WHAT: "As Time Goes By: An Exhibition of New Artwork by Susan Frank."
WHEN: Artist reception 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Viewing hours 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, 1 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, through Jan. 27.
WHERE: Piermont Fine Arts Gallery, 218 Ash St., Piermont, N.Y.; 845-398-1907 or piermontfinearts.com.
HOW MUCH: Free.
When Park Ridge artist Susan J. Frank lost her father three years ago, she wasn't sure how to process it at first.
Eventually, she figured it out: Her sadness had to do with the fact that she continued to experience time, while her father did not.
"I realized that what was missing was the next moment," she said. "From one moment to the next: That's the essence of being alive."
She decided to turn her epiphany into art, because "I like who I am when I'm painting," she said. The results are the pieces in her new exhibit, "As Time Goes By." In long horizontal paintings, Frank portrays a scene she experiences in several vertical segments of time. Each segment represents what the eye sees at a different moment.
"If you were going on a walk and you were to look around you, you would see things sequentially, with things popping in and out of your vision," she explained. "... To me, life has a tempo."
In the past, Frank has been known locally for her interpretations of tales out of Judaism. It was her way of working through her mother's sadness during her childhood.
"My mother is a Holocaust survivor, and that's been a big part of my life," Frank explained. "I grew up with a mother who outwardly was very full of life and satisfied and happy, but I as her daughter knew that there was a tremendous sadness. As a young child, I really couldn't understand it."
One breakthrough piece for her was "I Dream My Mother's Dreams," a self-portrait in which she explores her mother's dreamscape. After working on that painting, she was able to move on emotionally and artistically, said Frank.
Nowadays, Frank works three days a week at Morristown Memorial Hospital and spends the rest of her time in her studio painting. Even when she goes on a trip with her family, she constantly is working on her art.
"My husband and I have a deal," she said, laughing. "When we go away, we go to someplace that's visually captivating. I always bring my paints, and he supports me.
"Sometimes he'll even carry the easel," she said.
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