Sue Kreitzman, an 85-year-old self-taught artist from New York now living in Mile End, has turned her home into a densely decorated, colourful installation of her own paintings and sculptures. Her story matters as an example of someone beginning a new creative life later in adulthood after careers in teaching, cookery writing and television, despite having struggled in formal art classes.

Kreitzman began drawing aged 58 after sketching a mermaid while reviewing cookbook proofs, and says the experience ended her cookbook career and sparked an obsession with art. Her house is maintained with help from a housekeeper and curator Jaime Freestone, who describes it as a welcoming space for LGBT people and aspiring artists; Kreitzman has also made hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, personalised wearable “neck shrines”.