White Hot Spotlight: Susan Guthrie

Susan Guthrie wins The White Hot Spotlight, which focuses on one's creative passions.Susan is a photographer who lives in Belfast. Her work
has been featured in a dozen juried shows in Maine, including the Center for Maine Contemporary Arts, and elsewhere in New England. A bit of her work is in private collections, including Kepware Technologies of Portland. She is represented by VoxPhotographs.com, also of Portland.

Q: Where is your favorite place to shoot and why?

A: I shoot mostly in Waldo County and never seem to run out of light, inside or outside. What drives me in my work is the love of capturing light and bringing it into a form that continues to spread that light.  Especially interesting to me is how humankind’s ordinary, practical creations can become sudden scenes of great beauty when combined with a vigorous, living sky.


Q: Here are two of your photographs: "Chicken Barn and Wires" and "Roof Elephant." What kind of mood are you going for with shots like these?

A: These wild skies fill me with a delightful excitement of the Kundalini kind, although some may see them as slightly spooky or foreboding.

Q: What drives you as an artist?

A: It took half a century, through hard, even desperate, times, but I never stopped picturing myself living in an old house, filled with love, on the beautiful coast of Maine and expressing myself through art. Of course, it didn't hurt that I met the love of my life, Larason Guthrie, a world-class organic architect, and that he has loved and encouraged me for almost two decades. We share so many interests as well as a deep, glowing love.

Q: Do you live by a quote or motto?

A: My favorite quote is: "Courage is going from failure to failure without
losing enthusiasm."   —Winston Churchill

Q: Expound upon that for others going through a similar journey as yours... but who are on the brink of losing enthusiasm.

A: No matter how many disasters I have seen my way through since leaving an abusive home at 14,  two lost husbands and associated houses, plus a dramatic business crash, as well as career swings  (going from a Who's Who executive to a cleaning lady in a year). Through it all, I never lost faith in myself nor my tenacious love of life, usually not longer than 24 hours, that is. My exuberant character does seem to require much humbling and I have embraced it at every turn.

Susan's work can be found at:

VoxPhotographs.com
mainephotoalliance.org

Want a chance to win a shot at The White Hot Spotlight? Like The Killer Convo on Facebook and look for the monthly photo contest: "How Well Do You Know Midcoast Maine?"