When Susan K. Getty was studying in Messiah College’s studio art program at age 44, younger students would ask if she was sad about wasting all those years before pursuing her passion.
Her answer: “No.”
“I wasn’t ready for this then,” she said. “Now, I was loving it. It was great.”
Getty is Homeland’s Community Exhibit artist for early 2026. The Community Exhibit is the Art Association of Harrisburg’s rotating display of works by local artists, chosen for their fit with the setting and meant to delight Homeland’s residents, staff, and visitors with beautiful scenes and images.
For her wintertime exhibit at the Homeland Center, Getty chose a unified theme of bright florals practically popping off the canvases.
“There’s nothing like florals to cheer us and remind us that spring will come,” she said. “There is color in the world, and things are living, even though things are dormant right now.”
As a professional artist, Getty is inspired by nature, including the woods around her home in Dillsburg.
“I love the shapes, contrasts, and contours,” she said. “Being able to zoom in and pay attention. I might look at a field of flowers, which is lovely, but I like zooming in and really treasuring the individual plant.”
And, she adds, there is her “inability to draw straight lines. Nature is much more forgiving. There’s no bad tree shape.”
Getty always liked making things. In school, she and her friends would draw out stories, and would pass notes about what they were going to reenact at recess.
In college, she earned almost enough credits for an art minor. Fast forward 15 years, and she was married with two sons, incorporating art into their homeschooling. When the boys entered public elementary school, Getty decided to finish her art degree – one class per semester for seven years.
“It was such a joy,” she said. “It was a beautiful, beautiful experience. I thought, ‘This is my heart.’”
Through her “wonderful professors” and field trips to New York City, her art found its fullness. Just before the COVID pandemic, she joined the Carlisle Art Association for the opportunity to show her work.
“If you don’t share your work, it feels like it sits in a closet, and it’s not generative,” she said. “The more I get feedback and interaction with people who read my work or see it, it propels me forward.”
She tries to push her boundaries, sometimes taking classes in new media. A watercolor portrait class challenged her to get the details right, because portrait work is very personal. The key to portraiture success is careful observation, she said.
“I’ve stared at people since I was a little kid,” she said. “I look directly into people’s faces when I talk to them.”
Getty’s portfolio includes ethereal acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels, mixed media, figurative works, and commissions, including pets (www.susankgetty.com). She shows her work at area venues, such as the Art Association of Harrisburg, the Smith Gallery & Fine Custom Framing in New Cumberland, and the Carlisle Arts Learning Center, which has placed her work in various locations.
She was excited to hang her work at Homeland because a friend and collector lives here. When he moved to Homeland, he downsized his collection but kept one of her paintings, which was “high praise.”
“This was a way for me to share my work with him again, because when he goes through the halls, he’ll be able to see it,” she said.
The people of Homeland “are so wonderful,” Getty said. As she was hanging her exhibit, a staffer stopped, enchanted by a large white flower.
“This is my favorite,” she told Getty. “This is the one I’m going to be looking at the whole three months that it’s here.’”
Getty hopes that her work continues to enchant the Homeland community.
“If there’s something I can offer into the world to bring at least a little relief, a little breathing space, that’s worthwhile,” she said.
She is grateful to Homeland for its partnership with the Art Association of Harrisburg to provide a place for artists to show their work.
“It takes extra work for Homeland, not just going to a chain store to buy art that’s going to hang there all the time, but to work with the Art Association to have this ongoing chance for people to see art – it’s really wonderful.”
Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.
