by Janet A. Steele
News ReporterMural artist Suzanne Sellers doesn't have a problem splashing paint on a building while suspended 50 feet up in the air.
Even the grueling summer months in Houston haven't discouraged Sellers from pursuing her perilous and often uncomfortable artistic endeavors.
"When you go 50 feet up the side of a building daily to work, the first couple of weeks you get dizzy and nauseous because the lift sways with the wind," Sellers said. "On the really hot days in July, my assistant and I put a canopy over the lift to cover us from the direct heat. The visions of dollar signs must go through your head."
Sellers, 36, is a Houston artist who has found an unexpected avenue to showcase her talents. Both her realistic and abstract murals can be seen on downtown buildings, office walls, restaurants and school hallways throughout the Houston area.
"Houston is not a city that embraces outdoor murals like Seattle or Boston," Sellers said. "There doesn't seem to be a large market, but I hope that will change."
The graduate of Southwest Texas State University is the only one of her family's nine children to complete college. She received her master's degree from the University of Houston in 1990.
In 1988, Sellers painted her first mural on the gym wall of Brookshire Middle School, where she was an art teacher for nine years.
"The mural was of sports figures in action, and my art students participated in its creation. I fell in love with working on a larger scale," Sellers said.
Sellers' artistic career took a fortuitous detour shortly after the mural's completion when a student's mother introduced her to Hub Finkelstein, the chairman of the board of the Manchester Terminal Corp.
After viewing the school mural, Finkelstein commissioned Sellers to paint a dock scene on a wall of his company's office at 10000 Manchester Ave. in Houston.
"I have a 20-foot-long, 9-foot-high wall that has no windows. I didn't want the people working for me to feel like they were in a cave," Finkelstein said. "I could see that if I gave Suzanne the subject matter, she could do what I wanted in the proper proportion."
Sellers describes the mural, which eventually included two adjacent walls, as a monochromatic depiction, or tints and shades of the same hue, of the Ship Channel terminal.
It took Sellers five weekends to complete the project, as she was still teaching school full-time. She said that during the process, she and Finkelstein developed a working friendship, but had no future plans for mural work.
Predominately a watercolorist, Sellers made the decision to quit teaching three years ago. Several years before her departure, she began experimenting with contemporary hand-built clay work. She found a market for her work at Texas art shows and decided to pursue a full-time artistic career.
"Considering teachers don't get paid much, I didn't think it would be that difficult to make at least what I had been making," Sellers said. "I just hoped to make a living."
She agreed to paint her second mural for Finkelstein in 1994 after he purchased the Dasu Building, a three-story structure on 1621 Milam St. in downtown Houston.
"The Dasu Building was not marketable or lease-able in the condition that it was in." Finkelstein said. "I asked Suzanne to just go away for a while and think about it. Then I told her to come back and tell me how she was going to do it."
Finkelstein said he wanted the mural in a trompe l'oeil style, which focuses on painting fake surfaces, such as columns, drain pipes, windows and ornate cornices to give the impression of realism.
"I had seen work in Boston and the Caymen Islands that was similar to what I wanted, though I had never seen anyone take a building and paint it to look like there was more than one building facade," Finkelstein said.
The result is an architectural mural that covers more than 12,000 square feet of exterior surface. The rendering spans two walls that are approximately 130 feet long and 50 feet high. It took Sellers and her assistant almost three months to complete the project.
"Mr. Finkelstein has been instrumental in helping me establish myself as a muralist," Sellers said. "He has given me the opportunity and a forum to work."
The Law Offices of Laviage and Steinman commissioned Sellers a year later to paint a similar mural for their office building on 3310 Travis St.
"I would see Suzanne painting the Dasu Building on the way to work every day. I didn't talk with another artist because I didn't know of anyone doing the style of work she was doing," said attorney Mike Laviage. "I was impressed with her work and knew she could do what I wanted."
The spring of 1995 brought Sellers commissioned murals from TGI Friday's restaurant. Negotiations are now in progress for her to paint a 35-foot exterior surface at Exxon's Brookhollow office complex.
Sellers, who works out of her studio in Woodland Heights, said she has been lucky and that murals don't often come her way. She supports herself between commissions by selling her clay work and watercolors at Texas art shows and at the Houston Potters Guild on 2433 Rice Blvd.
Even though her financial security is sometimes uncertain, Sellers said she loves her job and doesn't regret quitting her teaching position.
"I think Suzanne has a work ethic that most artists don't have," Finkelstein said. "It's important to know that a project will be completed in a timely fashion. If Suzanne tells you she will do it, she will."