The former host of The MauiZan Show, Suzanne Kayian, dove headfirst into her new artistic endeavor in March 2020, the month most of the United States starting staying home to "flatten the curve" of the COVID-19 virus. A lover of pop art since she was young, Zan's walls were full but her personal fine art portfolio did not even exist.
After discovering the Recolor app, Zan became entralled with color. This digital coloring app allowed Suzanne the ability to create her own art -- something she had never really done before. A social media zealot, she began sharing her digital coloring pieces on Instagram and Facebook.
A couple of long time friends in California were having a Facebook conversation about having an art show -- maybe a drive-by art show because of the pandemic. Her friends were all relative novices, but Suzanne describes her artistic skill as "less-than-novice." "It's a play on the name of an Elvis Costello song, "Less Than Zero," she said.
Home alone for weeks, Suzanne jumped in on the art show conversation, saying she would enter a piece. The thing was -- she didn't paint, never had. Well, she did do a sky and clouds in her daughter's room, but nothing she considered art.
On her first outing in four weeks, Suzanne went by the local Target. The shelves were bare, but she found four shades of paint and a small set of brushes. Too soon for canvas, she found a 4 x 6 mix-media art paper book. She started small.
Suzanne always felt challenged when it came to art. Her interpretations of things she tried to draw were hilarious. She was the type of person you did not want on your Pictionary team at a party. They faces were off set, her proportions were out of whack, and nothing looked like who or what it was "supposed" to. When her 20-year-old daughter told her, "Mom, there is no bad art," Suzanne let down her own judgements and began opening herself up in ways she never had -- and that included showing people what she was painting.
With responses ranging from "Wow!" to "How much?" Suzanne felt the creative spark ignite. She kept painting -- and some really cool stuff came out.
