Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project

The Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project records and preserves the voices of women visual artists in Iowa reflecting on their lives and their artwork. In 1998, creator and director Jane Robinette began interviewing Iowa women artists about their experiences and art practices. The interviews cover family and personal history, education, development as an artist, artwork, creative process, influences, and more. The Daily Palette is pleased to present excerpts of the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project's 2008 updates that Robinette collected from the Project artists who were interviewed nine or ten years ago. Visit the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project's website.

SUE HETTMANSPERGER
from CHIMERA series, oil on linen, 30" x 27", 2007

Sue Hettmansperger was born in 1948, in Akron, Ohio, and lived near there for nine years as a child. She spent the rest of her years growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the family moved for her younger sister's health. She received her B.F.A. (1972) and M.A. (1974) from the University of New Mexico, in Lithography and Drawing. She has been teaching at the University of Iowa Art Department since 1977, and continues her own painting and drawing. She is in a committed relationship. She is a national affiliate with A.I.R. gallery, the first women's co-op gallery in New York. She is a 2008 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow.

How has your artwork changed in the last ten years?
The work I made ten years ago was following the scientific approach of paring nature down to its singular underlying micro truths. Since then, my awareness of chaos theory, systems of complexity, and the digital arena have changed my approach. I would say that the images have become increasingly in flux, hybridized and collaged.

What motivates you to continue making art?
As I said in other words ten years ago, there is an inner freedom in exploring visual invention, an interesting place to explore the self and the world.

Continue excerpt at the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project