Susan Graeser Memmen’ s Fifty-Year Dream
Written & Photographed By Laura Wrede
Susan Graeser Memmen( or just‘ Susan’ as she likes to be called) dreamt of painting fine art as a career. After high school she sought a fine art and graphics degree at Pasadena City College. It looked as if her dream would come true until the course of her life changed directions and set in motion an unexpected path that Susan never imagined.
Susan was a typical Southern California girl. She grew up in Monrovia with her parents and brother in a Craftsman style home built by her grandfather. She always believed art was in her future.“ At age five I was drawing in pencil and coloring with crayons,” said Susan. She was hooked on creating art from then on. Other artists in her family also influenced her.
Her cousin, Tom Sanders, a movie production designer, worked with Mel Gibson, Steven Spielberg, and other Hollywood icons designing movie sets.“ We used to draw together. He once asked me to go to Paris to work on Disney World,” said Susan. Sanders was nominated for an Oscar in 1998 for Saving Private Ryan. His artistic talent inspired Susan.
Along with Sanders, Susan’ s great uncle, J. Wilton Cunningham was also an artist He painted in Paris at the time
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