Sue Kreitzman, 85, Turns Mile End Home Into Full-Time Art Installation

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 17

At 85, New York-born Sue Kreitzman lives inside a Mile End house packed wall-to-wall with her drawings, sculptures and found-object displays, treating the home itself as a permanent installation.
At 58, Kreitzman says she abandoned a career as a teacher, cookbook author and TV chef after sketching a mermaid on cookbook proofs, a moment she describes as the start of an artistic obsession.
Hundreds of handmade 'neck shrines' and rooms of labeled curiosities — including drawers marked 'teeth' and 'eyeballs' — reflect a practice she says is deeply personal and rarely made for sale.
Jaime Freestone and other visiting artists say the house has also become a creative refuge and mentoring space, especially for LGBT people and younger artists drawn to Kreitzman's maximalist world.