My mind is like a kaleidoscope that never stops turning—memories, images, colors, patterns, all tumbling over each other. I paint to catch that moment when everything finally clicks into place, when chaos becomes something beautiful and whole.
I start with drawing, building worlds on linen where the everyday and the imagined collide. Flowers tangle with butterflies, cupcakes nestle beside snails, and figures emerge from this abundance only to dissolve back into it. I draw, paint, rearrange, and repaint until the composition finds its ground. What looks like visual abundance is actually carefully orchestrated—each element part of a larger pattern that holds everything together.
These aren't just pretty surfaces. There's a tension in my work between the chaos we live in and these fantastical, almost impossibly harmonious places I create. That's where the mystery lives, where poetry happens.
Every painting is layered with stories—some pulled from my own life, others purely invented—that reveal themselves slowly, rewarding viewers who return for a second and third look. The individual vignettes form a narrative that's both deeply personal and somehow universal. People find their own stories in my worlds.
Ultimately, I'm trying to do what feels impossible: transform dissonance into harmony, disorder into beauty to prove that even in our hectic, overwhelming world, coherence is possible.
Susan McLaughlin's work addresses a fundamental challenge of contemporary existence: making sense of the overwhelming flood of stimuli that characterizes modern life. "I paint to transform the chaos of memories, images, thoughts, colors, shapes, patterns and textures that swirl through my mind into something that reflects order and beauty," she explains.
Her process is both disciplined and intuitive. Working on linen panels, McLaughlin begins with drawing—the foundation of her artistic practice. She meticulously renders the many elements she observes in our hectic world, along with those that emerge unbidden from her imagination. Through successive layers of paint and continual rearrangement, she works until each piece becomes grounded, achieving what she describes as the essential balance between "the chaos of life and the coherence of the otherworldly fantastical places I create."
This deliberate methodology imbues her paintings with what McLaughlin identifies as "poetry and mystery"—a quality that allows each finished work to transcend personal narrative and resonate with viewers' own experiences. "The finished work tells not only my story but a story which resonates with the viewer," she notes, highlighting the universal accessibility embedded within her highly personal vision.
Ms. McLaughlin was born in Manhattan, and painted and lived there for most of her life. She earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design and a MA in Studio Art from New York University. She started out painting in New York City and Newtown, CT and currently maintains a studio in Lauderdale By The Sea, FL. The varied locations at which she has painted have had a positive influence on her artistic vision. She was especially influenced by her wooded, lakeside environment in Newtown, where she was able to study the natural world around her.
John Torreano, former Co-Director of NYU’s Painting Program, wrote in his foreward to her book Depingo Ergo Sum, “Ms. McLaughlin’s paintings show authority with brushwork and she maintains a consistently assertive and convincing quality in both style and image. She moves nimbly across subject matter, context and medium, in order to present a coherent artistic vision.” In addition to Depingo Ergo Sum, Ms. McLaughlin has written and illustrated three books of poetry.
Ms. McLaughlin has been a visiting lecturer at Parsons and taught classes in drawing, painting and illustration there. She recently gave a multimedia presentation on her career as an artist for the arts education program at the Delray Beach (FL) Public Library in conjunction with her solo exhibition Reach for the Moon.
Ms. McLaughlin’s work has been exhibited in museums including the Monmouth Museum, Lincroft NJ, The Bonnet House Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL; NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL; and The Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY.
Beyond museum recognition, McLaughlin has mounted numerous solo exhibitions, including "Garden Escapees” at The Broward Art Guild (2024), which offered a comprehensive overview of her artistic development. Her group exhibition participation has garnered multiple awards, including numerous Best in Show honors and judges' awards.
Ms. McLaughlin’s art is in many private collections, including Calvin Klein, NYC, BBDO Chicago. and The Lively Group, NYC.