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Susan Alcott Jardine is a native of Los Angeles, California. After the war years, her single working mother gathered her brood together in a modest, clapboard house... consisting of her older sister Barbara and Grandma Minnie.

"It was a house of women, the four of us, and our home was filled with the aroma of Grandma's baking and listening to her play the classics on her old, upright piano."

When Susan's mother re-married, her new dad brought a sense of stability to the household. Talented and handy in carpentry and woodwork, he put a new shine on their small abode. He built a playhouse in the backyard and added a honeysuckle arbor. Home made awnings went up over the windows, new paint made the place shine and a lawn and garden were added.

"It became the 'jewel' of the block. A place for our friends and family to gather and a sanctuary for me to play, dress up the cats and put on backyard talent shows with the neighborhood kids."

Following the obligatory music lessons, recitals and wobbly toe shoes, Susan experienced a relatively normal adolescence. "It didn't really come together in terms of art, until I was a student of theatre arts at El Camino College in Torrance, California. A kind of explosion occurred. It was a brand new world full of eager students, all looking to make their way in the world."

Several of Susan's classmates went on to make successful careers in films, television, the New York stage, and became casting directors, artists' managers and teachers. This steadfast first circle of friends remains to this day.

During that apprenticeship Susan learned what it took to make the magic come alive on stage. "It wasn't just something that happened. It was a process performed in cooperation, with a melding of all of the separate elements that bring a production together. From the written text, director, actors, costuming, lighting, sets, everything. The greatest lesson I learned was how to be natural in an unnatural setting; to make it appear natural."

From El Camino, Susan went on to CSU/LA, majoring in theatre and during her senior year was invited to be a teaching assistant by the head of the costuming and make-up department. "It became a crash course in learning to render the art of costume design and make-up design. It evolved again from the text, transforming the playwright's words into design and theatrical costuming; always larger than life."

She still likes to incorporate this feeling in her paintings today. Some of her paintings have the feel and texture of fabric. This she attributes to her sensory training in the theatre, sense memory. Taking from her imagination recollections of events and emotions and really honing them so she can go right to it, until it's right there on the surface.

Following college, Susan designed costumes for a production of Jean Anouilh's "Thieves Carnival" at the Studio Theatre Playhouse in Los Angeles. She also began working as an actress in local theatre, film, television and commercials and it was during that time she met and married a young, music producer.

Susan joined her new husband and began working behind the scenes in his fledgling music production and publishing company. Their partnership carried them through the growth of his company... producing records, commercials, live concerts and packaging film and television scores until 1980, when their collaboration and partnership dissolved.

During the early 1970's, Susan was accepted into the Writer's Guild's Open Door Writing Program, studying screenplay and playwriting with writer/producer Arthur Alsberg. Again, geared to painting visual pictures, she, during this time, was influenced most by the artists that continue to inspire her today: Vincent Van Gogh "His paintings are living things; they're so organic. His buildings resonate. His people tell stories; his colors are so brilliant"; Henri Rousseau "His jungle paintings", Toulouse-Lautrec "His paintings, his posters", Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha.

"What influenced me most about these brilliant painters was the underlying power of theatre in their work, a melding of music, dance, and drama. And, closer to home was the admiration for the artistry of two of my cousins: Jim Allin Cross, a graphic designer, fine artist/photographer and, William R. Pauli, an architect. I stood in awe of their talent and work and how they always encouraged my artistic pursuits."

Susan continued her work behind the scenes from the early 1980's through the mid-1990's in public relations for an entertainer, for entertainment lawyers and in broadcast television; all the while working on her self-taught art: paintings, textiles, works on wood, metal and pottery.

"Then, as if by magic, I was re-introduced to a longtime friend I hadn't seen since my El Camino College days." As fate would have it, she and Neal Jardine married in March of 1996. "We're old newlyweds", she says with a twinkle. "Neal encouraged me to go on with my art and I enrolled in a painting and drawing class taught by the Artist Co-op7 teaching team of Dorothy Ghose and Adria Becker at Everywoman's Village in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California."

Susan went into her first class expecting to learn some techniques to do cover art for her own book, in addition to other projects, and for another creative explosion. Artist Co-op7 and their talented teaching teams carry on the work and philosophy of their late founder and mentor, Dr. Alex Vilumsons and she has continued painting with them since 1999. This experience has led her to a new form of expression - working with oils on canvas.

"After surviving the fear of such a large format... all of that blank, white, canvas... the work has evolved into what I do today. The learning experience, the excitement of coming together with a phenomenal community of artists every week, all diverse in their expression, all learning from each other, taking risks, and taking on challenges."

Susan feels she has revolved full circle. "I don't think an artist can express something they're not. There's always unity. There's always involvement. When beginning a new painting, to have it layer and evolve as we do in life and to infuse it with a sprinkle of magic. And when it's finished, ready to go out into the world, I hope to have it say to the viewer; 'Step into my world, pretend you're at the theatre, sit back, watch the lights dim, hear the music, suspend your disbelief from the outside world, enter the painting and remember the magic of your own life."