Page 11 - Focus on Artesia Fall 2019

She’s had to do that a few times over the years.

Suzee moved to Hollywood where she worked in the film
industry. She’d decided that if she couldn’t be an astronaut she
could at least make films about space. With a new goal of joining
either the writer’s guild or the director’s guild, and running her
own show, Suzee worked on almost every film project she got
a chance to. She stayed away from the seedier parts of the film
industry, but she worked on a number of low-budget horror
flicks, as well as, some very high budget projects. She wasn’t so
much on a career track, as an organic path across the breadth of
cinematic experience. She felt this would help her become the
best director she could be.

During her time working in the film industry, Suzee had
produced a show for PBS called “Eye of the Beholder.” Her show
was about artists and about creativity. She especially enjoyed
celebrating creators who think like nobody else. One of her where to point the camera. Football players were coming into
favorite shows was about a man who made waterfall sculptures the studio and working with him quite a bit so he befriended
out of metal and stone. He’d run tap water or spring water some of them. As his time at the station was ending, he thanked
through them until it evaporated. The changes made by the water Suzee for helping him see the importance of working with
as it flowed and evaporated were the reason he did it. Suzee said people who were different than him.
studying the corrosion and the sediment trails made her feel a
similar peace she got watching a mountain stream. The television station shut down. Her grandparents have passed
on. Now, as she prepares for the next part of her life, she’s
While things were moving along swimmingly in her work, back looking back at all the forks in the road behind.
home things weren’t going so well.
This is a time of introspection for Suzee Corbell and it shows
During a phone call one day, her grandmother told her that the in her paintings. In one painting in her shop, a raven sits on a
light bulb in the wash-room needed to be changed. Neither of her branch. He talks to her all the time. Sometimes a customer will
grandparents was able to safely climb ladders anymore, so the stand in front of that canvas and he’ll talk to them too, if they’re
bulb that had burned out two weeks prior to their conversation paying attention. Monochrome woods with pathways and creek
remained in place. Because Suzee’s brother lived a mile away beds meandering among the roots frame a night sky, promising
from them, her frustration continued to build. You could say she to take you to the morning star, if you’ll just believe.
had a light bulb moment, that situation being the final straw. She
told her grandparents to give her a month to get rid of all her Her art speaks of a lone journey-sacred moments…lonely
stuff. She was moving back to Artesia to ensure they would be moments…sometimes both at the same time. Suzee is diving
okay for the rest of their lives. deep within to find the purest expression her soul will allow.
Her creativity is not so collaborative at this point in her life, but
Leaving her film career behind was hard for Suzee, but it was also she hasn’t forgotten the power of working with others. She loves
easy. She knew if she ignored her grandparents’ needs she would honest feedback. If someone gets what she’s saying in a piece,
never be able to live with herself, no matter what kind of career she’s overjoyed to know she got her point across. But if someone
she built. doesn’t get it, she wants to know that too. Sometimes when
something in a painting doesn’t feel right, Suzee asks someone
Suzee was forced out of her first career for medical reasons. She else what they think. When she does, she’s not fishing for
was forced, by her love of her grandparents, to step off of the next compliments. She’s hoping for a broader understanding of how
path she had chosen. But as an artist, she had grown so much to reach people and how to let others know they’re not alone in
that it wasn’t an ending. It was just another fork in the road. this world either.

Television and film are two of the most collaborative forms of art Suzee has a third act coming up. She envisions it in the Pacific
known. That’s a big part of the joy she felt in her work. Returning Northwest with salty breezes blowing in from the ocean. She
to New Mexico with no idea what her future held, she started sees her painting, her teaching, and her work in television
at ENMU-Roswell. Later she moved to a television station in and film coming together in a greater way than she could have
Artesia. While there, she took great joy in teaching local high imagined when she returned home.
school students about the craft.
As a long-time friend, I’m certain of this. Wherever she lives,
One of her favorite moments at that job came from working everything she’s ever done and everything she’s ever learned will
with a young man considered a nerd. As she taught him about be expressed body-and-soul through her work to get people into
videography, sound, and studio work, they filmed a number of space. No, not outer space. Inner Space. That’s where everyone’s
Bulldog football games. He had to learn about football to know creative power is located.

FALL 2019 | FOCUS ON ARTESIA 11