About me.
As an artist, I make art to share my felt experience and reverence for nature. I think of it as my campaign to rekindling our lost connection with the natural world. I research the connection between man and nature found in art and history from cave paintings to Renaissance altarpieces. Plants and the places they exist are central themes in my work.
As a gardener, I experience the healing power of plants every time I dig in the garden or take a walk outdoors. Humans are hardwired to be in nature. Neuroscience and ethnobotany both confirm nature’s beneficial impact on our well-being from ordinary activities like a hike to simply looking at the colors found in nature.
Plants are integral to our well-being and to that of planet Earth’s.
C.V.
Profile: Susan Malfa lives, paints and gardens in Amagansett, New York. Born in Queens, NY, Susan enjoyed a career in media sales management. She holds a B.A. in Art, a Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Strategy and continues art study at NYC Crit Club, The Canopy Program 2.0. Susan’s art practice focuses on the natural world; plants, people and the planet. She participates in group shows and recently had a solo show. Susan is an advisory board member for CSA Quail Hill Farm and a literacy advocate tutoring reading to lower school students at Read 718 non-profit.
Education:
2023, 24, 25, 26 NYC Crit Club The Canopy Programs, Victoria Roth, Delphine Hennelly, Catherine Haggerty
2024, 25 NYC Crit Club Advanced Painting,Judy Glantzman
2021, ‘22,’23, ‘24 Victor D’Amico Institute of Art, Michael Rosch, Jennifer Cross
2020, 2021 NY Botanic Gardens, Horticulture Therapy
2020 Selby Gardens Art, Deborah Ross,
2019 Golden Eagle Art, Janet Jennings,
2017, 2016 Brooklyn Botanic Garden Art; YMCA 86th Street, Allison Maletz,
2012 NYU, School of Professional Studies Graduate Certificate, Leadership and Strategy
1977 Queens College, BA Art
Solo Show
October 2025. The Center at Maple Grove, Kew Gardens, NY
Group Shows
May 2025 Springs Improvement Society Group Show, East Hampton, NY
September 2024 The Barge at Ashawagh, East Hampton, NY
January 2024 Soft Edge, NYC Crit Club, Chelsea, NY
October 2023 Guild Hall Member Show, East Hampton, NY
September 2023 Superfine Art Fair with Chashama, New York, NY
September 2023 Back at Ashawagh, East Hampton, NY
September 2023 SYNT x The Front Gallery, New York, NY
March 2023 Pelican Cove 2023 Art Show, Sarasota, Florida
September 2022 Superfine Art Fair with Chashama, New York, NY
April 2022. The Elements, Juried Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, Red Hook, NY
June 2021 Neoteric Abstract IV, Juried Show, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
Fall 2020, Spring 2021 BWAC Group Member Show, Brooklyn, NY
July 2020, 2021 Clothesline Art Show, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY
Spring 2020 Art from the Inside, BWAC Virtual Show
January 2020 Visions of Nature, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, NY
July 2000 Art Barge Artists, Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, NY
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an artist and gardener. Born in Queens, living in Amagansett, NY, I am third generation of Italian and Polish immigrants who valued their tiny, urban garden plots of flowers and vegetables. Those gardens and plants built memories and established my relationship to the natural world; the color and scent of dianthus in grandma’s garden, tomatoes planted in sauce cans in grandpa’s yard, my mom’s cherished yellow rose. I dig dirt. Being in nature is my self-care. I need the outdoors. We all do. Nature is my place of worship.
My felt experiences are channeled into my artwork that honors the beauty and awe of my garden, a garden, a place or a plant I have deeply examined. A landscape painting is a devotion to nature. Unexpected views of plants, flowers, insects are presented oversized or tightly cropped when I am enthralled with a plant detail or its importance in the ecosystem. A 6-foot high figurative dandelion painting calls out the plant's beauty and essential role for pollinators. A zoomed in view of a verbena or rose flower is color-rich, rhythmic and abstract. Paintings are born from an idea or I let color shapes lead the painting into being.
Plant research and plant symbolism in art and history fuel themes in my paintings of reimagined plants and landscapes. A thistle plant symbolizes resilience, is Scotland’s emblem yet, some consider it a weed but it is food for birds and bugs. Symbolically, irises say wisdom. Bees are messengers of the gods. Dianthus is love. Mother Nature is Gaia or Terra Mater. Scientists, ethnobotanists and indigenous people validate the physical, mental, medicinal benefits of plants. My series of hands with plants delivers on the fact that we humans are neurological wired to be one with nature.
Tools I use are oils, acrylics, gouache, pastels and pencils. Canvas, fabric, paper or wood are the painting surfaces. Brushes and paint type affect how my hand delivers intuited shapes and marks that flick or move at different speeds creating a visual journey through the composition. Color layers build depth and saturation. A large wood triptych is painted with physicality and bold marks. A painting on fabric feels free and ethereal. Paint blurs on burlap and the image is abstracted.
I offer my work as a moment to consider the vital role of plants, celebrate their beauty, awe and purpose in our intertwined ecosystem. Future subjects in my work will be disrupted by the impact of drought, chemical pollutants, pollinator loss, animal species decline and food crop loss. My memories of plants, places they exist and family gardens will remain.