Meet Susanna Holt.

Meet Susanna Holt.
Q: Tell us what you do?
A: “I took up sculpture when I was a little girl. I’ve been a sculptor
really all my life. I went to art school when I was 16, got married very
young, had a baby, and then went back to art school when the
marriage didn’t work out. My career took off pretty quickly, so I never
really had a job. My job was making art, always, so I’ve be very lucky
in that way. I was with galleries in London for a few years, and then I
gave that up and went on my own. I’ve been sort of resolutely
independent ever since. My client list really speaks for itself. I have
worked on 17 cruise ships. I specialize in life-size Animalia on brands
such as Holland America Cruise Lines, who sort of adopted me, and
placed life size bronze sculptures of sea life on most of their vessels
for over a decade. I have a lot of my work on their ships. The
sculptures are very often in stages of motion, like a strobe lens. They
reach high in the air, so you’ve got a group of a dolphin but in stages
of motion or a horse in stages of motion. My website is
susannaholt.com . The other portion of me is my alter ego! I worked in
glass, which I fell in love with back in the nineties. I was asked by the
owner of Carnival Cruise Lines, if I would come up with an idea for
murals. So I did, and subsequently I had four ships with a total of 64
glass murals altogether between 10 and 25 feet in length. Everything
had to do with saving the environment and saving animals. That was
the thrust to my purpose. That’s what I felt motivated to do and even
more so now.
Q: How did you get involved with the cruise ships?

A: I lived in Miami at the time, actually I had just left the Palm Beach
area, where somebody broke into my home in the middle of the night
and held me hostage. I nearly lost my life, but I  survived. I decided
not to hang around, and wait for him to come back. I decided to move
to Miami where my boyfriend at the time lived, it was a major shift in
my career. I had just finished sculptures, life size animals in the Middle
East for Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi, and Sultan
Quaboos of Oman.  When settled in Miami I had to restart my career. I
attended the Sea Trade Conference I walked around with my portfolio,
chatted with people, and one thing led to another, and that’s how I
became involved with the cruise lines.
Q: How long have you lived in Sedona?
A:  “Since 2001, on and off, this is where I call home.”
Q: What brought you here?
A: ” I was longing to go to the mountains while living in Miami, it was
very good to me as far as work was concerned, but it wasn’t really my
soil. I just longed to come to the mountains. I had a short list of five
places to go that I found in a book called 101 Small Art Towns in
America and this was the first town on my list. You could see all the
demographics, income, age group, and the whole nine yards. I
thought this to be an interesting place. It was a spiritual place and I
was very much a spiritual being, and I thought this was a good fit for
me. So I came to Sedona and tried it out, and I never tried anywhere
else.”
Q: Who’s the most interesting person you have met?
A: “My significant other.”

Q: What one person dead or alive would you like to have lunch or
dinner with?
A: “ I think anybody who’s on the cutting edge of making a change
towards our environment or animal life. Anybody who’s on the
battleground to save our animal species who are desperately
endangered. So I would have to say somebody in that arena.
Q: What one piece of advice changed your life?
A: Don’t be afraid to look upwards. Don’t keep looking backward. Look
to where you want to go. You may not get there, but always keep your
eye higher than where you would like to be, even if you don’t get
there. Be comfortable when things get in the way. Some things don’t
work out, but they may work to help you get where you should be.
Q: When you have a friend come to visit, where do you take them?
A: Oh, the Grand Canyon. I love this state, just love it. I take them to
some museums here and Flagstaff. I take them to a good vegetarian
restaurant. When I can find them.
Q: What’s your favorite vegetarian restaurant?
A: I’d have to say the Chocolate Tree, but possibly not.  I like
vegetarian dishes at restaurants that have a mixture of both. There’s a
restaurant in Prescott, forgive me I forget the name of it.  It’s actually a
Mexican restaurant, but they have a huge menu of vegetarian food.
Sometimes you just find these little gems that produce good
vegetarian food. You never know where that will be!
Q: Are you still doing sculpture? Do you have a studio at home?
A: Yes. I have a studio here, I found a place with a  14 foot ceiling and

it’s 35 feet long. It’s got all the electrics I need and everything I need is
there, so I’m very lucky to have that as a part of my home.

Q: How do people find you other than your website if they want to
commission work with you?
A: On my website, I have a contact page. I’ve actually recently taken
the phone number off because I get so many robo calls even though I
have a catcher and all of that. I disconnected the number.  You can fill
in the form on my website and get in touch at mail@susannaholt.com .
I always keep my eyes open for emails. Definitely say something that
will grab my attention in the subject field.
Q: Do you have anything displayed around town?
A: “No.  I’m going to be a judge this year at the Sedona Art Festival,
which will be fun. I’m honored to contribute towards that. When I first
came to Sedona I needed to heal from trauma. I’ve just enjoyed being
a recluse and writing, sculpting and film making. I had several
commissions on the cruise ships when I came here, so I’ve been
working hard.
Q: Anything I haven’t asked you you’d like someone to know about
you?
A: “The important thrust for me now is working with organizations that
are in the hospitality industry, resorts, that type of thing around the
world. I was in a conference last week in Phoenix, for the heads of
some of the major hotels. Some of them would like to meet with me.
I’m going to suggest that they adopt the notion of conserving wildlife
as part of their brand, with the visual statement of animalia sculpture,

and gently bring people around to the idea that factory farming is not
healthy for either the animal of course, nor for our own health.
Millennials who are the largest demographic that is spending money
right now,  they are not interested any longer in acquiring ‘stuff’. What
they’re interested in are causes and experiences and they’re very
concerned about the environment. I am going to focus on Millennials
too.