Talented Artist Sheds Youthful Scars on Path to Help Others

Aug 22, 2024

Individualized Jewelry Designs Empower Others to Overcome

We’ve all seen the photos. The delicate little flower growing in the crevice of a large rock. The Lone Cypress in the Big Sur coastline. Images like these remind us that despite grave, seemingly impossible circumstances, life can take hold, even flourish in the harshest of environments.

And when it does, isn’t it even more beautiful?  Suzan Zahedi’s life is like one of those little flowers.

Suzan’s early life was rocky and unwelcoming. A mother she barely knew ended her life when Suzan was only 3 ½. Her father was a brilliant thinker, an avowed atheist, and prolific inventor, but emotionally distant. Hopes for a nurturing childhood were dashed when her father married a cold and abusive woman. Suzan became the ‘stepchild’ and the target of her new mother’s wrath.

“It always felt as if I was competing with my stepmother for my dad’s affection. My dad was not an affectionate type, so there was little of him to go around. She saw me as an obstacle and an inconvenience,” Suzan shared.

As she grew, Suzan found a way to prosper, despite the odds. In a world of constant criticism, she struggled to define herself as she gradually grew into her own person. She inherited a mix of her father’s curiosity and inventiveness, along with a creative streak that helped her look at life in the abstract. She showed early promise as an artist.

“I couldn’t wait to get out of the house,” she said. “I enrolled as a Graphic Design major and began working with all forms of mediums, including metal, print embossing and traditional substrates. I really came into my own creating work that I was proud of, and I also began receiving approval from others for my work. The praise was intoxicating. I’m finally receiving acknowledgement for being who I am and wanted more of it.”

Suzan jumped into the creative profession with both feet, joining an advertising agency on the East Coast.

It’s not uncommon for those with childhood trauma to lose themselves in their work. Such was the case with Suzan, a self-proclaimed and certifiable ‘workaholic’.

She explained, “I lost myself in my career. I was working as hard as I could, with people that didn’t keep their word, in an artificial and self-centered industry. Days, nights and weekends. My marriage was ending. I was not finding any joy in my life. As I was approaching the age of 33, which happened to be the age that my mother took her life, that option began to weigh on me.”

Survivors never “get past” the experience of losing a loved one to suicide. You never forget and never recover; you just find ways to deal with it…to fill the hole with something else. Some carry the possibility of their own suicide with them, almost like a ‘get out of jail free’ card. “If the going gets tough, there is always that option,” they may think.

Suzan knew it was time to move in a different direction but wasn’t quite sure what. Her thoughts were dark and destructive. A change was necessary.

“It seemed as if I had been running away from things my entire life,” Suzan explained. “I saw my life and engagement with others as ‘transactional’, meaning that it all just seemed to be part of an unfeeling, and uncaring machine. I knew my pain was never going to leave me, but I didn’t want life to pass me by, as if I was some spectator standing by and watching my own life story play out.”

Change is hard, until you realize you must. That usually means you are no longer in a place that brings joy, peace or any form of satisfaction. That’s where Suzan’s frame of thinking was nearly 20 years ago. She had to make changes.

“I began moving in a different direction both personally and professionally,” she said. “On a personal level, my new friends introduced me to Christianity. Born Jewish and from an atheistic home, I was so moved by the outpouring of love from my new friends and my new church home. I dove into the New Testament with both feet. I felt like I was beginning to understand unconditional love for the first time.”

Professionally, Suzan began to create art for its pure beauty and power, not just for its economic value as she had as a commercial artist and marketer. As she moved further away from the commercial and economic motivation, she began to understand how deeply she could connect with others through her work and also learn that the key to her own happiness would come from understanding the pain that others felt from their own trauma, and then using her creative talents to help them heal.

“When I create a piece of jewelry for someone, I need to understand who they are at their core, what their life issues may be and how this jewelry might help to change them,” she said. “That means that every creation is unique, different and very meaningful…to that individual. It’s an ultimate expression of love meeting creativity. Their pain, past and life journey can be reflected as a work of art.”

Literally, Suzan uses their journey as a catalyst to create something of beauty.

“It’s a way to help people realize that their pain is not lost. There is a hidden beauty and power that comes from their unique experience and seeing it come to life in this form. We all need to be reminded of this internal power. I just try to help people unleash this through an artistic creation that can be a constant reminder of how far they have come,” she explained.

Suzan’s journey shows us that very often, adversity is truly in the eye of the beholder. Being aware of it and “celebrating” it can be a powerful means to healing. It may never disappear, but building faith and resilience can lead to a fulfilled and joyful life. Just like that little flower growing in the most uninhabitable places.

Source: Personal Interview