Susan Zwirn's Artistic Journey from Teaching to Painting

Susan Zwirn, a professor emerita of Art Education at Hofstra University in New York, discusses her painting practice and career. Her passion for art was ignited by immigrant relatives from Eastern Europe, particularly her grandfather Morris and uncle Moshe. Despite initially pursuing history teaching, she reinvented herself in her mid-twenties and attended art school. She later became a professor at Hofstra, where teaching enhanced her studio practice. Her artistic influences range from prehistoric art to Fauvism, Cézanne, Turner, Matisse, Diebenkorn, Morisot, and Basquiat. She works in acrylic, starting with outdoor sketches and building layered underpaintings. Her works have been exhibited in galleries, museums, and collections in the U.S. and abroad, and she has received artistic awards. She remains a relentless critic of her own work, driven by curiosity and the sensuous qualities of paint.