Susan Elizabeth Cannon born in Melbourne, Australia, to Dr K J Cannon, a chemical engineer and his wife Ann Puddy, who had been a nurse at Addenbrooks, Cambridge in England.
At 8-years-old Sue has the first ‘love' of her own age, one that is to set the tone for the value she places on friendship throughout her life: «She was Karina, Latvian and just gorgeous, and I decided at that stage that friendship was the greatest treasure.»
Family moves to Sydney. The 9-year-old Sue and Karina stay in touch by letter, but Sue has to cope with primary school in Northbridge, a wealthy suburb.
Sue begins high school in Sydney at just 11-years-old. «Willoughby Girls High had a bad reputation. It was the only school for miles around that would take girls from the local Remand Home. I was too young: the others were 12 or 13, and I felt terribly lonely. In fact I often cried myself to sleep at night that first year.»
«When I was 15, to my astonishment, my Parents let me go away at the end of the School Certificate exams, with some school friends, to Huskisson (NSW South Coast resort). She causes quite a scene in a see-through frock and has her first 'fling' with a man of 26 - who treated her with respect. But...
At 16, Sue sits her Higher School Certificate examinations. She achieves second place overall in the state-wide Art examination. Her painting, ‘The Dressing Room', goes on a state-wide exhibition tour today known as the ‘Art Express'.
Enrols at Sydney College of the Arts, in its foundation year. «My career options had been Journalism, Landscape Architecture and Graphic Design. I decided graphic design was the power to change society – which was why I chose to study it. The use of colour and abstract imagery give a poster the ability to provoke immediate emotional responses.»
Sue meets Karina again: «I was a disco queen and she was a hippy jazz trombonist. We went on the Manly ferry. I was wishing for more sun and she wasn't fussed - and that was the last time I saw her.»
Sue leaves home, quickly, in response to family problems.
She trains as a barmaid: «The only job I could get - and worked my way through college as a topless barmaid. And I began to drink. Starting with cocktails and working my way down the scale.»
Almost at the end of her Degree course Sue decides to give up:
«I was in trouble. Wasn't getting enough sleep, living on coffee and alcohol, with a very heavy school workload.»
Sue shows a series of paintings in her ‘Swagging in the Modern Age' series, at a College of the Arts exhibition in the MLC Centre, downtown Sydney.
«They were very well received. But, I was drunk on the day I should have been taking the names of collectors who were interested in my work – and blew that opportunity.»
Sue contributes to a community mural on a wall along the Crescent in Sydney's Annandale, which remains to this day – with several touch-ups over the years. This was the first of several she painted on public and private property around inner-city Sydney. «I became focussed on using acrylic paints – basically house paints using the three primary colours, white and black – and also explored stencils, including some placards for one of the peace marches of the time.
‘Done in' by years of partying, Sue becomes strongly suicidal: «I was miserable, suffered a bout of meningitis, thankfully mild. I was working in the Collage art materials shop, living in Balmain. Later, I moved to Leichhardt and found studio space in Surry Hills, around the corner from Matthew Talbot hostel (for homeless men). That was the first time I ever had contact with ‘real artists'.»
Sue moved to Alpha House, a major artists' colony in an old multi-storey building on the main street of inner-Sydney's Newtown. «That was the only place I lived with the sound of machineguns going off within earshot of the house and brawls at the (local) Marlborough hotel.
During this time, Sue takes part in a group show, with other artists in the commune.
Sue's 25th birthday was spent in Casino, on the Northern NSW coast. «I was living in a dairy made of red cedar, which had six legs, only one of which was attached to the ground. I shaved all my hair off.»
Sue moves to a 10-sided dome, on a commune at Kyogle, on the far north coast of NSW – just after the birth of sister Mary's child Daniel. «I led a country hippy trend – my head was half-shaved and several of the guys cut their hair as well – until they realised I was actually female.»
Sue takes her «first real job» - offered by a former college lecturer, now graphic designer for millionaire Dick Smith's ‘Australian Geographic' magazine.
«From the north coast, I started creating a poster about evolution – using water colours. For a bit of light relief I would do some cattle work or swim in the Nymboida river. I was still drinking too much.»
She later moves on, to work on book illustrations for Readers Digest.
Sue begins a year-long Australian Outback tour with her partner, in a Toyota troop carrier, equipped with a canvas canopy. Sue uses the trip to complete a series of stencilled landscapes.
Sue goes to work with Redback Graphics, which produces political posters for aboriginal community causes. «After a while, the work decreased and the company could not keep me on. But while it lasted it was good for my confidence and for the bank balance as well.»
Sue completes a series of murals in the Devonshire Street tunnel of Sydney's Central railway station – free ‘visual busking' that lasts 16 years before being painted over. As a result of that work, Sue is commissioned to paint another mural – paid this time - in the station's Eddy Avenue shopping precinct.
Sue works for the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's major daily newspaper. «The job was for a scraperboard artist. I knew what a scraperboard was, bought some boards and tools, knocked up five pictures and instead took a job in the graphics department - but accepted only part time work. Computerisation was coming in and the Herald had state of the art equipment.
Sue begins working in a series of positions with various government departments: «Mainly the Forestry Commission but also some work for the Tourist Commission, National Parks and Wildlife service, Drug and Alcohol Authority. I worked on a mixture of diagrams, maps and illustrations.»
Sue meets a former neighbour in a ballroom dancing course – who offers her a position in her own business, Canfield Business Design, as a graphic designer working on brochures for the hospitality industry, as well as newspaper advertising.
Now 40 Sue feels life is beginning to make sense «in a way that it never had before.
«I get a sense of self worth now from the ability to share what I have learnt during the years of recovery. Although my life might not appear to be terribly successful, by my own benchmarks, I can feel good about myself.»
After her parents astonish her with a cash bequest, which supplements her own savings, Sue is able to Move into her own place - complete with studio - in Lawson, still in the Blue Mountains.
Sue is continuing to work mainly with acrylic ‘house' paint – for paintings and stencil prints, but also exploring pastels. «I don't think I have quite the confidence I had at 16, working with mixed media. But I'm hoping the confidence will keep coming back - possibly with a different style.
