Susan is pleased to report that Endless Glow II is going to a new home and ARTFORWATER raised $1.2 million for Waterkeeper Alliance!!! Congratulations to one and all!
Here’s a glimpse of the commitment to clean water and fun shared on March 5 at the auction.
Here’s an opportunity to own Endless Glow II, a Susan Swartz Original Acrylic on Linen painting, while supporting Waterkeeper Alliance, the world’s largest and fastest growing clean water advocacy group. Susan, a longtime proponent of eliminating toxins from our rivers and oceans, is proud to join this amazing group of artists and activists in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.
Hosted by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Jeff Koons, the ARTFORWATER live auction will include a special performance by Deborah Harry on Monday, March 5, 2012 at 6:30 pm at the Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, New York City.
Bidding has begun at the online auction and will close on Sunday, March 4 at noon.
Want to see Endless Glow II and bid in person? Contact Liz@livetreichard.com
Endless Glow II 20 x20
Susan has been working proactively on her health with Dr. Mark Hyman, a renowned physician and educator, who practices Functional Medicine, a whole-systems approach to health. In addition to Dr. Hyman’s earlier book, UltraPrevention, also a New York Times bestseller, Susan recommends The UltraMind™ Solution.
Dr. Hyman is part of a movement on the cutting edge of an entire shift in our scientific model of disease. This movement is called systems medicine or functional medicine. Explains Susan, “Dr. Hyman advocates a way of understanding the root causes of our illness and how our lifestyle and environment interact with our genes to create the imbalances or balances that are the real determinants of disease or health.”
She is looking forward to Dr. Hyman’s latest release The Blood Sugar Solution (available to the public in February 2012.)
To learn more about Functional Medicine and Dr. Hyman’s work, visit his website.
Susan recently completed an original commission for the new Zion’s Bank Financial Center in Provo, Utah. A longtime supporter of Susan’s work, Zion’s Bank dedicated the new eight-story building in May 2010, at which point the painting was revealed to the public.
'Steadfast Strength"
Titled “Steadfast Strength”, the large square canvas is a testament to the steadfast security that Zion’s Bank provides during turbulent times. The painting depicts a sheltered stand of native aspens, purposely extending beyond the frame to convey a feeling of strength and grounded power, while the use of cool colors create a sense of calm and harmony for bank workers and patrons alike.
Says Susan, “Since becoming ill from a contaminated environment, I have become ever more resolute in honoring and protecting the natural world in its pristine state. ‘The Steadfast Strength ’ is a manifestation of this passion.” Those interested in viewing the painting are encouraged to stop by the Zion’s Bank Financial Center at 196 North University Avenue in Provo’s downtown.
To learn more about mercury contamination, Susan highly recommends Diagnosis, Mercury: Money, Politics & Poison, by physician Jane M. Hightower. In the book, Dr. Hightower retraces her investigation into the modern prevalence of mercury poisoning, revealing how political calculations, dubious studies, and industry lobbyists endanger our health. While mercury is a naturally occurring element, she learns there’s much that is unnatural about this poison’s prevalence in our seafood.
Dr. Hightower’s tenacious inquiry sheds light on a system in which, too often, money trumps good science and responsible government. Susan suggests that Diagnosis: Mercury should be required reading for everyone who cares about their health.
Did you know that over 70% of the toxic mercury in our environment is the result of industrial activities and human pollution? Mercury accumulates in the atmosphere and makes its way up the marine food chain, ultimately leading to dangerously high concentrations of the metal in the species of fish favored by many humans, like tuna, swordfish and mackerel. In humans, mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that at elevated levels may lead to cancer, slow growth, brain, and kidney damage. After becoming critically ill with mercury poisoning a decade ago, Susan emerged determined to shed light on this environmental and human health catastrophe. Together with her husband, Jim, and their filmmaking partners, Susan executive produced the impactful film Mercury Rising.
As a companion piece to the Sundance hit and 2010 Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove, that tracked the secret butchering of dolphins in a rural Japanese beach community, The Cove: Mercury Rising is a short documentary that explores the dangers of mercury contamination as it affects society and the global environment. Included on The Cove DVD, Mercury Rising highlights interviews with environmental crusader, Robert Kennedy, Jr. and advocates for stronger regulations of mercury emissions.
Launched in tandem with the film is a mercury-level-calculator website, which allows people to check mercury exposure from fish on-line or from a cell phone based on their weight, fish type and serving size. The calculator is available at www.GotMercury.org and www.takepart.com/GotMercury
Following the success of Susan’s January 2010 solo exhibition at Utah’s oldest museum for the fine arts, the Springville Museum of Art, museum director, Vern Swanson, purchased one of the paintings for its permanent collection. “Amazing Grace” is a large piece—six feet by six feet—done in acrylic on linen. The painting depicts the crimson blaze of a maple forest, basking in the warm complacency of an autumn evening.
“Vern is such an authority in the art world—especially regarding Utah art,” says Susan. “Having a substantial work of mine selected by him to be preserved for posterity in the permanent collection is a huge honor.” Swanson holds a PhD in art history, has published several notable books on art and has acted as museum director since 1980.
“Amazing Grace” will be on display in the permanent collection of the Springville Museum of Art .
Susan Swartz creates vibrant landscape paintings from her studio in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. An official artist of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, she is well known to public and private collectors alike, and just wrapped a solo exhibition at the Springville Museum of Fine Arts in Utah.
There is an underlying energy and tension to Susan’s work that hints of her complex relationship with the natural environment. “Mankind’s carelessness with the natural world has had a very personal effect on me,” she explains. “It has nearly killed me two times.”
A decade ago, Susan was diagnosed with mercury poisoning, most likely from eating fish from contaminated waters. Six years later, she was struck with another environmentally bred illness: Lyme disease, probably contracted through an infected mosquito. “I came this close to dying,” Susan says. “My spiritual reverence for the natural world and my painting kept me going.”
Today, Susan still combats the effects of illness, but has found new purpose both in and out of the studio. She is an activist who works with renowned environmental crusaders, like Dr. Jane Goodall and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who writes that Susan “captures what is both sacred and divine in nature…in her work I find refuge and inspiration.” Susan serves on the board of the Harvard Divinity School and the Salt Lake Film Center, is a trustee of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and co-founded the charity-based The Christian Center in Park City.
Since becoming ill, Susan has also become deeply involved in the production of documentary films that seek to shed light on an injustice. Films touched by Susan include Academy Award nominees and winners, as well as Sundance Film Festival award winners.
Susan’s ordeals have also inspired a change in her artwork. “While my illnesses wreaked tremendous havoc on body and spirit, they also shook me out of my comfort level as an artist,” she says. “The art I am now creating is more impassioned, more profound, more achingly full of desire than anything I have created in the past.”
