West Milford artist blends technology, nature in innovative animated paintings

Sue Siva takes her inspiration from nature and adds her personal philosophy to make her paintings come to life, virtually. She is not only a painter, but a technologist and she uses her skills to make her works of art move as if they came to life and will walk off the canvas, adding an unexpected experience to viewing art.

Her path to becoming the artist she is today is unexpected. She was born in Sri Lanka to professional parents. Her father was a preeminent engineer and her mother, a university chemistry professor. Early in the Sri Lanka civil war the family found themselves caught amid the conflict. The Sinhalese people performed atrocities against the Tamil people, which Siva’s family was a part of. This resulted in the Sinhalese burning Tamil homes, including Siva’s home. The family was home at the time and escaped the conflagration because her father’s Sinhalese friend rescued them. The family spent six months confined to a six-foot-by-six-foot area in a refugee camp under deplorable conditions.

In 1984 the family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. Siva’s parents would have had to requalify to practice their careers, which they could not do as they needed immediate incomes. Her father became a security guard and her mother, a secretary. Siva’s father never came to terms with the reversal of fortune, but her mother was more flexible. They lived the only place they could afford...a basement apartment they shared with rats.

One would understand if the trauma of her childhood negatively affected her outlook on life, but opposite is true. She is a very positive, supportive and optimistic person. She outlined the lessons learned from her early experiences:

Don’t take anything for granted.

Life may be bleak at the moment, but hope will get you through.

Look at life as an adventure.

Always have a vision and a goal to do better. Pay it forward.

Siva has two loves: technology and art. At seven, she won her first international art contest. However, her mother influenced her to take a technical career path. Siva graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in electrical engineering. She got a position with Dialogic in Parsippany, which was purchased by Intel. She was the manager of global technical sales and a high-performance coach. But her soul required artistic expression and in 2024, she quit to pursue her goal of creating art with a purpose.

Her paintings meld her artistic talent with her skills as a technologist and her love of nature and animals. For example, in “Flaming Peacock” the peacock displays its colorful feathers which gently sway as it moves in 3D. In the painting’s theme, Siva ponders the question “What if peacocks had flaming feathers so intruders cannot pluck their feathers?” Her animated painting “Foster” starts as a video of a dog that then morphs into a caricature. Her animated 3D art and her virtual art studio can be seen via SueArtStudios.com or by searching for Sue Siva Art on YouTube.

For each painting she sells, she donates 20% to 25% to national and local charities such as The Last Resort and Safe House animal rescues. Having been a coach at Intel, she continues to coach, but now she coaches artists instead of business professionals.

Siva lives in West Milford with her husband of 23 years and their pets.