When Susana England bought her 900-square-foot house in lower Rockridge in 1986, she wished it had more light and a back deck. Forty years later, in 2026, contractors have just finished remodeling her back room, adding large windows and sliding glass doors that open onto a small deck.
It’s the sunniest room in the house, and Susana calls it her “atelier,” or workshop. In it, she keeps her harp, which she plays every day. She also paints and embroiders. “I still wake with imagination and a paintbrush in hand,” she says.
As part of the recent remodel, Susana added a bathroom and a pantry connected to the nearby kitchen, allowing her to spend more time in the sunny part of the house.
“I plan to stay in this house until I die,” says Susana, who is healthy and active at nearly 80 years old. “If I want someone to live with me, they’ll have their own bedroom and bathroom now.”
When Susana bought her Rockridge home in 1986, she worried her friends wouldn’t visit, as they viewed Berkeley—not Oakland—as the center of the universe. But a year later, Market Hall was built, and around the same time she met her husband, Roger Thompson, who moved in with her. Susana and Roger had plenty of visitors and made friends with their neighbors. They were together for 35 years, until Roger passed away almost five years ago.
“After my husband died, my neighbors Jack and Isabel invited me for dinner almost every night,” says Susana. “It was a godsend. I also started talking to people on the street more often, and I’ve made so many new friends in Rockridge in recent years.”
Susana grew up in Sacramento, Santiago (Chile), and San Francisco, and later attended UC Berkeley—where her parents had met and which her grandfather had also attended. She studied fine art and music and discovered her vision and voice during the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley.
In 1968, she performed as a harpist with Miles Davis and his quartet at the UC Jazz Festival—a favorite memory of pure improvisation. Over the years, she played classical harp in a number of civic orchestras.
After graduation, Susana designed wearable art, dyeing batik fabrics and transforming silk and cotton into painterly garments that incorporated quilting and embroidery. She was one of the original designers at the White Duck Workshop in Elmwood, known for its handmade clothing and colorful fabrics.
She then launched her own clothing line, Susana England Designs. Her pieces were carried by prestigious stores such as I. Magnin, Macy’s Union Square, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus. Today, Susana’s new wearable art can be found at Mercy Vintage, 5505 College Avenue (mercyvintage.com).
Over time, Susana’s artistic pursuits expanded beyond fabric to include watercolors, paper collages, and greeting cards. Her art entered the collections of Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, and her designs were licensed to companies such as Sunrise Greetings and Barnes & Noble. Her watercolor series In My Aunt’s Garden hangs at the Acre Restaurant Gallery in Market Hall.
Susana’s mother made clothes for her, and her grandmother loved to embroider. Susana credits both women with shaping her creativity and love of textiles. She describes her current practice as “art for me”—a longing for beauty that endures, even as the world rushes on.
To learn more about Susana, visit her website at susanengland.com.
