Suzan Pitt

Suzan Lee Pitt was born in Kansas City, Missouri on July 11, 1943. Her father, John Pitt, owned a tire distributorship. Her mother, Belva Pitt (née Baughman) made women's hats. Pitt reported that her grandmother, also a milliner, was the only "artist" in her family besides her. From an early age, Pitt loved to draw, sometimes locking herself in her room to draw when she felt overwhelmed or scared. Pitt would also often play dolls with her sister, Melinda, experiences which she later attributed to inspiring her films. Pitt's interest in art was encouraged by her family, and she attended both the University of Alabama and Cranbrook Academy, graduating from the former in 1965 with a BFA in painting. Pitt named artists such as Richard Lindner, David Hockney, and Francis Bacon as inspirations for her work at the time. Pitt also considered becoming an actor, but "discovered [she] was a ham". ==Animation==

Early work After completing her degree at Cranbrook Academy, Pitt decided against pursuing a master's, as she felt that her "time was more valuable just on her own". By this time, Pitt had married Alan Kraning. Her husband worked at the University of Minnesota, and Pitt found work at several nearby universities teaching painting and attending classes. While teaching at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Pitt began experimenting with animation using a 16mm film camera and paper cut-outs. Her first film, Bowl Theatre Garden Marble Game (1969), showcased Pitt's filmmaking philosophy; feeling that her paintings were "in a state of arrested movement" having "[gone] somewhere and were going somewhere", Asparagus Pitt's best-known film, Asparagus (1979), took four years to make. After receiving a grant from the American Film Institute, Pitt took a job teaching at Harvard while also working on Asparagus. She oftentimes used the university's camera equipment to film scenes. Pitt completed sections of the film while living in both New York City and Germany. Asparagus also screened with David Lynch's Eraserhead for two years on the midnight movie circuit. The film won Pitt several high-profile awards, including best film at the ASIFA East Awards, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Baltimore Film Festival, and Atlanta Independent Film and Video Festival, and remains her most acclaimed and critically successful work. Joy Street and later career Following the success of Asparagus, Pitt turned away from traditional animated films and designed animated projections for various theatrical projects, in particular two groundbreaking operas in Germany: The Magic Flute for the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 1983 and The Damnation of Faust for the Staatsoper Hamburg in 1988. In addition, she created large-scale multimedia shows, including a collaboration with John Cage at Harvard University in 1976 and at the Venice Biennale in 1980. Writer Jennifer Remenchik states that the "protagonist’s journey mirrors Pitt’s own experience with depression from which she found relief by traveling to the rainforests of Central America on a Fulbright Grant." Joy Street exhibits Pitt's vibrant floral illustrations, reflecting a change in her painting around this period. The film was included as part of the Cartoon Noir (1999) anthology. In 1996, Pitt created a series of animated shorts for Cartoon Network's Big Bag entitled "Troubles the Cat". The shorts were produced at The Ink Tank, R.O. Blechman's animation studio. Pitt and her son, artist Blue Kraning, collaborated on her next animated short, El Doctor (2006). Like Joy Street, El Doctor saw Pitt pulling inspiration from Mexican flora and culture for the film's imagery. The film's script was written by Kraning, marking Pitt's only film without her as writer. El Doctor was funded in part by PBS and received Pitt's best reviews since Asparagus from publications such as The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Pitt's next film, Visitation (2011), turned in a significantly darker direction than El Doctor, with Pitt citing the work of H.P. Lovecraft as a major inspiration. Pitt followed Visitation with Pinball (2013), her final animated film. For Pinball, Pitt created a cinema collage of hundreds of paintings and set them to music (this time, George Antheil's 1952 revision of Ballet Mécanique) with eccentric editing. ==Fashion==

In 1984 and again in 2016, Pitt created editions of hand-painted coats, sold through designer Patricia Field. Pitt also created silk-screen T-shirts printed with an original design, sold through WilliWear Productions by Willi Smith in 1984. Through her jackets, Pitt met Keith Haring, who admired her work. ==Teaching==

In her lifetime, Pitt taught at several universities. Early after graduating from Cranbrook Academy, Pitt worked at Bloomfield Hills Art Association, St. Paul Art Center, Walker Art Center and eventually the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. ==Death, Preservation, and Legacy==

Pitt died at her home in Taos, New Mexico, on June 16, 2019, following a private battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death was announced by her son and daughter-in-law on Instagram. She is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. The Harvard Film Archive maintains the Suzan Pitt Collection, which "consists of video material, 16mm and 35mm projection prints, work-prints, outtakes, original camera negatives and magnetic and optical tracks of her film work from the 1970s to the 1990s". Several of Pitt's films are available on the Criterion Channel. ==Filmography==

• Bowl, Garden, Theatre, Marble Game – 1970 (16mm, color, 7 min.) • Crocus – 1971 (16mm, color, 7 min.) • A City Trip – 1972 (16mm, color, 3 min.) • Cels – 1972 (16mm, color, 6 min.) • Whitney Commercial – 1973 (16mm, color, 3 min.) • Jefferson Circus Songs – 1973 (16mm, color, 16 min.) • Asparagus – 1979 (35mm, color, 18 min.) • Joy Street – 1995 (35mm, color, 24 min.) • El Doctor – 2006 (35mm, color, 23 min.) • Visitation – 2011 (digital (from 16mm), b/w, 8 min 50 seconds.) • Pinball – 2013 (digital, color, 7 min.) ==References==