"I feel very passionate about my work," Neustadter said. "I can’t wait to get started in the morning. I wake up very early and get started."

Neustadter, a Hackensack resident for more than 30 years, is a mixed media painter. She uses metal, wood, concrete and just about any other material to bring her art to life.

"This morning, on the railroad tracks, I found wonderful pieces of metal and wood that were just lying there in the sun," Neustadter told Hackensack Chronicle last week. "I picked them up and brought them home and eventually they will probably be used in a piece of mine because they are very beautiful."

Her house is full of these paintings featuring what she calls "found objects," most of which jump off of their canvases. One in particular called "Jeté," meaning to leap in French, consists of metal molded to resemble a dancer. Neustadter jokes that if it’s turned sideways, it resembles a fish — two paintings in one.

"I don’t want to be conventional," Neustadter explained. "It’s not that I don’t want to be conventional. That’s not what comes out of me."

Neustadter’s passion for the arts is in her blood, she said. Her mother was an artist and would expose her to the arts as a child. Neustadter’s three children, now grown, also are involved in the arts. One son is an architect, another a poet, and her daughter a writer.

Neustadter did not start as a painter, but rather a dancer. She majored in dance and the arts at Bennington College, then worked at the Center for Modern Dance Education in Hackensack, where she not only danced, but also taught, choreographed and directed. Now, she considers her painting as dance.

"I’m still dancing when I paint, the way that I paint," Neustadter said of her process where many times she works on the floor instead of an easel. "I’m still moving, still dancing. I’m all over the place."

Being all over the place can also describe her hectic schedule this summer. While retired from teaching she still lectures at universities. She also reports for WBAI radio about pressing issues to the Garden State. Her next story will focus on the hospital crisis in the state.

She wears many hats, but being an artist is on the top of her list.

"A real blessing, a real gift, to be creative. I can’t imagine being any other way."

Currently, she has two solo shows, where more than 60 of her pieces are hanging and for sale. Her show at the Prince Street Gallery at 530 W 25th St. in New York is running until July 26 with a special closing reception from 3 to 6 p.m. Her other show, which opened this week, is at the Piermont Fine Arts Gallery at 218 Ash St. in Piermont. That show runs through Aug. 3.

"I’d love to have as many people come and meet me and ask me questions about my work because I love talking about my work," Neustadter said. "I’d love for students to come who are interested in the arts since I’m a teacher, I love talking about it. They can ask me any question they want, it’d be great."