Inspired by her experiences; the landscapes, structures, and people around her every day, Susan Melrath’s work focuses on the stories connected to nearly every house and street corner of her childhood neighborhood. Melrath reminisces, “The houses weren’t particularly beautiful. Some were quite rundown, but each place had an intrinsic character and meaning for my nine-year-old self.”

Her work explores days playing and meandering around her childhood neighborhood as an extroverted, gregarious kid growing up in a small town in the ‘60s. When walking home after school, Susan often stopped for a cookie and milk at neighbor Mr. Brock’s house, where they would sit at his kitchen table and she would jabber on about her day. Other treasured memories include backyard birthday parties, skinned knees, hills to sled down, and streets to roller skate on. Melrath states, “The people may have changed since the 1960s, moved on or passed away, but those memories are still with me. In a way, these paintings are a tribute to those long-lost times and precious places.”

Through her paintings, she pays homage to those moments and locations that shaped her childhood. Each brushstroke captures the character and meaning she found in her life, telling stories of a bygone era.