Short Bio

I am self-motivated and enjoy new endeavors. I will gladly attempt projects that are outside my experience and/or comfort zone to gain the knowledge and to enjoy a new experience. I am eclectic; liking a lot of different things but loving only a few. I have a strong desire to create works that please viewers. Art, music and reading are my passions.

Statement

I enjoy art that elevates the human experience.  I believe art should make the viewer feel better than they did before viewing it.  Art should help us relate to each other in positive/beautiful/humorous ways.  I hope my art reminds people that they are part of a wonderous world, and that it sparks joy.

Biography

Suzanne Kristoff is an American self-taught artist who began studying drawing and painting in 2019 when she moved to Arizona. She has a BS in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (2004) and a BA in English Literature (2005) from University of Maryland Global Campus.  She served in the U.S. Air Force for six (6) years during the Gulf War.  Suzanne has completed nearly 50 paintings and drawings centered on themes of nature, harmony, positivity, whimsy/humor, and the American Southwest. She paints in acrylics and draws with colored pencils and alcohol markers. Her artistic style combines Expressionism with the Modernism of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project style. Her paintings are dynamic designs done in bold colors with strong details created by layering color glazes to achieve light and shadow. Her drawings are more unusual, yet representative of places, people and animals adhering to her favored themes of the Southwest. She creates them using base colors done in alcohol markers, then details and enhances the images with colored pencils. Suzanne is a self-motivated individual who can accept challenging projects, find resourceful methods to overcome obstacles while meeting deadlines and, hopefully, expectations. She is capable of creating and completing projects without direction but is eager to accept commissions and collaborations. Suzanne is heavily influenced by the following artists: Timothy Huhn, William Haskell, Robert Bissell, Charles Wysocki, Ed Mell, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Maynard Dixon, Danny Galieote, Jeff Dillon, Kim Wiggins, Maxfield Parrish, John Atkinson Grimshaw, and Tamara de Lempicka.

Resume / CV

In 2020, Suzanne published an illustrated six-book series of children’s books known as the Cactus Crow Adventures on Amazon Kindle KDP. In 2021, Suzanne made a Roadrunner Kachina book box using found objects which her neighborhood used for taking and exchanging books, canned goods, toys, et cetera, with each other. She has painted three (3) medium-scale murals: one of dancing southwestern Kachinas on a twenty (20) foot long fence in 2022; another of a large roadrunner talking to a mud man Kachina on a bedroom wall in 2023; and a landscape of Bandelier National Monument upon the Los Alamos Community Art Tunnel in New Mexico in 2026. Every year beginning in 2025, Suzanne has contributed original works to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe for their annual Zozo Fest: the Burning of Zozobra. Her 2026 submission earned her free tickets to the event and was used online to promote tickets sales for the event.