Susan here- artist extraordinaire and painter of portraits. I have been painting seriously for a handful of years, and not-so-seriously for the duration of my life. Self taught, but I put the time in. 10,000 hours, right? Malcolm Gladwell reference, never mind. Anyway, I paint every day for hours and that's how I like it. I am a student, but not for art- I've always hated being told what to do I guess. I like convention even less. Feeling free is key for me, probably why I gravitate towards strange souls and value my alone time very highly.

I grew up in an artistic household with an art room, and as a result was able to do lots of experimenting at a young age. I was always drawing as a kid, charcoal portraits of family members or people in magazines, detailed drawings of Barbra Streisand happened, I was not picky. I always loved painting though, I'd make these large abstract paintings with any medium that happened to be around, layers and layers of glue and glazes and acrylic, marker even. Somewhere along the line I decided to try to combine the detailed people that were so challenging and effective for viewers with the free-wheeling fun of the abstracts. The portraits I make now are a result of that pairing, and they satisfy me on many levels when I'm working on them.

As for outside interests, well, I mostly just paint. I try to see friends with some regularity, but with school and never-ending painting ideas there isn't room for much else at this point. It's a full, satisfying life. I just have my priorities worked out you could say, and being a competitive person by nature I only really like doing activities that I'm good at. That means painting, of course, and bocce ball. Love the bocce ball.