"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
—Robert A. Heinlein
—Robert A. Heinlein
Suzanne McDermott has worked as a visual artist, writer, musician, performer, producer, teacher, and administrator.
After a successful international career as a performing songwriter, Suzanne has spent 30 years teaching live and online programs in drawing, watercolor, song form, art and music history. In 1997, Suzanne designed and taught a weekly outdoor basic drawing and watercolor workshop for the Kiawah Island Nature Center in South Carolina, after which she taught that same program at an array of locations across the country, from museums to backyards. From 2005 through 2011, Suzanne developed and taught drawing and watercolor courses for the Cheekwood Museum in Nashville, TN. In 2011, she created the first multimedia online course in drawing and watercolor. Throughout 2013, Suzanne taught drawing and watercolor workshops at a Wyndham Resort and a private venue overlooking the Atlantic at Edisto Beach, SC. Beginning in 2014, she was hired by the City of Raleigh, NC, to create courses in drawing, watercolor, and art history for the city's newly opened Active Adult Centers.
Introduced to watercolor at the age of five, classes with Ronn Davis at Santa Monica College in the late 1970s launched her professional career. Most of Suzanne's watercolor work has been privately commissioned and featured in solo and group shows in Los Angeles, CA, Sarasota, FL, Charleston and Edisto Island, SC, Petersburg and Culpeper, VA, Nashville, TN, Asheville, Cary, Raleigh, and Carrboro, NC. Her paintings are in private collections throughout the US and Europe. Suzanne has been a member of the American Watercolor Society and the Philadelphia Water Color Society.
Between 1993 and 2005, Suzanne recorded five critically acclaimed albums of songs and toured extensively throughout the US and Europe. Her best-known songs include The Roswell Incident and The 3 Dreams of J. Robert Oppenheimer. During those years, she created performance programs on song for state and local library systems throughout New England, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia, including Out Under the Sky on the origins and history of the Christmas carol.
Additional creative work includes designing and building a studio, partnership in a museum exhibit firm, writing and producing an original play with music at the Asolo Repertory Theater, and a watercolor examination of the history of Sarasota, Florida through its residential architecture for the city’s centennial, plus administrative and production contributions to various chamber music, world and experimental music projects.
Administration and organizational experience includes support for the MIT Office of the President under Charles M. Vest, for three chairs of the MIT faculty, for the MIT Media Lab Music & Physics Group, and roles as Investment Research Librarian for David H. Murdock's private holding company, as secretary to Sarah Vaughan, and as a US delegate for President Carter to the People's Republic of the Congo Production support includes McCabe's Guitar Shop concerts, La Musica di Asolo Festival, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors . Her work life started as a teenager for music publisher Theodore Presser Company under Arnold Broido.
Community service work includes spearheading The Spirit of the Gulf Challenge, an artists' response to the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, founding and directing the national community drawing initiative, Drawing America, producing Big Draws in Nashville, TN, and other cities nationwide between 2009 and 2011, and acting as juror in the Drawing and Printmaking categories for the Scholastic Art Competition.
Studies include fine art, design, and art history at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Santa Monica College, Ringling School of Art & Design, and a BA in Humanities (Drama, Art, and Music) from New College of Florida.
Suzanne grew up within walking distance of the original Barnes Foundation, where she was influenced at an early age by Dr. Barnes and his collection. Throughout her teens, she was educated in the itinerant folk tradition, singer-songwriter form, and acoustic guitar styles while perched on a narrow radiator against the back wall of The Main Point.
Raised by devout Irish Catholics and educated at private convent schools in a region forged by Quakers, her spiritual approach to the creative process is also influenced by decades of daily yoga practice, Alan Watts, direct study with Ram Dass and Pema Chodron, and Shambhala Training completed at Karma Choling in 1994.
After a successful international career as a performing songwriter, Suzanne has spent 30 years teaching live and online programs in drawing, watercolor, song form, art and music history. In 1997, Suzanne designed and taught a weekly outdoor basic drawing and watercolor workshop for the Kiawah Island Nature Center in South Carolina, after which she taught that same program at an array of locations across the country, from museums to backyards. From 2005 through 2011, Suzanne developed and taught drawing and watercolor courses for the Cheekwood Museum in Nashville, TN. In 2011, she created the first multimedia online course in drawing and watercolor. Throughout 2013, Suzanne taught drawing and watercolor workshops at a Wyndham Resort and a private venue overlooking the Atlantic at Edisto Beach, SC. Beginning in 2014, she was hired by the City of Raleigh, NC, to create courses in drawing, watercolor, and art history for the city's newly opened Active Adult Centers.
Introduced to watercolor at the age of five, classes with Ronn Davis at Santa Monica College in the late 1970s launched her professional career. Most of Suzanne's watercolor work has been privately commissioned and featured in solo and group shows in Los Angeles, CA, Sarasota, FL, Charleston and Edisto Island, SC, Petersburg and Culpeper, VA, Nashville, TN, Asheville, Cary, Raleigh, and Carrboro, NC. Her paintings are in private collections throughout the US and Europe. Suzanne has been a member of the American Watercolor Society and the Philadelphia Water Color Society.
Between 1993 and 2005, Suzanne recorded five critically acclaimed albums of songs and toured extensively throughout the US and Europe. Her best-known songs include The Roswell Incident and The 3 Dreams of J. Robert Oppenheimer. During those years, she created performance programs on song for state and local library systems throughout New England, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia, including Out Under the Sky on the origins and history of the Christmas carol.
Additional creative work includes designing and building a studio, partnership in a museum exhibit firm, writing and producing an original play with music at the Asolo Repertory Theater, and a watercolor examination of the history of Sarasota, Florida through its residential architecture for the city’s centennial, plus administrative and production contributions to various chamber music, world and experimental music projects.
Administration and organizational experience includes support for the MIT Office of the President under Charles M. Vest, for three chairs of the MIT faculty, for the MIT Media Lab Music & Physics Group, and roles as Investment Research Librarian for David H. Murdock's private holding company, as secretary to Sarah Vaughan, and as a US delegate for President Carter to the People's Republic of the Congo Production support includes McCabe's Guitar Shop concerts, La Musica di Asolo Festival, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors . Her work life started as a teenager for music publisher Theodore Presser Company under Arnold Broido.
Community service work includes spearheading The Spirit of the Gulf Challenge, an artists' response to the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, founding and directing the national community drawing initiative, Drawing America, producing Big Draws in Nashville, TN, and other cities nationwide between 2009 and 2011, and acting as juror in the Drawing and Printmaking categories for the Scholastic Art Competition.
Studies include fine art, design, and art history at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Santa Monica College, Ringling School of Art & Design, and a BA in Humanities (Drama, Art, and Music) from New College of Florida.
Suzanne grew up within walking distance of the original Barnes Foundation, where she was influenced at an early age by Dr. Barnes and his collection. Throughout her teens, she was educated in the itinerant folk tradition, singer-songwriter form, and acoustic guitar styles while perched on a narrow radiator against the back wall of The Main Point.
Raised by devout Irish Catholics and educated at private convent schools in a region forged by Quakers, her spiritual approach to the creative process is also influenced by decades of daily yoga practice, Alan Watts, direct study with Ram Dass and Pema Chodron, and Shambhala Training completed at Karma Choling in 1994.