About The Artist: Susan Twardus
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Susan Twardus spent her formative years in the suburbs
between the college towns of Princeton and New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her primary
schooling during the 1960s and 70s afforded her ample opportunities to explore and develop
her artistic expression. Though she excelled in the arts and sciences, and received an art
scholarship, she would later eschew her creative talents in favor of a more conventional
career in business and the field of computers.
Twardus married and moved to Bucks County Pennsylvania. After having her son, Christopher she
returned to college, to fulfill a long time calling to study art. Now a single mother, she honed her
artistic skills, while working full time at Merrill Lynch in Princeton, New Jersey. It was there, surrounded
by an endless supply of discarded Wall Street Journals, she conceived the first paper Sculptures, which
would become her signature work. The sculptures, constructed from these newspapers, have been praised
for expressing the frailties of being human, at the same time emphasizing great strength.
While most subjects are derived from her keen observance of life,
Susan has also pulled from her own experiences. This personal connection is credited for their honest
portrayal
and unique attraction.
Twardus' sculptures have garnered many prestigious awards, including the Anna Hyatt Huntington Bronze For
Sculpture, and have gained her entrance in several arts organizations throughout the United States, including
The Pen and Brush, Inc. and Philadelphia Sculptors. In 1996, Susan Twardus was invited into membership
at the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, New York, and has served on the board of directors since 2001. In 2009 she
was elected President and is currently serving in that position.
Since 1996, her growing association with the arts community coupled with a desire to focus
more intently
on her own work prompted Twardus in 1997 to take a position at an art gallery in Lambertville, New Jersey.
Located directly across the Delaware River from New Hope, Pennsylvania, the two towns serve as a painters’
haven and long-time cultural capital for the region. It was in this setting that she took over the business affairs
of the gallery’s framing and restoration department, and worked closely with skilled authorities in art
restoration and gilding. She opened her own fine art gallery in 1999.
While learning these trades, she was able to work with some of the finest American Impressionist paintings
of the New Hope School. The experience gave her a great appreciation for this style of painting, and
an intimate, working knowledge of how it is achieved. She soon began painting and exhibiting a body of work
that is strongly influenced by the Pennsylvania Impressionist and New Hope School Artists. Twardus' paintings,
along with her popular charcoal drawings, have a note of New Hope a well as WPA and Ashcan Schools.
Her work has appeared in many prominent institutions, including the James A. Michener Art Museum, PA, The
National Arts Club in New York, The Salmagundi Club, NY, Trenton City Museum in Trenton, NJ, and Grounds for
Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.
The artist and her unique work have been profiled in numerous periodicals, and she has
been listed
in multiple editions of Who’s Who as an artist of note. She has recently been included in a book,
The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Legacy, a history of the well known patron of the arts. Twardus’ work
resides in many private fine art collections around the world, and in the permanent collections of
The State Of New Jersey Cultural and
Heritage Commission, Merrill Lynch and Harrison Corporations.
Learn more about The Sculpture Process
Contact the artist at:
The Papier Sun Fine Art Studio
Philadelphia, Pa