Finding meaning within us and around us
with artist Soosh
Soosh instinctively looks at the world with an artistic lens. Her gift is seeing the subtleties, the expression, and the unsaid- transporting this into an art form, a moment, a keepsake.
“I have always had an attentive eye to the smallest details, not only exterior but interior as well, such as people’s feelings, possible thoughts.”
Soosh’s works have an emotional intelligence. Given that a large sum of human communication is informed by body language and facial expression, these visual stories guide us with their expressive and evocative storytelling. The faces are affectionate, warm, telling; sometimes with a tinge of melancholy or sorrow, contentment or wonder.
Narratives are carried through the imagery and invite the viewer into the scene, whether to observe the story from afar as if it is being told to them, or more commonly, to envisage themselves or someone they know as one of the characters.
When young, Soosh loved summers at her grandmothers. Books, words and characters grew like wildflowers alongside her. Her grandmother had an attic “stuffed with books of all kinds.” Soosh said many of her summer days were spent hidden in the attic, “taking all those adventures with my favorite characters.”
“I did doodle here and there often as well.”
As is often the case, early memories, childhood exposures and experiences leave an indelible mark upon us. This is the case with Soosh. From an early age, the nature of storytelling drew her in and has had her captivated ever since.
“I did not speak much, but I loved telling stories to my sisters.”
Storytelling has been a vital form of connect for Soosh, a means by which to establish meaning and explore the breadth of her creativity and the broader artistic landscape.
“I think of art as the way people live, create things, process thoughts and events.”
Handmade and homemade things naturally capture Soosh’s attention. Akin to many artistically inclined folk that came before her, Soosh finds beauty in everyday exchanges and happenings.
“I loved to watch my grandmother’s hands as she was making dough to bake bread or milked our cow. It was art to me, her movements, focus, precision and simplicity with which she was doing those things. I felt art in everything.”
Children and family dynamics are a common thread throughout Soosh’s art and they glean a particularly intimate insight into that of a family. She draws inspiration from her present surrounds, while also dipping into past memories, hopes and sadnesses.
Soosh speaks of her primary influences and what they resemble:
“Kindness in people, generosity of human soul, lack of kindness and generosity; my child, other children I meet or observe, my thoughts on how I wish things should be and reality of things as well. Honesty. Honesty in how I approach and deal with my own self, people around me.”
Soosh’s family depictions are particularly moving for they reveal the emotion not so easily articulated in language- it is the unspoken language: a look, a gesture, a movement, a shade of colour.
In a way her artworks are still life, but they always carry motion, energy, and ineffable human connection. It is as though you are peering in on the generous and loving moments, the unfolding of trust, the signs of commitment, the flicker of imagination, the joy of youth and innocence, of devotion and admiration, of home and the ways we pass our time.
Little titbits of empathy and compassion, sorrow and growth can be found.
“There is always a personal story behind each and every one of my drawings.”
The Dad and daughter series awakens emotion. It is personal. So many of the stories of our childhood and our family life are drawn forth in Soosh’s work- from the familiar, to the longed for, or the unknown, something seen in storybooks or on television. Not only are these family moments beautiful to look at, they have depth.
“Every story I create, is my journey into acceptance and comprehension of why, and how come, things are the way they are.”
“Dad by my side was a process of letting go of old childhood sorrows and unfulfilled wishes and of judgment. It was a story that has helped me to see beyond that picture I have created for myself as a child and as an adult and to come to terms with myself and the way I feel, to make my inner child smile and see the great potential she was missing on as an adult now.”
One of Soosh’s most recent artistic explorations is her storybook, Stargazer.
Soosh wrote that she felt deeply connected with the subject of it and considers it to be one of the most important works she has done so far.
“Stargazer is a new journey I take to try and see the unseen and tell the untold.”
“It’s all those tears I didn’t cry out and all those words of forgiveness that stuck in my throat, anger management and making peace with god or gods. The words I have to say must find their way out as it is way deeper than the work I did working on Dad by my side.”
“It is not only about me but about human in me and in all of us, I need to understand how possible that all the most beautiful gestures of the soul and all the most terrible ones are blooming in a human being.”
Soosh understands that to venture into an artistic landscape, to be creating art, one must draw on all resources.
“To go very deep into your soul- into subconsciousness, find there a treasure, a thread, a promise, a pain, a smile, a sparkle and carefully bring it all up into this world and try your best to express it all with any means available - this is what I call creating something and it is never, never an easy path.”
“You bring up the best and most valuable you have and share it with people. It is always a challenge. Your work can be twisted, misread, stolen, unnoticed, abused in any way possible and yet, there is a force in you that makes you go down your painful paths again, deep down your consciousness and start building something anew and share it again, because this is how it works for me. So, yes, it is not easy, but there is no way how I can do it differently and I am grateful for every step I take down this road.”
Soosh said that she believes in energy, an energy that exists in who we are and what we do.
“I hover over my drawing and pore my heart onto it and this warmth and this energy is enough to be seen and to be felt by people even when shared with the help of digital technology, the source of it is a human touch by and for human.”
Soosh said that people often enquire as to her heritage, the place she calls home. Soosh has Slavic and Nordic blood in her veins.
“I live in different parts of the world like nomads or my grandparents who had a cabin and two horses and all the roads of the world as their home. I have no permanent place of living.”
As so many of us scurry from one destination to another, to work and to home, Soosh has chosen her own route. Perhaps that may be why her artworks capture us and draw us in, for her illustrations don’t hurry or seek to be any one thing. They are representative of simpler times, or human interaction, of home life, of domestic life, of our varied exchange of contact and connection and all that comes with that- affection, warmth, tinges of melancholy, sorrow, curiosity, imagination, fleeting contentment, wonder.
Gently gently, Soosh encourages us to imagine, what might be. The artworks also remind us to love those beside us, for without love shared between us, what would we be.
“…it is a human touch by and for human.”
Discover more artworks by Soosh on Instagram and on her website here.