Inspiring Women Winter 2017

your art, especially states of mind, brought about by things that you see but that you must also
feel; the beauty, the amazing reception and transmission of it. This is also the most important
part of my artistic achievement, a kind of inner psychological peace that comes with
managing to do this.
GETTING TO KNOW SUSAN
Where is the most beautiful place in the
world you have been? Luckily I live in a
very beautiful place, the beginning of the
Chianti area just south of Florence, not to
mention Florence itself.
My vacations are in the beginning of the
coast of Liguria. In a tiny ancient town over
the sea 600 odd steps down plus mountain
paths, with views of the Carrara marble
mountains and the “Gulf of the poets:”
Porto Venere and La Spezia, all without the
crowds of the more touristic“Cinque Terre.”
Also I’ve worked for 49 years in the lovely
Villa I Tatti, Bernard Berenson’s home, library
and famous garden, magnificent private
collection, now belonging to Harvard , now
a center for research in Italian Renaissance.
As well as New York University.
If you were moving back to your home
country, what would you miss most about your
host country? Moving back home I would miss
all of this as well as all those typically Italian
things like the food and attitudes of the
people, the history that is somehow very alive.
Then there are the friends, many from my
Women’s Club and my ex-students. I taught
Art History for American Universities for 15 years
and, of course my 3 children and 2
grandchildren who all live here, Italian in-laws,
etc. My husband died 11 years ago but is still
memorably part of the place.
What personal motto do you
live by and how does it affect
what you do/don’t do? It
might be more than the easy
”live and let live” or the more
complicated “thinking that
you will live forever, live each
day as if it would be your last”
or more simply and best of all
“CARPE DIEM.” All of these
affect what I do.
Tell us something interesting
about yourself that not many
people will know. Many
people don’t know that I
practice meditation or that I
have left behind a career in
classical ballet.
”Flora”
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