The annual state-wide exhibition of 2 and 3-dimensional art, FLORIDA’S FINEST was created as an annual exhibition to showcase the wide-ranging talents of Florida-based artists.   The exhibition of multi-media art was juried by Lynn Whitelaw, Founding Director and Curator of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art.  Both of Susan’s entries were accepted into the exhibition.  It Makes Me Happy is a multi-media acrylic painting inspired by a wish to ride my bike to the beach and enjoy a sunny, happy, warm day. Mambo Cubano 4 is part of a series which started with my trip to Havana, Cuba, in 2015.  I love the music of Cuba and the colorful happy attitude of its people.  They love to dance.  It makes me happy to hear the music and see them dance.  I began collecting paint from the top of paint tubes years ago as well as found things such as this filter, which someone put next to their trash bin.  Together with some plastic colored wire, I created a dance with the paint and wire to mimic the feeling of the mambo music.  I call it “thinking outside the box!”The exhibition is on view from July 6- August 11, 2017, in all four galleries of Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida.