Susan M Mania
Place Study 2/5/25 8:58am, 2025
Oil on panel in a floater frame
13 x 10"

Artist Statement
Part of the series Place Study, each painting is anchored to a specific moment, marked by the date and time of observation. Together, the works attend to the winter tree line, where light and shadow drift across a landscape once dense with ash, now hollowed by the Emerald Ash Borer. A restrained palette underscores what remains and what has vanished, allowing absence itself to become a quiet presence.
These paintings dwell in a space of stillness shaped by change, where ecological loss registers as both visual and emotional residue.

Working seasonally through a place study methodology allows me to observe changes in environmental impacts from year to year. From the many natural elements that arise in my work, flora, seeds, soil patterns, or fallen trees, aspects are re-mixed, bringing a new interpretation through layered composition and a diverse color palette. While striving to connect with the 'spirit of place', my work is not a direct rendering but a reflection of the interplay between plant life, geography, atmosphere, and color, all in service of listening to and conveying a story of the environment, as an intuitive exercise that speaks to our relationship with the land we call home.

Artist Bio
Susan Mania is an American contemporary artist. Her paintings and works on paper explore observations of the landscape and its changing dynamics in soft dimensional color and a flexible re-working of organic elements.
Mania attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City (AAS) where she was exposed to the world of fiber as a medium for fine art. Her study of botanical pigment extractions helps her form a connection with nature, creating paints, inks, and collage materials. Following FIT, she attended the College of New Jersey (BFA) and Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences (MA Program Design).

Mania has exhibited throughout the United States and served on the faculty of several schools, including the College of New Jersey, the Waldorf School of Princeton, and the Princeton Junior School. She is currently a founding member of the Steamroller Group Artist Collective, connecting and exhibiting with artists in the Delaware River region.
She lives and works on the banks of the Lockatong Creek preserve in Stockton, New Jersey.

susanmania.com

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