Art and design are a way of life for Sue Bell. They are a lens through which she sees the world. Whether it be painting, design, cake-making or occasionally the crafting of furniture, she finds herself most at home when engaged in creative pursuits. We all have that place where we get out of our way enough to allow something bigger than us to flow through. This is that place for her.

Sue’s path to art and design began with an unusual childhood in which her family moved every three months, in an annual circuit that included Jackson, Wyoming and a cabin on a lake in Northern Minnesota. The need for calm and rooting compelled her to “set up” house on the first night of every move before she went to bed. So began a love of design and all-things-beautiful.

The next chapter for Sue included an undergraduate degree in Social Work, then a graduate degree in Psychology after 3 years of being a ski bum in Jackson and attempting to master mogul skiing. She eventually landed in Colorado, where she spent time as a psychiatric evaluator in the ER and a private practitioner of therapy while still cultivating her artistic interests on the side, a time that included the study and practice of the discipline of Japanese flower arranging known as Ikebana.

Eventually, after years of sorting through other people’s issues (and her own!), she realized the next chapter would include having children. On her own. So, she stepped away from therapeutic work and into a world of single motherhood.

In time, as being a mother both expanded and settled her world, Sue realized that her dual passions for creativity and the service of others could come interweave—on the canvas, and in the design of the spaces that house us. It is this sense of rooting and calm, one that first arose from her itinerant childhood, which she brings to her work.