Introduction by Mary Kathryn Jablonski
Diane Ackerman’s book, “A Natural History of the Senses,” helps us explore our world in new ways. Fiber indeed awakens the body, alerts us to the sensuous world. Fiber art/sculpture is especially compelling to see, touch, hear, smell, even taste! We are sometimes caught suckling on our favorite blankets as infants. And if we cannot fully engage with fiber in exhibitions, our sense of intuition, the memory of how particular fabric textures once felt or smelled, can certainly arouse us and provoke desire. Fiber art plays on our minds in a different manner than drawing or painting, subtly entering via multiple openings, perhaps more like say, smoke. The three artists featured in this issue each use fabric and fibers in completely unique, innovative ways. What’s especially exciting about their work is not only what we expect or remember from fiber, but also how they surprise us with the unexpected: chenille represents the movement of flowing water, flowered calico morphs into many-legged whimsical monsters, rugs become self-portraits and Barbie dresses multiply into a magical quilt. How marvelous! Yes, you’ll want to eat them all up, at least with your eyes.
Artist Statement & Bio
Susie Brandt says: To make is to think. To think is to make. Material and imagery are found right here and everywhere. Functional textile forms are constantly up for reinterpretation. The found imagery from this series comes from tracings of my own body. And there is never enough color or pattern or space or time.
Susie Brandt is based in Rockland, Maine and in the Southern Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. She works across textile and other media to investigate color, time, utility, civic engagement and myths surrounding landscape and identity. Her artwork recasts lost and found material culture into textile objects, performances, and installations. During much of the 90’s, she made large scale installation works with her artist/sister, Betsy Brandt and she continues to collaborate with others. Most recent projects involve communal raffle quilts and postcards. Brandt has curated and co-curated exhibitions of other artists including Warren Seelig, Lenore Tawney, Sandra Brownlee, and Rowland Ricketts.
Her art is in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, and the Albany Institute of History and Art, among others. She is the recipient of awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council and Creative Capital.
A Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) emeritus professor, for two years, over the course of the pandemic, Brandt worked remotely with 75 others to stitch 14 quilts to raffle for various causes. Many of those quilts comprised the exhibition “Quilting in the Age of the Pandemic” at Lake George Arts Project in Lake George, NY (2022) and Praxis Gallery in Cleveland, OH (2023) before they were raffled.
Recent solo exhibitions include the upcoming, “Whereabouts?” at SPEEDWELL Contemporary in Portland, ME (Summer 2024) — “Disposition” at Stevenson University in Maryland (2020) — “Value Added” at the International Fiber Art Fair at the Hangaram Art Museum in Seoul, Korea (2017) — “Paradise” at Grizzly Grizzly Gallery in Philadelphia, Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY and Project 1628, Baltimore, MD (2015) — “Five Stumps” was shown at The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art in Wilmington (2011). In 2016 Brandt staged “Ropewalk” at the Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. View the extensive list of recent group exhibitions and more at her website.
A Gallery
List of Works
1- Disposition Exhibition with Flayed Self Portrait Rug in foreground, Stevenson University, Maryland, Gallery measures 25 ft x 25 ft, 2020, Photo by Dan Meyers
2- Roiled Self-Portrait Rug, Repurposed wool fabric; hand hooked, 64 x 48 inches, 2019, Photo by Dan Meyers
3- Dashed Self-Portrait Rug, Red Heart acrylic yarn; hand woven, 92 ½ x 17 inches, 2019, Photo by Dan Meyers
4- Shagged Self-Portrait Rug, Repurposed dotted fabric; machine stitched, 84 x 42 inches, 2019, Photo by Dan Meyers
5- Splayed Self Portrait Rug, Pompoms, felt; hand stitched, 84 x 56 inches, 2018, Photo by Dan Meyers
6- Flayed Self Portrait Rug, Repurposed wool fabrics; hand stitched, Approx 6 x 4 feet, 2015,Photo by Dan Meyers
7- Arm 1 (HERE), Hand woven cotton, 31 x 7 1/2 inches, 2020, Photo by Dan Meyers
7- Arm 2 (FIST), Hand woven cotton, 29 ½ ix 7 ¾ inches, 2020, Photo by Dan Meyers
7- Arm 3 (VACCINE), Hand woven cotton, 30 ¼ x 7 ½ inches, 2021, Photo by Dan Meyers
7- Arm 4 (LIVE LONG AND PROSPER), Hand woven cotton, 29 ¼ x 7 ½ inches, 2021, Photo by Dan Meyers
7- Arm 5 (LOVE), Hand woven cotton, 27 ¾ x 7 ½ inches, 2021, Photo by Dan Meyers
8- Here, Self-Portrait Quilt, Handkerchief cyanotypes; hand stitched to found fabrics, 87 x 87 inches, 2023