Susan diRende is both erudite and funny. She communicates big ideas with a unique combustion of irreverence and delight. Born in New Jersey of Italian parents, she grew up with a double vision of culture and has always looked to create at the intersection of worlds. A strong visual imagination keeps her grounded in the "thingness" of the plastic arts alongside the ephemeral "nowness" of the lively arts. Some of the first work she created professionally was as a clown in the circus and she remains an artist who likes to turn things upside down and an intellectual who sees the art-in-fact of dogma. Her lifelong love of learning, both as a student and teacher, has led her to be honored as an educator and awarded as a creator.