One of Susan’s earliest important memories she acquired while camping. While lying in her sleeping bag looking up between the trees, she suddenly remembers feeling like she was falling through the sky. It was hard to tell if she were looking up or looking down. This was her first experience of visual transcendence. “It wasn’t until many years later that this experience made sense to me.” While on a trip to Europe after college, she once again had a deep experience while viewing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. “I remember that just after viewing the painting for about 30 seconds I had this experience of oneness where I became a drop of water plopping myself into a lake from very high place. I was one with everything, and then in a split second I was back viewing the Mona Lisa. I sat back on my heels and thought, ‘Oh, that must be why they call it the girl with the mystic smile.’ I have thought about that moment many times over the years. It taught me the power of art and spirit.”

After that experience Susan decided to study art and earned an AA in graphic arts. She worked for fifteen years designing promotional marketing materials. She later studied and received an MA in Theology and Art and became a humanities instructor. After nine years teaching, she decided to become a full-time artist and writer. She finished off her AA with a BFA in Art. “I have loved all my various experiences from designing brochures, to teaching comparative religions. My history and interests continue to feed and contribute to my artistic growth. I realize now, that spirituality  combined with art is where I feel the most alive.”

She works as a painter, writer, and teacher in Scotts Valley, California. Her subjects and vision involve theology, feminism, the natural world, myth and symbolism. Susan has a special affinity for the study of the Divine Feminine, which she reflects in her writings and her art.