drafting, rather than architectural because, “I like doing gears and working with steel!” Going through the welding unit in her earlier course gave her a better understanding of how and what needed to be shown in her drawings.
“I loved the work,” she says. She found a position right away. “I got’ a ‘man’s’ job but it was much easier than any ‘woman’s job!”, she says. “Jobs like secretary and receptionist are a lot more complicated.” She worked with an industrial firm involved with vibrating screens for coal, aggregate, minerals and agricultural products.
Susan was always interested in art, “always doodling!” but she started painting when her mother in law gave her a vintage box of oil paints. “I got books and taught myself how to paint.”
Her first job out of high school had been in a photo fishing lab. “We retouched photographs with paint. You had to analyze color, and then physically apply the paint. There was no Photoshop then. It was a good learning experience.” When her husband gave her a 35mm camera, she began incorporating photography into her work and was soon creating photographs that stood on their own as art. Her latest interest is miniatures. “It’s a technique as well as a product. It’s all about the details.” And, she’s exploring watercolor as a medium.
Last December, Susan had her first show, at Rendezvous House of Coffee and was pleased and a little surprised when, “I sold about half of what was on display.”
Presently, her work is being exhibited at the Renaissance Art Gallery housed in the former Huntington High School. She sells oil and gouche paintings, drawings, photographs and digital prints. The miniatures are just one area of portable art that has captured her interest. She also makes limited edition prints as art trading cards. “They’re about the size of a baseball card. Artists trade among themselves, mostly, but they are a form of portable art that anyone can enjoy.”
Now semi retired, Susan still does free lance drafting and graphic design and often does drafting work for non-profit organizations. In August, she will begin teaching beginning drawing that will continue as an after-school class through the year.
She walks a lot, “That’s my sport!” It’s also her inspiration. Susan generally takes her camera with her and many of her photographs-and ideas for her paintings-come from those walks. “The wonders of nature, the color combinations and the play of light enhance my perceptions of everyday, often overlooked items. Photography helps me capture the interesting things I find in my world.”
To see Susan’s work, visit the Renaissance Art Gallery, 900 8th St, Huntington, WV 25701, or http://tschantz.myexpose.com/. For more information, call (304) 525-3235.
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