San Marcos artist preps for her latest solo exhibition — at age 104

The pandemic was difficult for everyone, particularly for seniors who spent most of the past 16 months in complete lockdown to protect their health. But for 104-year-old artist Sue Whitman, the extended quarantine was, in some ways, a revelation.

Whitman spent every day of the pandemic alone in her San Marcos apartment painting, drawing and making collages and mixed-media assemblages. Some of the artwork she created since March 2020 will be featured next month in a solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla.

“I had just moved in last year when things locked down and I decided to make a choice. I have nothing but time, and I can fritter it away or I can do something positive,” she said. “People can be patronizing about age, but for me there’s no retirement age for creativity. Every year, my work is getting better and better.”

Artist Sue Whitman, 104, talks about her artwork, which includes the fiber art on the wall behind her, at her San Marcos apartment on July 20.

(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Whitman’s collage exhibit in the Athenaeum Rotunda from Aug. 14 to Sept. 11 will be titled “Gallery 336.” It’s named after her apartment number at a San Marcos retirement community. Erika Torri, director of the Athenaeum for the past 32 years, described Whitman’s recent work as “beautiful,” and she said Whitman is an inspiration for living life to the fullest.

“I wish she could live another 100 years,” Torri said of Whitman, who she has known since 1989. “She enjoys life and has always been so smart about everything.”

Born June 6, 1917, in Cleveland, Whitman said she remembers a grade-school teacher noticing her art skills and her parents encouraged her talent. As a girl, she enjoyed regularly visiting the Cleveland Art Museum, and when she was 11, she visited the Louvre Museum on a visit to Paris with her family. In her early 20s, she moved to New York City to attend the school now known as Parsons School of Design and the Clarence White School of Photography.

But when she met and married writer Howard Whitman in 1938, she put her art career on hold to focus on her husband and on raising their two children, Ken Whitman of Austin, Texas, and Connie (Whitman) Baher of Carlsbad. During those years, when her husband’s career took them from New York to Connecticut, the Bahamas and Florida, Whitman said she never regretted being her husband’s right-hand woman.

“I was an integral part of the team. I typed up all his manuscripts and got him into travel writing. We led a very exciting life,” she said.

While her husband’s career was higher in profile — he wrote for The New York Times, Town & Country magazine and NBC Television, among others — Whitman never stopped making art, learning new techniques and always working with new materials, including abstract sculpture, Japanese fish printing, greeting cards, gouache, fiber art wall hangings, watercolors, ink and chalk art, acrylic painting and more. She also had solo exhibits at galleries in New York; Westport, Conn.; the Bahamas; and West Palm Beach, Fla.

Artist Sue Whitman, 104, demonstrates how she lays out a collage from scraps of paper at her home on July 20 in San Marcos.

(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

After her husband died in 1975, Whitman decided to find a job to stay active. Despite a lack of training in public relations, she talked her way into a position as PR director at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. She stayed for eight years. Then in 1987, she moved to La Jolla to be closer to her daughter, Connie. One of the first places she visited in La Jolla was the Athenaeum, where she went to look at some art archives and found an instant friend in Torri.

“She walked in wearing this big black hat and asked where the art index was and I thought, ‘that’s somebody you need to know,’” Torri said. “We’ve always been very close, and I’ve learned so much from her. Wherever I went, I took her with me because she wanted to be out there. She remembers everyone she’s ever met, and we have the same taste. It’s been bliss.”

Over the past three decades, Whitman has been an active volunteer at the Athenaeum, including serving on the board, helping with fundraising and hiring, and writing volunteer profiles for the newsletter. Her artwork has also been featured in Athenaeum shows, including a current group exhibit called “Marking Time: What Athenaeum Artists Created in Quarantine.”

Torri said Whitman is fearless when it comes to thinking big. When the Athenaeum was planning events to mark its 100th anniversary in 2000, Whitman decided she wanted to bring Philippe de Montebello — who led the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1977 to 2008 — out for a speech. Torri thought it would be impossible to get someone of his stature to travel here, but thanks to Whitman’s tireless efforts, he came.

“She’s persistent,” Torri said. “She gets it done.”

Whitman is a prolific artist, though she calls the source of her inspiration “a mystery.” On the rare occasion that artist’s block has occurred, she has learned to push through it.

“I love the line that life is a quest of opening up new doors,” Whitman said. “People will sometimes fail because they’re afraid to open new doors, but I’m never afraid.”

Besides Whitman’s upcoming Athenaeum exhibit, her work has recently been compiled on a Pinterest page at pinterest.com/suewhitmanart.