ARTIST'S BIO

Susan Sims Hillbrand is a Los Angeles based artist specializing in Light Painting Photography. She refers to the work as Penlight Performances, a process that uses photographic film to capture the performance of outlining people with light.

Growing up in the small town of Troy, Ohio the mystery of glimmering bugs in the darkness inspired her as a young child to capture fireflies in a jar to create a lantern of light. Susan’s father was a dentist and as a teenager she helped develop X-ray film in his darkroom. These two experiences informed her later years in photography. Her work explores the idea that we are beings of light – spirit in human form revealing ourselves in timespace. A question arises: “Who are we and what are we becoming?”

Susan started doing light paintings as a student at California State University, Northridge, where she received a BFA degree in Art. By outlining her body with light, she became the “firefly,” illuminating the hidden spirit, and the personal exploration began as Penlight Performances. Her subject matter is spirit and our relationship to the evolving global community.

Susan received a Certificate of Merit from the Board of Supervisors, County of Los Angeles, for her Spiritual Matrices work at USC IGM Gallery. She has a book of the same title that she has performed many times, inspiring groups in conversation to recognize their creative genius and bring community together.

LightPaintingPhotography.com has Susan highlighted as a pioneer in the field. From big cities to small towns, coast to coast and in between, her work has been in numerous solo and group shows across the US. Her piece titled Mom and Dad is highlighted in a French science book and other pieces are published in The Artist of Possibility Magazine.

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