SUZY FOLEY

HelFoley@aol.com

Pure unabashed wanderlust is what I had after graduation. I blame it on my Dad’s subscription to National Geographic. So in 1972, after a year at Clark College, then the University of Washington I traveled throughout Europe, the Middle East, the British Isles, and Morocco with Marla Morrow (Fagerness) and our 60 lb. backpacks. I returned a year later with an education like no other (especially in the Middle East and war torn Northern Ireland). I traveled Ireland alone arriving in Belfast just minutes after the IRA blew up the train station. It’s one of those times you think to yourself, “Hmm…maybe coming here wasn’t such a good ideal after all…”

I married, lived for a time on Maui, divorced and returned to school taking night classes at the Pacific Northwest School of Art. In 1980 I settled in the seaside town of Del Mar, near San Diego, and began participating in local triathlons and marathons (a personal milestone after all those foot surgeries – I had even more foot surgeries after high school). I obtained a real estate license while working as a freelance graphic designer and as guardian of three wonderful children that I still love as my own. Along with standing barefoot in warm plowed dirt on the Foley Farm, being with those children was as good as it gets.

I studied telecommunications and eventually became a field producer, writing and directing segments for TV. An on-camera reporting opportunity took me to Houston, but a better opportunity led me to Los Angeles in 1983 to field produce for the nationally syndicated show “Breakaway.” The highlight of this experience was directing Cary Grant and Gregory Peck in a segment about art and child abuse.

In LA, I ran into David Helfand, an old friend from San Diego who was just starting his career in television. We’ve been together ever since. I left television to work at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and pursue my art, creating large welded steel abstractions about the loss of native culture in the Pacific Northwest. One of my sculptures, dedicated to the Kwakiutl tribe, is located in the Sculpture Garden of Santa Monica College as part of the permanent collection.

I taught welding at Barnsdall Art Center and art classes at an institute for the deaf. In 1991, I curated an exhibit at the Municipal Art Gallery about the effect of AIDS on artists. That spring I received my degree in Deaf Studies from Cal State and began creating new museum programs for the deaf.

Then in October of 1991, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and spent the next year in radiation and chemotherapy. I was blessed to grow up with a sweet and loving father who, even through the haze of Alzheimer’s, reminded me to “handle what you can handle and let the rest fall away.” I also learned the value of a good sense of humor and never giving up hope. When I woke up in intensive care after an overdose of my third chemo treatment, I decided to get a dog. I figured if I was going to die, I was going to die with a dog. (Actually, I wanted some pigs and chickens too, but my husband is a reasonable man).

Participating in fundraising events such as Race for the Cure and The Revlon Run for Breast and Ovarian Cancer became part of my life. Usually, I’d stand on stage and do the sign language interpretation (a few times I even managed to run the race to boot ;-) boy, those marathon days are long gone). Having lost so many of our friends to AIDS, my husband and I also became very involved with AIDS organizations, delivering meals to people with AIDS through Project Angel Food.

Fighting for the rights of the disabled has been an on-going passion. I am proud to have created the first Special Audiences Program for museum education within the LA Cultural Affairs Dept. Over the years I’ve taught art to multi-disabled deaf students and received several grants to improve arts access and museum outreach for persons with disabilities.

In 1998, after thirteen years with Cultural Affairs, I retired as Director of Museum Education. Now I divide my time between the Foley Farm and our home in an area near Pasadena called, of all things, Mount Washington. David continues to work in television, more recently as an editor and producer on “Friends” and other shows. Three years ago we returned with my husband’s father to Auschwitz, one of six concentration camps he survived. We are in the process of making a full-length documentary about this experience. (A short version won Emmy awards for best writing and editing).

Through the years I’ve learned the importance of not only being a mentor, but also having a mentor. One of my favorites is humorist, Dave Barry.

Things that took me 50 years to learn by Dave Barry: