Mending a Heart One Brushstroke at a Time

Mending a Heart, One Brushstroke at a Time

"Painting through tragedy, tears, illness, despair, regrets, fear, forgiveness, courage, survival, joy, hope, and healing. It is amazing how creative grief and love can be." SR Accetta

I have been a professional artist for nearly 50 years. After our daughter's unexpected death, I knew I had to force myself to keep painting. I quickly learned life does not stop when our hearts are shattered. At first, grief is an ocean that pulls you under. With time, it becomes a river that you learn to swim in. But the waves…they never stop coming. There is no amount of time, tears or words that can help explain what it feels like to lose a child. That is why there is no word in our language that can describe a bereaved parent. No matter how long it's been, there are times when I think of her, and it suddenly becomes harder to breathe.

I continue to paint. I paint heartbreak and pain. I paint the loss of rainbows. I paint suffocating fear, despair, brokenness, tears, emptiness, and the loss of everything I knew. All of the paintings were mixed with tears. As I navigated the nonlinear path of grief, God transformed this tragedy into a testimony. I am surviving. The scars on my heart radiate His divine glory. My paintings are witness to the love that survived.

Suzanne Accetta has been drawing and painting for over fifty years. She received a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University of Cincinnati, and her award-winning paintings are exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally. Her work has been seen in public, private and corporate collections as well as juried exhibitions.

Suzanne has illustrated children's books for Seedlings Publications. She was featured
in WOMEN IN WATERCOLOR INAUGURAL NEWSLETTER, AMERICAN ARTIST
MAGAZINE, WATERCOLORPAINTING.COM and in the book THE COMPLETE
COLORED PENCIL BOOK. Calvin J. Goodman wrote in AMERICAN ARTIST MAGAZINE, "Accetta tries to employ some narrative elements in every painting. She is a keen student of faces and human anatomy. As a result, her work shows great empathy for her subjects."

Suzanne is a busy lecturer, demonstrator, juror, and teacher. She taught drawing and painting at Otterbein University in the Department of Theatre and Dance as well as watercolor at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center. She also taught at the Greenville Center for Creative Arts and for Mary Whyte's Patriot Art Foundation. She is presently a mentor for the PAF Arts Muster Program.

You can see her work and learn more about her at www.suzanneaccetta.com