Susie Warren O'Shaughnessy - Photographer

Crows’ Calling Original Photography
by Susie O’Shaughnessy Warren
(Please email Susie if you would like prints or enlargements of her photos.)

I started taking pictures about three years ago. The lovely bleeding heart picture that my sister Annie used in her logo for Letters from an Open Heart is one of the first pictures that I took that just took my breath away. When I looked at it, I felt a sensation that was almost painful. It was that feeling that I could almost cry because it was so beautiful and so perfect. I captured the feeling that I get when I’m really quiet in the garden or the woods and feel as though I am witnessing heaven.

It is a coincidence that the image was a ‘bleeding heart’. It was spring at last and I was emerging from a deep depression. Near Christmas time, my daughter had tried to kill herself at the age of 17. That event was the spark that started a fire in my heart. My life was filled with other combustible ‘debris’ that had accumulated in my almost 50 years on this planet. The depression and months in therapy burnt out a new life for me.

Through that long, painful winter I was supported and nurtured by family, friends, strangers and the Crows. There are several large rookeries near my house which is located in a Wetland area. Every day I would hear the crows cawing/calling. They were everywhere cawing/calling. I heard them say that I needed to die to everything, to all of my old attachments, pains, trips, hang-ups. In each moment that I heard them talk to me, I would just acknowledge the passing of my life as I knew it. That was harder on some days than others because on most days, I didn’t know anything anymore. So I named my business, Crows’ Calling to thank the crows and to remind myself to continue to ‘die’ a little everyday. That is, to just let go of the old. As one of my favorite doctors, Dr. Mei, said, “Susan, you must empty teacup. If teacup always full, there no room for new.”

That summer, I studied The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron with a group of women. Her work really helped me see my creative works as the divine manifest in my life. So, I nurture my ‘artist self’ all the time. I have learned to edit my work based on heart rather than head feeling. As soon as I start to make this passion into another item on my ‘to do list’ I stop myself dead in my tracks. This expression is such a source of joy and life that I am fierce in protecting it.

Most of my images are of plants and flowers. I try to get close with my camera and with my heart to the plants. Right then and there I witness creation. I witness perfection in the detail and symmetry of nature. I took it as a great compliment when, this summer a young mentally challenged woman saw me taking pictures and she said, “You look lost.” When I take pictures, I am drawn into the moment in a pure way. So, I really didn’t know where I was going. What a lovely shift for me. I’ve always been such a goal driven kind of person, filled with words and thoughts.

In my ‘other’ life, I am the mother of a 17 year old boy with long blue hair and a heart of gold. My 20 year old daughter takes the road less traveled, adorned with her carefully chosen tattoos. My husband of 23 years is a fellow pilgrim on this plain and is a gifted Old Time fiddler. I have been an Occupational Therapist for 27 years. I manage a rehab department in a small hospital and rehab center. I am privileged to work with the patients that I do. I witness much loss, suffering and death side by side with courage, persistence, grace and humor.

I am the second oldest of 7 wonderful, creative children. My Mom and Dad led us with an example of ‘just give it a try’. There was never an expectation to be perfect; just to get out there and use our “God given” gifts. I am proud of Annie’s work here and am honored to have my work shown on Soul Flares.

Susie O’Shaughnessy Warren

Soul Flares offers an assortment of Susie's photos on note cards or you can create a custom note card set. Click on the image below.