Southern Style
An Interview with Suzanne Cox
By: Teresa Harris Cochran
Photos by: James Sentenn
Southern style has an elusive quality, like a thin wisp of smoke, hard to grasp but there none-the-less; evoking a strong sense of place - of home and family, college football, and the landscape scenes portraying the geographic features of the South: swamps, bayous, and cotton fields. Suzanne Cox identifies with this strong feeling of home and the South. Born in Alexandra, Louisiana and a graduate of Ole Miss, she is most at home with all things southern as she portrays in her paintings. Treating her creativity with almost spiritual reverence, describing it as,
a torch handed down from her grandmother,
a painter; to her mother, a teacher, librarian, writer, and cook; and finally to herself, a painter and entrepreneur.
After college graduation Suzanne worked in apparel manufacturing for fifteen years, but then focused her creative energy towards home and rearing triplets. Now that they are ready for college, she again finds herself with time to use her creative gifts to paint.
How would you describe your style of painting? I’d like to be more of an Impressionist, like Monet. He’s one of the first artists I remember studying. I especially liked the Water Lilies. My style is just more free and organic.
