SUFFER, a storefront on East 9th Street, is now her studio where she will paint her acclaimed children‘s portraits by commission, develop her abstract painting in conjunction with her controversial performance art and host occasional benefits for her chosen causes. Like many artists of the past and present, Theresa funds her avant-garde work with portrait commissions. She now has not-for-profit, 5o1c status and is accepting donations to develop and produce her paintings and performances that are direct social commentary.

SUFFER is located at 616 East 9th Street between B & C in Alphabet City. The block is blossoming with VOZ Vintage Boutique, The Phatory Art Gallery, Andrew Stroka Photographic Studio/Gallery, Louis Jazz bar, BRIX wine store, Esperanto restaurant at the end of the block opposite La Plaza cultural community garden and the best coffee in NYC, across the road at 9th Street Espresso next to Banjo Jim‘s for beer and live music. Tompkins square crowns the top of the block and further down, the old Charas community center still remains derelict, awaiting development. Theresa hopes Charas will become The LES Museum.

Performers, writers, photographers, musicians and filmmakers live on the block, including the acclaimed Bina Sheriff. In the 1970s, SUFFER was a meeting place for the Black Panthers, and in 1905, it was an archway for horses that were led to stables that are now La Plaza community garden. “ I feel honored to be in a building steeped in such history of both radical social change and essential transportation for the development of the city. May the struggle continue! ”

Theresa moved from Australia to New York in 2000, on the back of the launch of her Autobiography THE DIVINE MISTAKE. She has performed at Saint Mark‘s Church, at Theater for the New City and participated in numerous HOWL festivals. Theresa moved her art studio to Chelsea four years ago and now she is back, painting in the hood that she calls home.

“I believe that suffering is an initiation into greater things in life and in art. I encourage people to go into their suffering, not avoid it. To suffer makes space in which to release stagnant identity, fueling revolution and transformation. They say ignorance is bliss; well, I say denial portends evil.”

“On the contrary. The space is white, bright, light and all about potential. People tend to take themselves so seriously, thinking that humanity is the be-all and end-all. In truth, we are newcomers, evolutionarily speaking. There is a glitch in human consciousness by which we think we are the only life form with it (consciousness) and we are concerned mainly with our immediate preservation and comfort, at any cost.”

“When people enter SUFFER to view recent painting, a benefit exhibition or attend a screening or performance, they will find a whole bunch of new ideas, ways of thinking and being. Maybe if we start emitting oxygen from our pores instead of churning out trillions of gallons of pollutants and toxins, we‘d become important and not obnoxious.”