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SUSAN SCHARY Susan Schary makes it look easy... pastels and charcoal in hand, sketching some of the city's most famous courtroom characters. Employed for the last seven years by most of the local television stations and CNN, her work distinguishes itself because of its vibrancy, color and three-dimensional quality. But if it seems the drawing process comes easily to Schary, sometimes, she says, it is difficult for her to detach from the emotional part of her work. "During my first trial, my heart started jumping. I was having an anxiety attack. It took quite a few minutes to pull myself together and realize I was reacting to what I was hearing. And for a brief moment, I thought I would be too sensitive to last at this work. But it was something I really wanted to do and I did it and now I'm very good at it." It is the same sensitivity that works to her advantage as Schary vividly brings to life the likes of Ramona Africa, John duPont and Arthur Bomar. "A sketch can take anywhere from five minutes to an hour, explained the woman who also played the role of courtroom artist in the Jonathan Demme film, "Philadelphia". "If a man is sitting on the witness stand for an hour, I'll have time to do him and the prosecutor and some of the other lawyers and the courtroom. At one trial, a girl came in for one second next to the defendant. I had to do that drawing from memory and all of the local papers picked up that drawing. My mind is like a camera. I have to shoot it in my mind and then remember it." And sometimes an imaginative reporter will ask Schary to recreate something that is not happening in the courtroom. "There was a reporter at FOX who would come up with these ideas like a reenactment of the murder scene with the blood and gore and all. When a man was executed in Delaware, he wanted the execution. Of course, I couldn't be there so I had to do research and then listen to the actual account and subtract a strap here and there." Schary says she works in pastels because "They are so three dimensional. You can flesh out an image. Most courtroom artists don't want to bother to do that. I take on a little more of a challenge." I ask her if it would be easier on her emotions if she tuned out what was happening and just concentrated on the drawing. "The drawing almost becomes automatic and I love the legal process. I can anticipate the questions and the answers. Of course there are negatives and positives with everything but there are so many more positives." Because of their exceptional quality, Schary's sketches not only appear in newspapers and on TV, they have been purchased by attorneys, families of victims, even members of "the family" (Schary says she loves drawing the Mafia trials. She says that you hear everything that you do in the movies.) And some of her favorite drawings are those done during the Ramona Africa vs. Philadelphia case. She has also donated many of her pieces to the families of police officers and has painted oil portraits of the children who were lost in the Oklahoma bombings. Many judges and dignitaries commission Schary to paint their portraits. A few years ago, Temple's Tyler Gallery honored her with a one woman 35 year retrospective exhibition. Painting oil portraits is what Schary does when she's not working in court, what she has been doing most of her life. Born in Chestnut Hill Hospital, Schary lived in Mount Airy for 30 years before she moved to California in 1967, then to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and then back to Mount Airy again. While in California she designed ceramic figurines. She also did commercial painting, copying one of her original designs maybe five or six times. "I have always been extremely fortunate to be able to make a living making art", explained the woman whose comfortable, Victorian-appointed home overflows with the lushly painted, haunting images of people who almost come to life before your eyes. She says they are friends, some are her children, one is Al Pacino. "I was always able to be home with my children" (Schary has two daughters, and although married three times, she has considered herself a single parent). A Temple (Tyler School of Fine Arts) graduate and originally a drama major, Schary had aspirations of being an actress and an opera singer but painting won out because she says it was what drives her and what has continued to do so during her lifetime. The subjects of many of Schary's nostalgic paintings are the magnificent dolls that she has been collecting most of her life. Her living room is crammed with collectibles, porcelain figures, and Chinese vases. But more than a favorite possession is Fantasia, a scarlet macaw that has been closer than family for more than 30 years. She says, "animals add great joy and great drama to her life". She speaks fondly of the pets she has had (at least four or five cats and dogs at a time.) She calls herself a rescuer. And when she talks about her lovely daughters and adorable grandchildren, her eyes sparkle and that warmth and sensitivity shines like the faces in her paintings. The passion in her work is a reflection of the passion she has for life.
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