Susan Lenz

Using needle and thread for self-expression, Susan works within the scope of an overall theme and toward a final, mixed media installation. She stitches both by hand and machine but also indulges a passion for book arts and unique, 3D found art objects. Altering found photos is an obsession. In another life, Susan is convinced she was a kidnapper whose fixation with letters snipped from assorted, antique ephemera continued into her current life and studio practice.

“I work in partnership with my materials, generally using a needle and thread to articulate memory, mortality, and the desire for a last legacy. My concepts are rooting in the desire to give “second life” to old and often discarded things”, says Susan. “I work with hope that one little piece of my art might be kept through coming generations, cherished, admired, remembered, regarded for its quality, marking my existence on this planet. I am drawn to textiles for their tactile qualities and often make work that is meant to touch and be touched.”

Susan’s work has appeared in national publications, numerous juried exhibitions, and at fine craft shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show. She has been featured on art quilting television programs and on South Carolina Etv’s Palmetto Scene. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC and the McKissick Museum in South Carolina. Susan has been awarded fully funded fellowships to art residencies including The Anderson Center; the Studios of Key West; Great Basin, Guadalupe Mountains, Catoctin Mountain, and Hot Springs National Parks. Her solo installations have been mounted all over the country including the Mesa Contemporary Museum of Art and as far away as the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. Susan is represented by the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville.