Susan’s painting journey began in Seattle, WA in 2010, after many successful years as a freelance illustrator. With clients including IBM, Simon & Schuster, Time Life Books, and the Miami Herald, this career was lucrative. But when her desire to make more personal work deepened, she began to carve out creative time in the studio. Her practice evolved into a steady connection to the work she was making. What she discovered in this practice was a world of magic and metaphor in a process that informs her life. Susan returned to her hometown in PA in 2014, after 20 years in the Pacific NW. She paints in her studio in Southern Chester County, and coaches thousands of artists in an online art program through Art2life, founded by Bay area painter, Nicholas Wilton. Artist Statement: My work is inspired by my experiences; the landscapes, structures and people around me everyday...and the dreams that come at night. Sometimes it’s the graceful lines of a fresh- picked bouquet, the hard edges of an aging barn, or the visitation of a magical creature from my subconscious. But once the paint is poured, the inspiration becomes a distant memory. There is a new and complicated problem to be negotiated and decisions to be made. What combination of color and value will hit the right note? What will stay and what will go? Taking risks, experimenting, and playing is a part of the painting process that thrills me. This is where I discover surprises and unexpected imagery. This the stuff of dreams, metaphor, magic. It unfolds when I am courageous and let the painting tell me what it wants.