“Summer Romance” no. 404 oil on canvas 48 by 48 inches
When I am feeling dreamy and want to transport myself from the winter cold, I close my eyes and picture myself on a warm sandy beach with my very special man and all the troubles of the world melt away making everyday Valentine's Day.
And most importantly, have a very Happy Valentines Day any time you wish.
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“Dish n' Spoon” no. 420 oil on canvas 48 by 60 inches
”Hey diddle, diddle”
Relationships are at the core of a Manders painting. As a contemporary storyteller, Manders is intensely exploring ideas of sexual identity in a no-wrinkle culture that worships youth and celebrity in order to stay relevant. These are the stories that fill her inner life and comprise what Manders takes with her daily as she comes within reach of canvas.
“My works are process to observe relationships, to search out the inner stories of our contemporary interplay of gender. It is then for you, the viewer, to define and question,” says Manders.
Unfolding gender is as complex for an artist as it is for anyone.
“And the dish ran away with the spoon.”
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“Pretending” no. 264 oil on canvas 36 by 48 inches
It's Halloween!
Time to play dress-up.
Time to play pretend.
Is Manders pretending when she creates?
Or is she in the only reality that matters?
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“My Red Balloon” no. 399 oil on canvas 48 by 48 inches
I asked a five year old, "When is your birthday?"
"When the balloons are on the mailbox," she answered.
Balloons mark so many moments in our lives: our birthdays, going to the circus, watching balloon animals take form, throwing water balloons and, of course, New Years Eve. Balloons are an alternative for flowers for any occasion, for any age.
In "My Red Balloon" Manders transports the women in her painting to wonderful moments in her past, and along with the others in the painting, we are whisked away as if the balloon were in each of our hands. Manders' art carries us high above this moment. We let go, trusting we can fly, and we become the balloon itself, flying out of the artist's hand to someplace truly magical.
Where do balloons go when they fly out of our hands?
Somewhere there must be a bazillion balloons waiting for us.
Manders knows where.
But you guessed that already.
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“Elsewhere” no. 407 oil on canvas 36 by 48 inches
Sometimes I know where I am, who I am with and why I am there, but at the same time I "fell elsewhere." I can be part of the conversation, even doing what the others are doing, but something is out of sync. I bet you, too, have had this sensation.
What's this all about?
Those moments defy all physics because we are in two places at the same time. We think we know where "here" is; but just where is "Elsewhere?" Are we really somewhere else, or are we just bored, or uncomfortable, out of sorts, had one-to-many or have we suddenly contracted ADD? It's different, hard to explain, something like de ja vu, but not really.
Artistically speaking when Manders paints she is elsewhere. Ok for Manders, but certainly not the people in the canvas worlds she creates. They are not able or allowed to have minds of their own, or go off on their own and do as they wish. They aren't real! They are just the imagination of the artist displayed on her canvas. So why is the woman on the left not part of the painting? Who gave her permission to look off canvas as though she wants to be elsewhere? Not Manders! Manders didn't plan that for that.
So what's this all about?
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“Wild Thing” no. 408 oil on canvas 36 by 48 inches
Manders is sizzling!
time to blow off the winter cobwebs and your spring fever
time to let your wild thing loose to run free for the summer
time to make someone's heart sing
Manders brings her love for LA summers to "Wild Thing"
her canvas is on fire burning limitless passion
her painted diva turns you on
and then may just turn you out?
she owns the moment and won't let go
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“Bailar” no. 397 oil on canvas 48 by 48 inches
“bailar” in Spanish means to dance.
“BAILAR!” in Manders means Passion!
Passion sufficient enough
to dance to music that only you and your partner can hear
to love and be loved
to really be alive
to feel all that life has to offer
to do all that you can…and then some
to bottle up your fears and truly let go
to dance with the child within you
to be what you have always dreamt
to leap forward and never look back
to live in the moment, if only for this moment,
if only to experience the depth of meaning in the art she creates.
“BAILAR!” amigos “BAILAR!”
Susan Manders is a native Angelino and formally trained at the Universidad de Guadalajara Escuela de Artes Plasticas. All of which explains why her artistic vocabulary is so strongly influenced by the LA multi-cultural lifestyles.
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“Beautiful, but Inaccessible” no. 316 oil on canvas 48 by 48 inches
Susan Manders, first lady of ebullient color, brings the world of film noir alive again. Phillip Marlowe, Sam Spade watch out!
The three women in “Beautiful, but Inaccessible” spell classical 40’s trouble for the likes of Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart or all three.
Who are they? Lauren Bacall, Deborah Kerr, Bette Davis or your choice in this Manders noir fantasy.
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“The Women on the Floor” no. 317 oil on canvas 48 by 60 inches
A Manders painting reaches out to you. The hand of the artist beckons you into her world. A world that is totally in this moment.
The Bard of Avon wrote, "All the world is a stage..." but for Manders, as you would suspect, all the world is a canvas and for this moment we are each actors upon her canvas stage. You cannot resist the invitation. Once you look at her painting, you have no choice but to be transported onto the canvas.
You leave all judgment, inhabition and care for some other moment. There is no turning back now for neither you, me, the women on the floor nor Manders. The paint is dry on this moment. Later you may return to your real world, but for this moment you are with Manders. And it is a beautiful, safe place to be.
Manders, as Shakespeare, gives us for a moment what we secretly want, no matter how comfortable we are in our own skin: the permission to be and think and act like someone else. Manders does this for us with each pass of her brush, transforming her canvas into a world as real, in this moment, as any moment we ever experience.
A Manders painting invites you, to play in her world anytime you choose -- to join, or better yet, to be "The Women on the Floor." From that moment on, you are never alone.
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“My Red Shoes” no. 322 oil on canvas 48 by 60 inches
Susan Manders recreates the romantic dream of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby. We are magically whisked back to the Hamptons of the roaring 20’s.
Manders’ ”My Red Shoes” captures the Gatsby illusory belief that time can be fixed and the past can be repeated forever. Certainly, in this Manders’ painting, Jay Gatsby will be eternally correct.
Yes, Manders, too, at times is a romantic dreamer, and this is clearly one of those times. Life in “My Red Shoes’ projects youth, beauty, and American idealism.
Who are these three women? Is it Daisy Gatsby, Myrtle and Catherine Wilson, maybe its Zelda Fitzgerald or perhaps all three are Manders herself traveling in triplicate.
Well, whoever they are, they love their shoes. After all, women of any age, in any era do love their shoes! Just ask Manders.
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“We are One of a Kind” no. 339 oil on canvas 48 by 60 inches
Ever get the feeling you are waiting in a line for the courage to take that leap of faith, while at other times you move as though you are privileged to a degree of divine intervention?
Where to start? Do it now? Tomorrow could be better? How will I know when I am finished?
Some days our strength comes from being just like everyone else. Other times we find our true strength lies in that which makes us different from everyone else. Our individual differences can never be overvalued. On the outside we are all about the same, but, somehow, some where, some time each of us is unique -- one of a kind.
Manders brings ten women and men to life in “We are One of a Kind” to explore her own feelings of both “waiting for her courage” and “her divine uniqueness.”
Some paintings, like some days, are better than others, but with this painting just finished, Manders immediately starts another canvas, and the combined rush of beginnings and endings commands her will, blocking out all concerns of courage, success and failure.
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“Lovers” no. 345 oil on canvas 48 by 36 inches
“Lovers.” We all know lovers, seen them in the movies, and we may be lucky enough to be half of a successful pair of lovers. We get it. It is dinner for two with our soul mate, a kiss that intoxicates.
Ah, but let’s be honest, being a lover is also… well you know…all those emotions that squirm and wiggle inside us. We oscillate between our desires to be eternally consumed and eternally ourselves, like the artist with her art.
Manders’ style is that of the great narrative expressionists. Manders begins within, submerged in the pit of her story, searching, holding her breath as she scratches her way to the outer surface, awakening from another dream, where the daylight smoothes out the rough edges.
You might compare Manders’ process to that of a rabbit that digs her rabbit hole starting from the bottom and digs up to the surface leaving no mud around the rabbit hole. Impossible?
Well, look again.
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"Power Dressing" no. 352 oil on canvas 48 by 48 inches
One difference between the last century and now is that women in business are just that - women! Yes sir, women are no longer apprehensive about using their femininity to bring home the bacon.
Liz Claiborne, the fashion designer whose styles became a cornerstone of career women's wardrobes, created a collection of fashions aimed at the growing number of women entering the work force in the 70s and 80s. Well, today’s women are still very much at work, plus they are turning eyes as they progress in the global work-a-day world.
But make no mistake, today’s power dressing business women are educated, street savvy go-getters who are self-sufficient, sharp, all smarts and team-oriented achievers. “Using our sexuality to express ourselves (men and women alike) is just doing what comes naturally,” says Manders.
While guys, too, have joined the power dressing revolution, they still can’t keep these women in the office from tugging at their heart strings. No chance, and women know it. In Manders’ mind the continuum of human emotions is as easily found in the executive suite as it is on the stage of a grand opera.
So, in her uniquely distinctive style, Manders acknowledges and remembers Coco, Liz and all the women who design for women by bringing three, very female, corner-office fashionistas center stage in her “Power Dressing.”
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"Metamorphosis" no. 366 oil on canvas 60 by 48 inches
“Death to the caterpillar is birth to the butterfly.”
Watch the caterpillar weave its chrysalis preparing for its metamorphosis from a creepy crawler to a winged beauty. It is amazing, exciting yet at the same time intimidating, scary to see change occurring right before our eyes. Change we all must, but knowing this does not make it easier and, perhaps, even makes change harder.
When is it time to creatively move on? How does this artist know when to break out and go elsewhere? Does she awake one day and just know it, or does it happen with hindsight when she looks back at her finished canvas? Is change a decision or is it a process?
In “Metamorphosis” Manders captures a moment of change. The dancer emerges, struggling to become free of the ties of the past, not that the past was bad, but because the creative process demands it – any creative process - whether painting, writing or becoming a butterfly. (As an art student of Manders you know this well.)
In her uniquely distinctive style - surrendering her urge to insulate, protect or cushion us - Manders’ “Metamorphosis” sums up the range of human drama to reach beyond our grasp. “Else what’s heaven for?”
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"Engagement" no. 364 oil on canvas 30 by 40 inches
"The Engagement" Now there's a straight forward title for a Manders painting. Clearly, they are engaged. Piece of cake right. Or, wait, perhaps it's she's engaged and he doesn't know it, or maybe he knows it, but doesn't care, or he could be engaged and she isn't and neither of them know it or care. No, no, this is it: they have an engagement (read "appointment") and he is late and she is waiting for him. Or could it be...
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