About Suzanne
I’m Suzanne Gibbs — an author and visual artist based in Portland, Oregon.
Through writing and art, I explore how creativity helps us listen more closely, live more fully, and share our tender stories. My work is shaped by curiosity and a deep respect for the quiet persistence of creative life.
I sometimes think of myself as The Hermitess — someone who observes, reflects, and returns to the studio and the page to make sense of what it means to be human.
My perspective is shaped by studies in design, communication, and studio art at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Portland, and Claremont Graduate University as well as a childhood lived in Mexico and Brazil.
Writing & Art
Writing and art-making are inseparable for me. Both are ways of noticing, questioning, and creating meaning in a world that moves too fast.
My visual work includes hand-stitched textile pieces, works on paper, and layered explorations of memory, belonging, and place. Current and recent projects, including Fragments of Home, examine the ways we carry our histories with us — how materials, repeated marks, and quiet gestures can hold large stories.
Alongside my visual work, I write essays, poetry, and reflections about creative life, attention, and the inner landscapes we inhabit as we continue becoming ourselves.
Books
I am the author of Conscious Curiosity: Communicating to Connect and My Year of Separation, works that explore connection, solitude, and the ways creativity helps us navigate change.
Most of my current writing unfolds through The Hermitess Papers, an illustrated book in progress shared weekly on Substack. The project combines writing and imagery as a living practice — an ongoing conversation about creativity, aging, attention, and the tender stories that shape life.
Community
Over the years I have created spaces for people to gather, make art, reflect, and support one another. Sweet Antidote is a small, private creative circle designed for women artists who value depth, honesty, and slow, meaningful connection.
Whether through writing, art, or shared conversation, my work is rooted in the belief that creativity is not only something we make — it’s a way we live.
A Few Studio Truths
Play is a form of resistance.
Hand stitching and knitting require patience.
Patterns hold us — until they break.
Scraps and fragments belong together.
Curiosity keeps me returning.
Most days you will find me writing, stitching, drawing, knitting, or walking — paying attention to the small details that quietly shape a life.
If you’d like to read along, my work continues each week through The Hermitess Papers.