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Childlike wonder

Artist Susanmarie Oddo gets inspiration from life as a teacher

Friday, March 21, 2008

Photo by Brian Ray. Enlarge photo.

Soda Creek Elementary School art teacher Susanmarie Oddo speaks with a reporter in Steamboat Springs on Wednesday morning about her own artwork, which currently is on display at Epilogue Book Company. Much of Oddo’s art is inspired by her own students and her friends’ children.

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By Margaret Hair (Contact)

Steamboat Springs — Susanmarie Oddo is constantly surrounded by children.

Part of the time, that’s literal — Oddo is the art teacher at Soda Creek Element­ary School.

The rest of the time, it’s more figurative — in her latest work, Oddo depicts children she knows. And when she’s working on a handful of paintings at one time, she feels like those children are actually there.

“It’s funny, you develop a relationship with the painting,” Oddo said, describing the connection she feels when surrounded by her work, which paints children as illustrated animals.

“I just feel like there are kids there when I’m painting. I know that’s absurd, but I feel like I’m always surrounded by kids.”

In her fifth year in Steamboat — the elementary art teacher admits she measures time by school terms — Oddo is starting to develop the traits of someone who spends all of her time around children. She offers Teddy Grahams as a snack and says she relishes the chance to be silly during class.

“Teaching elementary school is just so much fun because I can be animated. I can be a poet or sing with them. There are a lot of interdisciplinary units you can do,” Oddo said.

Her child-inspired series — pieces that sold-out in her fall show at Comb Goddess hair salon and are now on display at Epilogue Book Co. — are whimsical and cartoon-like, blowing up notable features from each subject into something within a picture of a bug, bat or dragon.

“I’m hooked on them. I look at a child and their personality and try to mimic that,” Oddo said. “Prior to that, I did nothing like that.”

Erica Fogue, who has decorated the walls of Epilogue’s children’s reading nook with Oddo’s paintings, said she liked the work and had heard children talking about it.

“It’s so funny because we have kids coming through, and they know who the paintings are of. They’re just so adorable,” Fogue said. Oddo’s work appeared in Fogue’s store for the First Friday Artwalk.

Oddo, who said she loves art in every medium, is happy to spread that joy to future generations.

“I’ve been doing art since I was a kid. I can’t remember when I started — probably since I was small enough to fit in those chairs,” Oddo said, motioning to the grade-school seats that line short tables in her Soda Creek classroom.

“I’d been told by friends and family members that I’ve always been a cartoonist, but I never took it seriously,” Oddo said, noting she started her art career as a photojournalist. Now, painting cartoon images is all Oddo wants to do.

“I’m going to stick with this for as long as I’m excited about it,” she said.