By Lisa Herrick
Inside a typical home in a quintessential Olympia neighborhood lives a fascinating artist, Suzana Bulatovic. Visiting Bulatovic’s home is like walking into an art gallery. Paintings and sketches adorn the walls, sculptures decorate the shelves, individual beads lie upon an art table transforming into beautiful pieces of jewelry. Bulatovic appears humble, gracious, and witty. She is many things-wife, mother, graphic designer, tennis player-but most authentically and in her core she is an artist who likes to experiment and create.
Bulatovic was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia where she got a degree in fine arts at the Academy of Art, Sarajevo University. “For four years, I strictly studied art – history of art, painting, sculpting, drawing, printing making,” she comments.
She explains that she was always doing something creative growing up and was the illustrator for her high school newspaper. In fact, she met her future husband through illustrations she would leave upon a high school desk that he sat in later in the school day. They exchanged notes and drawings before their actual face to face meeting following one of his basketball games. Bulatovic left Sarajevo upon the start of the war in (former) Yugoslavia. She initially emigrated to Canada, then moved to Chicago before settling in Olympia.
Bulatovic shares, “I immediately felt at home in Olympia. Olympia reminds me of my country – the smell of the sea and being surrounded by mountains. The one difference is that Sarajevo has four specific seasons while Olympia has more rain.” This dissimilarity in weather led Bulatovic to paint ‘Umbrellas’ when she moved to Olympia. ‘Umbrellas’ is a distinctively eye catching piece of artwork upon entering her home. She explains with laughter, “When I moved to Olympia I realized that this is a rainy area.”
However, she is quick to point out that she did not paint in greys but rather used lots of color to express a brightness. Bulatovic claims that her artwork is portrayal of her moods and personality. She is a happy person, optimistic, and someone who looks toward the opportunities of the future not the sorrows of the past. The painting depicts a rainy sidewalk scene teeming with people carrying umbrellas, while colors are vibrant yet subtle and figures are evident yet not defined.
Much of Bulatovic’s artwork is of women. She comments “Women are something I know best. That is who I am and I am most familiar with women.” Although she briefly reflects that while in art school most of her subjects were men. Bulatovic then points to a painting above her couch that is an alluring self portrait. She explains it represented a time in her life when she was missing her husband. You can feel the longing exude from the painting. Bulatovic paints to express her feelings. Each piece of her art tells a story or expresses her mood all the while with her experimenting as an artist.
“I just like to make things. I like 3D art where the image rotates. I like sculpturing. I also like making jewelry, not like industry jewelry but more like pieces of art. For me, my artwork is all connected even though I create in different forms. I like to experiment. And I like colors – sometimes I just put colors on a canvas and see what I can do with it.”
Bulatovic prefers oil painting and pencil drawing. Many of her commissioned portrait pieces are done in oil so that she can achieve more realism. However she currently works mostly in acrylics confessing, “I don’t have to wait for acrylics to dry. I can better express myself in acrylic because it dries immediately and I can put on more layers instantly. I want to see how my work is emerging while I am creating it and feeling it.” Bulatovic also enjoys the creativity and exploration allowed by mixed media. She will often paint a portrait in acrylic but use oil for the skin to create a smoother and more realistic appearance.
Most recently, Bulatovic has been focusing on her freelance graphic design business where she has a variety of international clients. While Bulatovic is not actively selling her artwork right now, she continues to do commissioned work and charitable donations-primarily portraits. In fact, recently she donated a portrait to a fundraiser for SafePlace. She glances around and says, “I might need to sell something so that I can get more space on the walls for my new stuff.”
Bulatovic has been a member of the Olympia Art League, as well as exhibited her art locally at South Puget Sound Community College’s Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery where she was described as “fascinated with the process of painting, she puts particular emphasis on color, texture, shapes and light. She aims for the paintings to reflect her state of mind rather than the reality of the external world.”
To view the vast array of Bulatovic’s artwork visit her website.
