Susan Spangenberg Artist

Coming from an abusive household where she was the family caretaker, did not leave Susan any time for herself. The arts were not encouraged at home and she further isolated herself when she suffered the devastating loss of her twin brother Robert, dying of a drug overdose. She did not pick up painting again until her early twenties, while a patient at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center’s art/rehab progr

am, ‘The Living Museum' NYC in 1995. Susan became the main subject of the HBO Documentary, 'The Living Museum' in 1999, directed by Jessica Yu. HBO funded the film based on her footage. Having second thoughts and pulling out of the film led to a rift between her and the program's director, psychologist Janos Marton who manhandled her and threw her out of her studio, punishing her as a result because he worried about losing his position there and going back to work on the wards. There was a risk of the film not being made without her. At that point the Office of Mental Health and Creedmoor was on the brink of closing the program, until the promise of a film would bring them positive exposure. Marton had stars in his eyes as well. His narcissism shown through with camera crews and people suddenly interested in the place. He also felt Susan should sacrifice herself for the other patients/artists there. Upon losing her connection at The Living Museum, Susan spent ten years in her bedroom rarely going out or making art as her Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder worsened. Feeling a loss of community with her former art program, she turned to acting, writing and film to express herself. So began her journey of socialization and telling her story of physical and sexual abuse, racial identity, growing up with poverty, alcoholism and tackling the unforgiving secondary diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder with dissociation. (The Living Museum was founded in 1983, the brain child of Polish artist/actor Bolek Greczynski, it's first director. Before his passing in 1994, Greczynski often suggested: "Use your vulnerabilities as a weapon", which remains the museum's guiding mantra to this day.) Failed by the system after forty plus hospitalizations and five suicide attempts, Susan decided to pay out of pocket for a private psychoanalyst, Hubertus Raben, who, she says, changed her life. He supported her along her artistic journey.

​Susan spent thirty years in and out of mental hospitals. Her story is reflected in her work, revealing the trauma that brought her into the mental health system as well as the horrors endured in the asylums. She joined Fountain House Gallery in 2015, and found a friendship and connection with it’s director, Ariel Willmott, and so regained a sense of community she had lost.

​These days Susan is back to painting, her first medium. She often paints when feeling symptomatic, it is part of her process. Susan thanks her psychoanalyst, Hubertus for being her lifeline.

​She dedicates her work to her late twin brother, Robert. Susan Spangenberg is an outsider artist with The Living Museum & Fountain House Gallery in NYC