From House To Home

Susie McColgan is a healer with a paintbrush who makes house calls. Preposterous?

Only one who has never experienced her works would fail to believe.

In a recent conversation about how her artwork has migrated from the canvas to merge with the home, she observes, “I can make anything happen out of nothing.“

Witness Susan Pumford’s guest bath in her family’s Thomas Township estate. While the Pumford home is anything but in need of healing, before McColgan applied her deft touch, the bathroom was simply a state-of-the-art facility near the kitchen.

Nevermore

“People come over here just so they can use the bathroom,“ Pumford quips.

Surely she jests.

But step into that space and you’re transported into McColgan’s adaptation of Vincent Van Gogh’s 1888 Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum. One could almost have a seat at the cafe.

Or certainly yearn for it.

Even the artist still does.

“I would come here every day if I could,“ McColgan shares. The artist imparts a similar affinity for the dining room ceiling mural at Laurie Siebert’s Saginaw Township home, which McColgan painted about four years ago.

“I love the entire ceiling,“ McColgan says. It includes a play on perspective that gives a viewer the impression of standing on a balcony overlooking palm trees.

Not an easy feat to imagine, given the need to tilt your head skyward to take in the view. But look up, and there you are, on the terrace overlooking the palms.

Another placement of palms in the mural, this time over the hutch, negates the need for greenery atop the furniture, as the homeowner had originally planned. This greenery is painted in. And you don’t have to water it.

Finally, a ribbon uniting cherubs with angels represents a family blessing, McColgan imparts. The artist combines her play on perspective with varied finishes in the paint, from reflective to matte, to help create visual depth. Her combination of angelic and worldly metaphors help create emotional depth.

No strangers

McColgan is a longtime fixture in Michigan’s art community. She represents the third generation of her family to attend the University of Michigan, graduating in 1981 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She started her career serving as art director, graphic designer, and commercial and fashion illustrator for a variety of advertising agencies in Saginaw, Flint, and Detroit.

She has been in business for herself since 1987 with a client list ranging from Ben & Jerry’s and Borgess Hospital to the Saginaw Community Foundation and Wendy’s Hamburgers. McColgan’s art is included in more than a dozen collections, such as those of the Saginaw Art Museum, Citizens Bank, Bay Harbor Yacht Club in Petoskey, and the Midland Center for the Arts.

Her educational background includes medical training, along with math and psychology. She has provided art in healing sessions to patients as part of her service to area hospitals, including Hurley Medical Center in Flint. She’s also a seamstress.

Her professional migration to residential and commercial murals seems natural.

Healer in the house

“A home is like an extension and reflection of what is in your heart and dreams that surrounds you,“ McColgan shares. “A home needs to comfort, feel calm, and create happiness.

“I figure out by listening and absorbing [messages from] both the people and the house and create a cohesive, peaceful completeness that creates pure joy. I make people’s dreams and desires come to life.

“It’s like I heal the home.“