For nine long months, Suzanne Ócsai twisted and bent wire for an art project that stained her hands black and sliced her skin. “My thumbs hurt for about two months after I finished,” she recalls. “I was getting cuts and pokes from the wire, I was bleeding. I was very grateful I had a tetanus shot that was up to date.” 

An assistant professor of art and design at Union Adventist University, Ócsai comes from an artistic family in the boondocks of Tennessee. “I always knew I wanted to be an artist from the time I was 3 years old.” That resolve led her to study graphic design at Southern Adventist University, to an Master of Fine Arts degree at Queens University of Charlotte, and to a career as a writer, designer, marketer and artist. It eventually brought her to Union where she has shared her passion and expertise in the arts with students since 2022. 

The bandaged fingers began with a desire to claim and explore her Hungarian heritage. In November of 2024, Ócsai pitched to the Hungarian American Foundation (AHF) the concept of a wire sculpture project. Titled “From Folk to Form: Hagyományból Alak,” it would depict Hungarian motifs traditionally seen in embroidery, but as wire sculptures. Impressed, the director offered museum space to present her work. The next challenge was that the sculptures didn’t exist yet. Ócsai didn’t even have travel money to get to the East Coast.

“I knew that getting this show was going to be very important to me, both personally and professionally, and so I was willing to self-fund it.” But that proved unnecessary. Union awarded her a summer research grant to fund materials and travel. With financial pressure alleviated, she began her work in January of this year.

“I already knew I wanted to do a body of wire sculpture … I was nervous. I had never worked with wire at that scale before.” Ócsai had a lot to learn. She dove deep into Hungarian traditions  while also learning more than she ever thought possible about types of wire and the properties of different metals. “I didn’t realize how physically and mentally taxing the process was going to be,” she said.

As the exhibit time grew closer, doubts seeped into her mind. “It was hard for me to gauge whether what I was doing was good. And it wasn’t until it was all done that I was able to stand back and see that they didn’t look terrible … All along the way, I saw my community show up. Both my Hungarian community and my Union community.” 

Finally in September of 2025, she loaded up a Kia Carnival minivan with carefully crafted wire sculptures, and drove her work to Brunswick, New Jersey, located in the shadow of NYC. In nine months, Ócsai had built 28 sculptures to present in the AHF museum. 

“Creating this body of work felt like getting to explore a version of home that I didn’t get to grow up in, but I still feel a sense of belonging in … A lot of doors opened, and it was interesting seeing how God worked throughout this to help me get it done.” 

She wants to pass what she learned from this experience on to her students. She tells them, “Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want, but be prepared to work. The opportunities are there … It will be taxing. You will go through hardships, you will probably cry alone at night, but in the end it is so rewarding.”

Ócsai’s show opened on Sept. 10, 2025 and will continue to be displayed at the Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation in Brunswick, New Jersey, until June 10, 2026. 

by Seth Coe, a sophomore writing studies major from Canon City, Colorado