By Gabbie Burton
Contributing Writer

According to Newton’s first law, bodies at rest stay at rest while bodies in motion stay in motion. Chadds Ford artist Suzanne Gaadt stays in motion.

Balancing a varied career and family life, Gaadt’s passions and talents have kept her busy. From working in graphic design, to her art studio Give a Fig, to writing a book about Icelandic Vikings and to being the creative director for the Philadelphia Zoo, Gaadt is always doing what she loves and following her core passions.

“I say, ‘Always make sure you have options, and never let yourself get pigeonholed or put in a box or put in a corner,’” Gaadt said. “You just don’t want to get stuck.”

Luckily, Gaadt has plenty of options that keep her from getting stuck. Originally from Bucks County, Gaadt grew up in an artistic family and attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University for graphic design and art history before moving to Chadds Ford and starting her consulting company in 1993. After a career consulting with museums, colleges and cultural institutions, including the Brandywine Conservancy, Gaadt created Give a Fig in 2013 because she wanted to get back into, “working with [her] hands again.”

“Instead of doing purely graphic design, I really wanted to get back into my art again,” she said.

Gaadt’s interest in art began in her childhood, coming from a family of creatives including her grandmother who was a commercial artist and her mother who made terracotta tiles.

“I grew up always doing creative stuff,” Gaadt said. “It was just kind of like, ‘Someone give Suzanne a pencil!”

Gaadt’s main focus in her art has always been illustrations of nature and wildlife, which is similarly a passion that stemmed from her family, who raised her to appreciate the outdoors. Give a Fig studio is a combination of her love for both art and nature and the deeper significance that they can hold.

“I don't think it’s necessarily about just drawing a plant or a bird. It’s about what I can imbue that with, symbolically, and how it connects to maybe something else, either historic or cultural,” Gaadt said. “There’s a deeper kind of symbolism in my art too, that isn’t always obvious to people.”

Gaadt explained that she has special interests in travel and history, which in turn influences the symbolic meanings in her art. Additionally, paying homage to local nature by pairing pollinators

with native plants is another way of adding meaning into her work, showcasing the relationships in nature that she aims to protect.

Translated, “give a fig” means to care and it’s that term that serves as the guiding ethos of Gaadt’s studio. She makes a point to create her art consciously, always making sure to give back monetarily and be wary of her environmental impact. Gaadt’s illustrations are seen on cards, tea towels, notebooks and other sustainably sourced materials, and with every purchase of Give a Fig art Gaadt donates a portion of the proceeds to a non-profit to benefitting artists, wildlife or nature. She also produces her art sustainably by using soy-based ink, 100 percent cotton tea towels, sustainable paper and operates her studio with wind and solar powered energy, among several other environmentally conscious initiatives.

“I just think those things are really important so everybody just has to do the little bit that they can,” she said. “Make decisions about how you can be a little gentler with your footprint on the earth.”

While Gaadt’s childhood inspired her passion for protecting the environment, it has continued to grow into her family life with her husband - an environmental planner - and two adult children - a daughter who is an environmental scientist and a son who is a filmmaker.

Gaadt said that the support from her family has been a motivating factor in her pursuit of career and passions and that balancing both with family life has required special care and of course, creativity.

“[Motherhood] was something that I treated very creatively,” she said. “I was able to work it out to be very flexible so that I could be a big part of their life and then also maintain a professionalism and really keep my career strong and balanced over the years. I feel really fortunate in that way – but it took a lot of creativity, I will tell you that, and a lot of energy.”

Along the way, Gaadt found support among other similarly professional and creative women. She created a group called the “Inspiration Circle,” made up of professional women in the Chadds Ford and Kennett area to have a designated time to exercise their creative muscles.

“I feel like women are always just creating the world that they want to make for other people and for themselves,” Gaadt said. “This inspiration circle is about celebrating that kind of innate creativity that I think women inhabit and we get together and we do all kinds of different things that are sharing creativity.”

When Gaadt isn’t with her Inspiration Circle, family, or the studio, she’s working fulltime as creative director for the Philadelphia Zoo. In her role, Gaadt works on messaging, education, guest experience and collaborating with architects and animal care teams for habitats and enrichment for the animals. Splitting full time work between Philadelphia and her Chadds Ford home on top of her other activities is a challenge, but one Gaadt said that she gladly takes on.

“I’m still trying to find that balance because the zoo job is a leadership job,” she said, “so it’s very demanding. I also have a high expectations for my own art business, so it’s always been about trying to find that balance.”

While balancing so many activities can be difficult, Gaadt has her methods of maintaining peace., specifically through her connection with nature, which not only provides inspiration for her art, but offers a comfort that both calms her and keeps her moving forever in motion.

“I was always kind of a worrier,” Gaadt said. “I find just taking a walk and being outside is a great reliever for any kind of anxiety or any stress we’re feeling. It’s just great to get outside, take a walk and hear the birds and see the wildflowers. To me, it’s very healthy to do that.”

To learn more about Suzanne Gaadt Art & Design, visit www.gaadt.com.

To contact Contributing Writer Gabbie Burton, email [email protected].