Scribbling Women: Artists Talk Back: Suzan Lovett
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Scribbling Women: Artists Talk Back: Suzan Lovett |
| Interviewer: | Legacy |
| Interviewee: | Suzan Lovett |
| Date(s): | 2007 |
| Medium: | print, CD |
| Fandom(s): | Star Trek TOS, slash |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In 2007, Suzan Lovett was interviewed for the zine Legacy for a section called Scribbling Women: Artists Talk Back.
In it, Suzan Lovett and eleven other prominent Star Trek: TOS (primarily Kirk/Spock) artists were interviewed. Some excerpts from this extensive article/interview are included below.
A related interview is Legacy Interview with Suzan Lovett.
Excerpts
Suzan Lovett’s answer to “what inspired you to draw K/S” is a real contrast. Although she too says, “I’ve drawn most of my life, long before I knew fandom existed,” when Suzan found fandom, drawing K/S was not about expressing her own vision but about giving life to someone else’s alternate universe. She explains, “as ridiculous as it’s going to sound, I never quite bought the K/S notion in my own personal ST universe.” You know what, Suzan, neither did I. For me, K/S is a fairy tale of love requited, my own ST universe is darker, but in all honesty I think I prefer the K/S version! Suzan continues, “I loved reading K/S, loved the visuals of it; two beautiful men, naked and together, what’s not to love?” We don’t know Suzan, answers on a postcard please. “But in ST, I never did any slash drawing that came solely from me. On the other hand, I was perfectly happy giving form to someone else’s words or ideas.” Thank goodness there were plenty of writers out there giving Suzan something to draw! Suzan makes a very interesting distinction between an artist and an illustrator. She explains “I’m not an artist; I’m an illustrator, and illustrators are mainly story-tellers, in shapes and forms rather than words.”
Had you seen other K/S art when you drew your first K/S picture?: Suzan Lovett had seen other K/S art but says that she “found most of them pretty tame, mainly because, just like the majority of illos early on, they were head and shoulders drawings.” Suzan mentions that there were “some wonderful, gorgeous exceptions, like Pat’s work, and Gayle F.’s lovely, stylized pieces. A few others were certainly erotic, but a bit too much of ‘rough trade’ for my taste. I like ‘em erotic AND romantic.”
Do you feel comfortable drawing erotic art?: Suzan Lovett, whose early work in 1980 was pretty erotic, says, “I must’ve been a Dirty Old Broad even before I was old, so no, no qualms whatsoever. I was and still am, restricted by not so much as the level of eroticism, but by 1) some subjects I refuse to do (S&M, etc. never appealed to me) and 2) the limits of a given zine’s editor. (I was once asked to put a “diaper” on a piece for R&R.)”
What kind of things do you try to express in your art? Beauty? Sexiness? A good likeness?: Suzan Lovett says that firstly she tries to capture “love,” and continues, “in any case, though, I mostly want a drawing to give form to an idea and/or distil a story into an image. I’m not an artist; I’m an illustrator and illustrators are mainly story-tellers, in shapes and forms rather than words.”
Do you draw from your mind’s eye or do you use some kind of source material?: Suzan, too, is a little coy about the whole artistic process and when asked “Did you draw from your mind’s eye or use source material of some kind?” replied mysteriously, “A combination of both.” Well, an artist has to have some secrets!
Were you conscious of the difficulties of reproduction which choosing a medium?: Suzan Lovett was also concerned and struggled to limit herself to the media that would suit editors. She writes “getting pencil work reproduced was expensive, so I was told to draw in ink if I wanted to be in a zine, and for a while I did. It’s an unforgiving medium, and my work needs a lot of forgiving, then and now, so I was really happy when I was finally able to get pencil drawings accepted.”
What is your favourite medium?: “I like graphite pencil on cold-press pen&ink boards. I don’t really know why, I just happen to love the way the pencil flows on smooth paper (I realize it’s not ‘the thing’ to use pencil on texture-less paper, but hey, I like that combination best.”) Suzan, it’s not the “thing” to draw Kirk and Spock in a clinch either, K/S is about breaking the rules, so keep on breaking ‘em! Suzan continues, “I truly love the different results you get just by simply layering and/or varying the pressure on the same tool, having a piece come alive in just shades. Sadly, nowadays, color seems to be almost mandatory.”
A lot of people feel there is a tension in artwork, between drawing the characters versus drawing the actors—how do you feel about that?: “Unless I’m doing a portrait of an actor for a fan-club publication or something, I don’t ever so much as think I’m drawing the actor, period. It’s the character. The problem comes from the other side of the equation, if the viewer can’t get past the likeness and separate the actor from the character even when they see a piece that clearly uses as its concept all the specificity of the character. Fans usually can separate, outside world usually can’t. Which is one of my reasons for preferring my fandoms to try and stay away from the public eye.”