Meet Susana Felix

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
My interest in Art started at a very young age. In Elementary school I noticed that I loved detail. I stood out as one of the kids that could draw, but would find it intimidating when asked to do it in front of, or for others. I came from a low-income Chicano family, and grew up in Norwalk, California in a neighborhood known as “the One-Ways.” There wasn’t opportunity yet for me to learn more about art. Never did any extracurricular activities due to money. That is until I began High School, and took my first Art class.

My first year in High School I wasn’t focused but did find comfort in art. Luckily my art teacher/mentor encouraged me to continue. When sophomore year came, I wasn’t given advance art as a class. Instead, I was in a stagecraft class, and it was in one of these classes that the teacher asked us to draw a self-portrait. Portraits are what I love to do. He took notice in my skill and gathered my counselor and art teacher to place me on advanced art class. I thank them so much, especially my mentor for seeing something in me.

I ended up focusing on Portraits and was the first student at John Glenn High School to take four consecutive years of art. The school even had to add a class called “Drawing and Painting” during my senior year. I had full support from my teachers and peers. They expected big things from me, but my parents did not support my art. They once saw it as a waste of money, so sadly I was discouraged to go to college for art. I tried community college for a bit but dropped out when I had to leave my parents’ house at the age of 20, and I started supporting myself entirely.

But because I love to learn, I found ways to continue. I landed a job in Disneyland, where I worked on a show called Animation Academy located in California Adventure theme park. There I learned how to speak in public to a crowd of about 200 people. I also learned a little bit of animation, and taught people how to draw Disney characters on stage. But Animation and Disney were never really my thing, so I left and then landed a job as a sign artist for Trader Joe’s. It was something I had always found interesting because I love everything handmade. This is where I learned penmanship among other creative skills. It is still my full-time job and allows flexibility/stability to continue my passion of capturing people’s personalities through portraits.

Please tell us about your art.
My art is very rooted through expressing emotions. I love capturing the essence of a human being, and bringing the true beauty within them. Usually during my darkest moments, I have created some of my most beautiful work.

What I’m working on is sharing other humans and their emotions. I started a project that I named “FROM US” where I make portraits using ink and watercolor. These portraits focus on minorities, and are displayed with a lyric of a song they feel deeply connected to. I feel that this is a gift from us to others, because I am presenting the thoughts of these individuals and what they feel they need to express. I have them write down the lyrics on paper, and then I do my best to capture their penmanship onto their portrait. It’s my way of allowing people from different walks of life find connections with one another. My goal is to spread love through art and let people see the beauty within themselves, even in the darkest moments.

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
My advice to other artists is to first accept that you are an artist, and It should not matter if you make money from it or not. I believe many of us try to tell ourselves we aren’t successful, but do not doubt your creative mind. Create for the love of it, not the amount of money you’ll make. Money will come and go, and if you stay true to yourself art will always be there. I wish I had never gotten worked up on what my style was going to be. I’ve realized it was always there, and I just hadn’t allowed myself to see it.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People could find my art on my Instagram accounts @by.susiefelix or @susiefelix. My website will be finished soon, but I could be reached by email at [email protected].

I’m also open for commission and collaborations. More so if you present it with a story, that I feel I could help with or be part of. Also if you are a minority and interested, you could be interviewed to be a part of my project FROM US. Just send me an email and song choice you may have.