SUSANNE JENSEN – An artist with a mission

In the old nursery in Nuuk you will find a studio called Iluliaq filled with paintbrushes, canvasses and easels, and a view to mountains and the fjord.

Here you will find Susanne Jensen’s paintings for sale among the flowers and plants.

Ilulisaq is undertaken by Susanne, who was born in Holbæk to a Danish mother and a Greenlandic father. Three months of age she and her family moved to Nuuk, continuing to Sisimiut where she turned six before they moved back to Holbæk. As a 12 year old, Susanne Jensen returned to Nuuk and has lived there ever since.

– It is here I feel at home, have my history, most of my family and friends, she says.

Before she became an artist, she worked with marginalised children with problems for 12 years, and later as leader of Air Greenland’s day care center, also for 12 years. She has started painting seven years ago.

– I was inspired when I met the artist Gitte Clausen, she explains.

Painting is a combination of a personal process and a product, which you can share with other people.

– Selling my first painting was transcendental. But painting became a tool for my personal development and it ended with me dropping my work and training as an art therapist.

– I am very enthusiastic about art and have started an art school called »Iluaaraq« together with Lisbeth Lings and Ida Tullin, and also want to open workshops for parents with children.

– My ambition is not to be a famous painter, but to have fun and find satisfaction, she says.

– Sometimes I go out to the fjord alone and paint for 14 days. I enjoy these quiet times in our family cabin in Qoornoq.

– I believe the most important thing in life is to have a good family and a network.

Susanne´s clients are children and young people who need help and who may not be able to put words to their experiences.

– Through painting, we open up for things that we can then talk about and process, explains Susanne Jensen.

– I want to great a place where whatever the individual has to offer, is good enough. Where self-esteem can grow and break the social heritage.

– Help breaking the law of Jante and strengthen the national pride from the inside, she ends.