About

Susan Meyer

offers a unique interweaving of photography, writing, mindful awareness, and energy work that supports presence, awakening, and well-being. She is a contemplative creative whose work is pollinated with a vibrant combination of life experience, formal education, and a lifelong devotion to evolving the Self. Her deep interest in the nature of consciousness and appreciation of the natural world infuse her art. She is a seeker of angles that serve as exquisite openings to the luminosity that is our essential nature. 

As a graduate student in social work and transpersonal psychology, hospice work was her passion prior to becoming a mother. However, after her children were born, she felt drawn to working at the opposite end of the human life cycle as an early childhood educator. She taught kindergarten for several years and ran a preschool program for two years. Although she taught in the New York State public school system, she was a holistic educator at heart and developed and implemented research-based emotional literacy and mindfulness curricula for early childhood classrooms. She holds formal degrees in education (M.A., Goddard College), psychology (B.A., Ithaca College), and spiritual studies (Sofia University/Institute for Transpersonal Psychology). 

Mindfulness is a thread that runs through the heart of everything Susan does. She has been practicing mindfulness meditation in one form or another for nearly 30 years and began teaching in 2020. She completed the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through U.C. Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, Awareness Training Institute, and Sounds True. Susan is a two-time graduate of Eckhart Tolle’s School of Awakening, completed the three-year Hidden Treasure program with Alice McDowell, and has received transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. In addition, she is a graduate of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and sits meditation retreats on a regular basis. She maintains an active teaching schedule and is training in sound meditation.

Susan has been writing and dabbling in nature photography her whole life, in the background while other pursuits and practices took center stage. During challenging times, she turned to nature photography and writing as resources for cultivating inspiration, renewal, and gratitude. Contemplative photography and writing began as her medicine and became her passion that commanded greater attention. She is particularly interested in therapeutic applications of nature photography for grief and loss.

Susan exhibits her photography regularly in Upstate New York galleries and has received several awards in the annual Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor photo contest. She has published a deck of Loving Wisdom Cards, produced several volumes of poetry as one-of-a-kind, handbound editions, and is currently working on an inspirational memoir, All Light Now, that addresses the common humanity of loss and grief and pathways into healing, resilience, integration, and abiding connection.

In addition to being a photographer, teacher, and writer, Susan, a native of Saratoga Springs, NY, is a Reiki master practitioner with additional certifications in clutter coaching and feng shui.

Artist Statement

I am astonished by the splendor of common, ordinary things and believe that if we look closely enough from the right angle, we can find something to appreciate about a place or living thing – and perhaps gain insight into our own nature, as well. 

When I am in nature, certain images stop me in my tracks and fill me with awe and wonder. At the time, I might not know why I am so drawn to them but sense they are part of a greater story, language, pattern, or blueprint that connects us all. Touching such images intimately with presence invites them to speak to us deeply, expand our hearts, and awaken or strengthen something integral within us.

With “beginner’s mind”, I lean in with my camera and let go of what I think I know about a subject, to just be with the mystery of it. I listen to the vast intelligence that comes through the natural world, zooming in to contemplate fascinating and usually unnoticed details and zooming out to consider the totality and our relationship to it. Through photography, I tell a story of empathy, gratitude, awareness, and how we can connect with the natural world as a refuge for mind-body-spirit and be “naturally resourced” during challenging times.

I express my contemplative vision through images that reveal beauty, connections, and universal patterns and rhythms. Photography is a meditation practice through which I discover and do my best to illustrate that everything is our teacher, and loveliness is everywhere and in everyone, if only we train our eyes to see it.

Current Projects

• Book: River Stories: Mindful Reflections from the Upper Hudson (working title)
• Book: All Light Now: Losing My Parents and Recovering My Self (working title), inspirational memoir

Photography Exhibitions

• Group (Juried): Organic Flow, Saratoga Arts Gallery (Apr. – May 2024) 
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Nov. 2023 – Jan. 2024)
• Group: Members Show, LARAC Mountain Gallery (Nov. – Dec. 2023)
• Solo: Home on the Hudson, Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center (August – September 2023)
• Group (Juried): Through Inland Waters: Champlain Canal at 200, Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library, Glens Falls, NY (April 2023)
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Nov. 2022 – Jan. 2023)
• Solo: Refuge by the Sea, Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library (July – August 2022)
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Dec. 2021 – Jan. 2022)
• Group: 10×10 Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Aug. – Oct. 2021)
• Group (Juried): Upstate Waters, Sacandaga Valley Arts Network Northville Public Library Art Gallery (June – Sept. 2021) *Best in Show Honorable Mention
• Solo: A Path Back Home, Saratoga Springs Train Station (July – August 2021)
• Group: Breaking the Grid, Saratoga Arts (June – Sept. 2020)
• Solo: Water Dance, Sacandaga Valley Network Art Gallery (Mar. – Apr. 2020) View virtual exhibition
• Solo: Frozen, Saratoga Springs Public Library (Jan. 2020)
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Dec. 2019 – Jan. 2020)
• Group: 10×10 Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (June – Sept. 2019)
• Solo: Mindful, Saratoga Springs Visitor Center (June 2019)
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Dec. 2018 – Jan. 2019)
• Group: 10×10 Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (June – Sept. 2018)
• Solo: Waterfalls I Have Loved, Saratoga Arts Reception Area Gallery (June 2018)
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Dec. 2017 – Jan. 2018)
• Solo: Sunrise, Sunset: Upper Hudson River Reflections, Saratoga Springs Public Library (Sept. 2017)
• Group: 10×10 Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (June – Sept. 2017)
• Group: Member Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (Dec. 2016 – Jan. 2017)
• Group: 10×10 Exhibition, Saratoga Arts (June – Sept. 2016)
• Solo: Impressions of Fall, Hadley-Luzerne Public Library (Sept. 2015)

Live Performances

• Storyteller for TrueSongs: Lyrics of Life 2022, Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs (Nov. 2022)

Community Partnerships

• Community Arts Grant with Schuylerville Public Library awarded through Saratoga Arts: Presenter of Beginning Nature Photography course for adults (Summer 2021) and teens/pre-teens (Summer 2022)
• Empire State Trail, Schuylerville, NY: Photographer for kiosk installations 
• Light on the Hill Retreat Center, Van Etten, NY: Photography for website and Hidden Treasure program
• Gateway House of Peace, Milton, NY: Photography for hospice house annual gala and other events

Photography Awards

• Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Photo Contest (second place and honorable mention, 2023)
• Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Photo Contest (second place, 2022)
• Best in Show (honorable mention), Upstate Waters, Sacandaga Valley Arts Network Northville Public Library Art Gallery (June – Sept. 2021)
• Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Photo Contest (first place and honorable mention, 2020)
• Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Photo Contest (third place and honorable mention, 2018)
• Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Photo Contest (two honorable mentions, 2016)
• Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Photo Contest (third place, 2014)

Published Writing

• Blog/journal articles, SusanTaraMeyer.com (July 2012 – present)
• Loving Wisdom Cards (inspirational photography card deck, 2020)
• 50×50 (hand-bound gift book, 2017)
• New Eyes (poetry collection, hand-bound chapbook, 2008)
• Selected Poems (poetry collection, hand-bound edition, 2007)
• The Spaces in Between (poetry collection, hand-bound edition, 2007)
• Shaking the Tree (poetry collection, hand-bound edition, 2006)
• “Five” (poem), Mothering: The Magazine of Natural Family Living, (March/April 2004, issue #123)
• The Dandelion Years (poetry collection, hand-bound edition, 2003)
• Inner Space (poetry collection, hand-bound edition, 2003)
• “Birth” (poem), Mothering: The Magazine of Natural Family Living, (Fall 1996, issue #80)