Susan Fleming was born in Los Angeles , California in 1944. She is a painter whose work has evolved from trompe l'oeil realism to semi-abstract works over the last 30 years. She lives Salt Lake City, Utah.

Fleming earned a BA in English from Occidental College in 1966. She followed by studying drawing and printmaking at the University of Washington. She earned a BFA in 1974, and an MFA  in 1976 in painting and drawing from the University of Utah. She has also studied at the Art Students League in New York, the Royal College of Art Program, and UCLA/ Cambridge University Program.

Fleming's work was shown in the Women Artists of Utah Exhibit at the Springville Museum of Art during 1984. She won a cash award at the Springville Museum of Art annual spring salon in 1990, and a silver award at the Springville Art Museum in 1982.

Biography adapted from material supplied by the artist.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Susan F. Fleming has lived and worked in Salt Lake City, Utah, since 1971. She received a B.A. (1966) in English Literature from Occidental College, studied drawing and printmaking at the University of Washington from 1967-1971, and finished B.F.A. (1974) and M.F.A. (1976) degrees in Painting and Drawing at the University of Utah. During her graduate years she won research and teaching fellowships at the University of Utah.

Fleming's work has been exhibited throughout the West; many of her paintings have been juried into nationwide competitions. Her public artwork can be seen at the Scott Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City and two large murals hang in the Technology Center at the College of Eastern Utah in Blanding, Utah.

In the last thirty five years, her work has evolved from trompe l'oeil realism to a more expressionist style as her concerns have evolved from an interest in depiction of still life objects to a focus on inner psychological realities and concern for dramatic and anxious aspects of the human condition.

Artist Statement 
November, 2005 
One afternoon in 1987, as a guest working at a print studio in London, I created and pulled a dozen surprising monotypes unlike any previous work I had produced. Triggering this burst of creativity was a walk through a nearby cemetery which conjured up images of mortality and death. Looking at the mossy grave stones, macabre images arouse from my subconscious which I inked quickly onto zinc plates. Before this watershed episode, my drawings and paintings had been academic, trompe l'oeil, and centered on the depiction of the real world. Nothing has been the same since that day. From that time forward, my artistic inspiration has been the depiction of inner realities-- feelings, emotions, spontaneous reactions to the world. Increasingly, I trust my limbic brain to disclose a “truth” which is not available to my analytical and logical self. Starting a new painting is fluid, energetic, a release of energy. Refinement of image and idea ripens over months, even years: at least a dozen paintings are in progress at one time, but my focus is usually on three or four images. My perpetual concern is our common human predicament-- full of comedy, vanity, tension, and anxiety. Recently, I have been obsessed with global warming, resource depletion, toxic waste, and the nature of conflict.

Biography courtesy the artist.

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