Bio
I am a painter and percussionist living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I hold an MFA in Painting from San Francisco State University and a BFA in Drawing and Painting from UC Berkeley. I taught Drawing and Painting, Watercolor and Design at The College of San Mateo from 2006-2023. My work has been exhibited throughout the greater Bay Area, in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Alaska, Cuba, Ghana, and Senegal. Galerie Yassine Arts
Artist’s Statement
My work over several decades focused on my experiences studying music and folklore in Cuba. In 2006 I joined an artist’s collaborative research project out of the University of Alaska Anchorage called Secrets Under the Skin. For over ten years I was one of a group of artists and scholars who researched the connections between two rural towns in Cuba and two traditional villages in Ghana/Togo, linked by the transatlantic slave trade. Through our various artistic media we responded to sacred spaces, ceremonies and personal connections with spiritual practitioners on both continents. The University of Florida Press will release a book about the project in May 2021. I contributed a chapter and many photographs and paintings. Please see the link: Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance
My most recent work combines memories of my life and travels with current climate events and politics. I am trying to simulate a world view as it might be experienced in a daydream or a poem. Instead of making overt political statements I prefer to paint images that can be interpreted in various ways. Rather than making political art, my point of view is expressed in the subject matter I choose. For example, I have traveled to Cuba 22 times during the embargo, and created a huge body of work about a culture and people mostly oblique to Americans. I believe that every brush stroke contains one’s life history, and even positive images can contain elements of sobriety and pain. But my overwhelming desire is to depict joy and triumph.
Please see an article about my work written by Mary Corbin for Oakland Magazine, 2019: Susan Matthews Goes Large for More Impact
Please see a link to the paintings I have done for Carolyn Brandy’s Born to Drum Women’s Drum Camp: Women Drummers International
Please see a link to a review of my work and that of others at SOMARTS Cultural Center, SF Chronicle Online, Nov. 17, 2017: Día de los Muertos Altars Honor Victims of the Ghost Ship Fire