Art + Life

I’m an artist, writer, and creativity mentor based in Portland, Oregon. My work blends curiosity 🌟, care 🌿, and material play 🧵 to explore what it means to live a deeply creative life.

I studied Graphic Design at Carnegie Mellon University (BFA), Communication at the University of Portland (MS), and Studio Art at Claremont Graduate University (MFA).

My Current Work

I’m immersed in two ongoing series that reflect different facets of my creative practice:

Fragments of Home: Textile Reliquaries of Lived Experience
Hand-stitched textile reliquaries that trace my lifelong search for belonging. Using remnant fabrics, earth-derived colors, and the meditative act of hand-stitching, I explore memory and hold reverent my attention to place.

Stitch & So: A Contemplation of Repair and Renewal
Small works combining paper, paint, and thread, reflecting my inner landscape in response to the daily news. These intimate paintings are best enjoyed framed.

Previous projects include: Happy Scrappy Art: Giving Discards Life (2024), Shhh, Say Nothing: An honest look at silenced voices (2019-2021), Dot Dilemma: A reflection on incessant internal chatter that matters (2021-2024), and Three Squares a Day: Art not made in the kitchen (2011-2014). Each of these projects is an exploration of voice, attention, and the quiet persistence of daily creative work.

Across all my work, I hold visual tension and layered abstraction in an attempt to make sense of a chaotic world. Having grown up in Mexico and Brazil, I bring an expansive cultural lens to what I create. At the heart of my work is a belief that every voice matters — and that everyone deserves the chance to thrive.

©2025, Suzanne Gibbs
Fragments of Home #8 Born Into
Cotton, Felt, & Thread Art, Small Original Art
Approx. 4 x 3.5 inches. SOLD

Books & Writing

In addition to visual art, I write about the inner and outer landscapes of living a creative life.

Conscious Curiosity: Communicating to Connect
A heartfelt guide to deepening connection through conversation — blending personal stories, practical tools, and hundreds of questions to spark wonder, compassion, and lasting partnership.

My Year of Separation
A lyrical memoir of stepping away from everything familiar to find what remains — a journey through loss, solitude, and the stubborn hope of becoming whole.

Writing and art-making are inseparable for me — both are how I conjure meaning from the too-busy world around me.

Community & Mentoring

I host The Antidote Sessions — bi-weekly Zoom gatherings for artists who want to slow down, reflect, and reconnect with their work and each other in community.

We call these meetups Flourish Friday🌿: a gentle space to be witnessed, to vent or dream aloud, and to lift one another’s spirits. These sessions are part storytelling, part soul-tending, part creative refueling — an antidote to the busyness of modern life.

I’m also a mentor with Art Biz Connection, an online artist community founded by Alyson B. Stanfield. We support ambitious visual artists who are building thriving creative businesses. Inn the community space online I host co-working sessions, Studio Talks, and Get It Done Days. If you're navigating the overlap of art-making and entrepreneurship, I’m here to help — one grounded, intentional step at a time.

🌿 Why I Make Art
Aphorisms from the studio

  • Play is my protest; whimsy, my weapon.
  • A dot is never just a dot—it’s a universe pretending to be small.
  • Grids look obedient, but mine keep secrets.
  • Slow stitches know more about patience than people.
  • Patterns hold us—until they break.
  • Playfulness, grief, and loss can share the same canvas.
  • I collect daily chaos and serve it back.
  • Scraps and fragments refuse to be nothing—pieced together, they belong.
  • My art is what happens when curiosity won’t shut up.
  • My silence becomes my story.

Mail Makes Connections Magical ✉️

Send me art, and I’ll send you art in return — free.
Send a letter with a few U.S. stamps, and I’ll surprise you with a small original.
Because I believe that art belongs in our everyday lives — and in our mailboxes.

🌟🌿🧵

Please note: SuzZine (a monthly zine -small magazine) is on sabbatical. I am not sure when this project will reemerge but there are ideas percolating.

📞 Call or Text: 541-253-1258 for further inquiries and to see my art IRL.