Artist Susan W. Showalter
Photo copyright by Laura Brubaker, 2005

Susan Whitcomb Showalter, a native of Columbus, IN, began writing and taking photographs while attending the High School Journalism Institute at Indiana University in 1964. Passionate about the natural environment, Showalter presently focuses on fine art photography with an emphasis on Nature Photography. She is also a jewelry designer and a writer.

Showalter graduated with Honors receiving a degree in Apparel Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York in 1968. She was co-owner and designer of Bickel Originals in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the late 60s.

Susan worked for G. W. Photography of Toronto in 1969 as a Photographer's Assistant on location in England, Scotland, Italy and Switzerland. She traveled and worked in London, Glasgow, Naples, Venice and St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Reviving her writing and photography career in 2000, Showalter established her business, WriterFreelance. Her writing and photography have been published in local newspapers including regular publications of The Brown County Democrat and The Republic, a Columbus, IN newspaper.

Ms. Showalter's feature stories and photos have appeared in Discover Columbus, The Zone, She, Our Brown County and Into Art magazines. Her political stance regarding environmental and peace and justice issues are reflected in much of her writing and photography.

She joined with other Brown County writers in 2010 to produce a new radio show about Brown County, Brown County Hour, which premiered on July 24, 2010 on WFHB radio in Bloomington. (To listen, visit the website: www.BrownCountyHour.com)

Susan’s photography has been exhibited in the nationally known artists' colony of Nashville, IN where she has received numerous awards, in The Brown County Art Gallery, The Brown County Library, Fall for Art 2004 & 2005 and Spring for Art 2004 & 2005, at Art Columbus, Borders Bookstore in Bloomington, at Deja Vu 2005 in Columbus, Spring Blossom Arts Festival in 2009 & 2010 in Nashville, etc.

Showalter photographed sites on location in California, Mexico and Egypt during 2005 then also in China during May 2007.

Selected as featured artist, she produced a large exhibition of her work for the 2006 annual Art and the Garden, sponsored by Bloomington Hospital. Her photograph, August Sunset on the Nile River, was purchased for their corporate art collection.

Ms. Showalter has lived on her 105 acre Goat Hill Farm, in the awe inspiring Brown County, Indiana forest, for 40 years. She is a member of: Writers, Readers and Poets Society of Brown County, Brown County Poets Against War, Brown County's Mother Earth Day Committee, Winding Waters Sierra Club and Art Alliance of Brown County.

Besides photography and writing, Susan enjoys jewelry design and recycling trash into art. She began making handmade paper in 2002 and established her business Peace Dove Art Papers and Greetings from Brown County Cards in 2004. She established Peace Dove Designer Jewelry in 2008.

Susan has a daughter, artist/writer Laura Mary Showalter Brubaker George, who is a student at Indiana University in preparation for pursuing careers in Metalsmithing/Jewelry Design and Egyptology.

Susan established her Brown County studio, Goat Hill Studio & Gallery: Where Arts and Nature Meet, in 1972. Locally her work was exhibited at Gallery by the Green in Nashville, IN and at gift shops in Brown County State Park‘s Abe Martin Lodge and the T. C. Steele State Memorial.

Showalter opened a new art gallery, Handmade in Brown County, in August 2008 where she exhibits and sells her Designer Jewelry, Handmade Art Papers as well as her Fine Art Photography.

Showalter received a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts (through the Indiana Arts Commission) in 2010 for a documentation project and exhibition, Artists Interrupted: Brown County Artists Challenged by Illness or Injury.

Handmade in Brown County will re-open in Spring 2012 in expanded facilities near Nashville. For more information please call 812 988-7830 or email Susan at GoatHillStudio@aol.com.