Biography
Sue Hettmansperger was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1948. At age 9, she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She attended the University of New Mexico where she received her B.F.A (1972) and M.A. (1974) in Lithography and Drawing. She is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa, where she has worked since 1977.
Hettmansperger boasts an impressive resume, having received numerous fellowships and grants, including an Arts and Humanities Interdisciplinary Grant in Math, Electronic Music and Digital Art from the University of Iowa (2000). She has had Artist in Residence opportunities at Roswell Museum and Art Center New Mexico (1976, 1990) as well as the U Cross Foundation in Wyoming (1992). She has also been included in Marquis Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who in the 21st Century.
Hettmansperger has exhibited one-person shows in venues such as Artemisia Gallery and Chicago (1995) and A.I.R Gallery in New York City (1990, 1994, 1999, 2003, 2007). Her work has been showcased with group exhibitions throughout the world, including venues in New York, Chicago, Des Moines, Bourges (France) and Gothenburg (Sweden). Hettmansperger also has her work included in many prestigious fine arts collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Albuquerque Museum of Art in New Mexico, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and several colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Much of Sue Hettmansperger’s artwork focuses on botany and biological systems. This recurring organic theme portrays symbolic suggestions of human and nature interdependence. Consistently involved in environmental and ecological issues, Hettmansperger explains “this predisposition has led [her] to parallel study and appreciation of the physical construction of natural form and vegetation"."
She says, of her work:
“I have been involved with environmental and ecological issues since the late 1960’s. This interest has become a passion that I foresee continuing throughout my life… Plant morphology is a strong… theme in my paintings. I work with basic form and primary spatial or color relationships, in order that underlying structures can be presented anew for their honed elegance, beauty and interrelatedness.”
(4 Points of View)
Source of Biography
myweb.uiowa.edu/shettman;
www.lucidplanet.com;
Charles H. MacNider Museum, 4 Points of View. Mason City, IA, 1992