Donald Sucha
One Thing I Knew
She wasn’t really our aunt, but that’s what we called her. Following my mother’s death, I inherited a box of papers documenting the illness and subsequent suicide of our aunt’s husband during the depression (depression has more than one meaning). I had known about his death but was not aware of the details. This is the second of a series of three artworks about this tragedy based on the documents now in my possession.
Don’s Practice
After leaving high school, I was following a course of studies that didn't really spark my interest. I started taking pictures with a borrowed 35mm SLR and became fascinated with the technology of the time. I then attended a summer session at The Banff School of Fine Arts (now The Banff Centre) in 1970 studying photography. It was an exciting time period and I was able to move around campus and explore what people studying other media were experiencing
Biography
I was originally trained as a commercial photographer and attended programs at The Banff School of Fine Arts and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. The majority of my working life was spent in the cultural sector as a museum preparator. I have a previous degree in Philosophy and am currently pursuing a degree after in Art History. I usually divide my coursework equally between Art History/Theory and Visual Art practice. I feel that to fully understand the historical and theoretical aspects of Art, I needed to familiarize myself with the varied techniques, materials, and approaches used by artists working in different media. I continue my photography practice but have developed an interest in printmaking as well.