Sue refers to town planning maps to be guided by and to interpret the restrictions of the natural topography, boundaries and spaces.

With such an interesting and strong visual style, you’d think that Sue has been painting for years – and that’s really not the case. Sue was a graphic designer for many years, and then made the brave decision to leave her full-time job, and go back to university to study fine art.

Not looking back, Sue graduated with first class honours in 2010 from the Queensland College of Art and is now a full-time practising artist at her studio in Woolloongabba, Brisbane. Her first solo show in 2011 was helped to fruition by an Australia Council Art Start grant and this lead to her representation by Melbourne’s Gilligan Grant Gallery.

Sue Beyer – Anywhere in the World

Gilligan Grant Gallery
1B Stanley Street,
Collingwood, Melbourne
Opening Night 2nd March
23 February – 25 March 2012

Follow Sue’s blog where she documents her experiments and process of her art, and visit her website to enjoy more of her paintings.

How have you got to where you are today?

I have always been creative and from a young age wanted to be an artist. When I left high school in the late 1980’s I decided to become a graphic designer so that I could make a living being creative. Until recently, I was a successful designer with my own company in Sydney but unfortunately it didn’t make me happy.

Fast forward to the end of 2010 when I graduated from Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Art with first class honours and I now make art full time. I have a studio a block over from where I live in Brisbane.

In a few words, describe yourself…

I have 3 passions in my life: my partner Sean, roller derby and of course… ART.

What are you spending your time on at the moment?

At the moment I am making new work for my solo show ‘Dwell’ being held at Redland Gallery from June 20 to July 18 this year.

I am also getting back into physical computing, something I became interested in while on a study exchange in San Francisco. I am experimenting and thinking about how I can combine computing with painting.

Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process?

If I don’t make work, I am not a happy person. It’s just something I have to do. I am constantly thinking about my practice. It’s a bit of an obsession to tell you the truth.

At the moment I am going to the studio each day from 8am until 2pm to make work. In the afternoon I work on the computer writing grant applications and doing paperwork.

I try to treat my practice like a professional business.

What or who inspires you?

All of my work reflects my interest in how people use space and place. In particular heterotopia, which is a concept used in human geography to describe places and spaces that function in non-hegemonic conditions.

These are spaces of otherness, which are neither here nor there, that are simultaneously physical and mental, like an idyllic home – an escape – situated in a landscape that may not physically exist and is nostalgically remembered from past experience, a dream or a yearned for place seen in a lifestyle magazine.

I utilise town planning maps to represent order, restrictions and boundaries imposed on the natural topography and how these artificially created limits reflect on the economic value of the land and the type of people, housing and industry that can be found in these places. In contrast to the drawn planning lines, abstracted housing and landscapes represent people’s dreams, realities and aspirations that may exist in these physical or mental heterotopias.

What are you most proud of?

There are a few things that I have done that I am really proud of…

Giving up the security of a full time job as a graphic designer in 2005 was one of the hardest things I have ever done. To take that step off the cliff into uncertainty was very hard for me, as I like the security of having a regular income, something that doesn’t happen very often as an emerging visual artist.

I put myself through uni and graduated with first class honours in 2010. In 2011 I received an Australia Council Art Start grant, held my first solo exhibition and gained commercial representation at Gilligan Grant Gallery in Melbourne. My first solo exhibition at opens there on the 2nd of March this year.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As long as I can remember I have dreamt of being an artist. I grew up on a farm near Noosa in Queensland and used to spend all my time in my room drawing and making art and daydreaming about being an artist. New York featured heavily!