Flora, Fauna & Entrails

I'm excited to announce the inaugural exhibit of my Fiber Forms collection and work here in our new home state of Louisiana. The family and I will be attending the opening this weekend so if you're in the New Orleans area please stop by, take a gander at all the fiber art and say hello!

Fabric and thread are inextricably bound to our everyday lives. Flora, Fauna, and Entrails brings together artists using fibers in their practice to explore the beauty and fragility of the nature around them. Flora, Fauna, and Entrails is Antenna’s fourth exhibition exploring the work of artists that expand on the potential of fiber in contemporary art practices while still being steeped in craft traditions.

 Antenna presents:
Flora, Fauna, and Entrails
 3718 St. Claude St, New Orleans
On view: April 8 – May 7, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday April 8, 6-10pm
Daily hours: Tuesday through Sunday 12-5 

Featuring artists: Linda Beach, Raina Benoit, Raluca Iancu, Gina Phillips, and Suzanna Scott.

lee mis laVios

A grouping of twenty Coin Cunts is in Mexico City for their international debut in the exhibition lee mis laVios. This clever show title is a play on words meaning 'read my lips' with the capital letter 'V' symbolizing the vulva/vagina.

The exhibition, lee mis laVios, chooses to undress the vagina from its prejudices, fetishes and desires, aiming for the acceptance of its sexual naturalization.

Throughout traditional art history the vagina has been systematically excluded, its representations either fade under a translucent veil or are replaced by a sexless pubis. This absence of detail has transformed it into an obscene and indiscreet symbol.

The gesture of symbolizing the vagina becomes an excuse to avoid it. Masculine gaze has constructed a specific imagery around it, based on simultaneous desire-censorship and summing it up through fertility symbols, objects of desire or immoral impurities. Its materialization is either morbid or symbolic. Indeed, vaginas have lost their right to (re)present themselves.

Lee mis laVios unveils the vagina from its prejudices in order to confront it as it is. By analyzing its allegorical connections we deconstruct the structure that surrounds it.

Read my lips: a vagina is more than anything, a vagina. It does not require any validation by dignifying it through symbols. The vagina exists as it is, dignified and worthy of its being. Now it's time to make this evident. 

lee mis laVios

31 de Marzo - 14 de Abril

Ex Iglesia de Corpus Christi

Mexico City, Mexico

Participating artists include Jamie Martinez, Maisie Cousins, Suzanna Scott, Rosa Borras, Sara Lorusso and Los Ninxs.

Playing With Scissors

Thought I'd share a few images of my Bound Scissors out in the wild. Playing with scissors is a safe activity as long as they're bound and stitched up tight! I'm pleased that this interactive piece has now been exhibited in three venues, a year ago in Touch: Interactive Craft, this past January in Material As Medium, and this weekend as part of Play, an all media exhibition at the SAA Collective in Springfield, Illinois. 

The exhibition Play was juried by Bob Dixon, an ceramicist and retired professor from Benedictine University. Play is the spontaneous, unstructured time found to foster creativity and problem-solving skills. As we grow up we tend to trivialize play and relegate it to childhood, but it’s an important element of life at any age. The exhibit features work not only about play in the traditional sense, but also the idea of being in the moment, of inspiring wonder, of invoking your natural curiosity. The viewers are encouraged to interact and play with many of the pieces on exhibit.

PLAY: All Media Exhibition

SAA Collective / H.D. Smith Gallery / Springfield, IL

March 10 - 31, 2017 

Opening reception March 11 / 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Participating artists: Bruce Alves, Lex Archibald, Piety Choi, Betsy Dollar, Lauren Feret, Cathy Ganschinietz, John Hayes, Tessa Martinez, Corrin Smithson McWhirter, Beth Rodgers, Suzanna Scott

Thank you to all of you who've shared your images of Bound Scissors via social media. #boundscissorproject

 

Image by Adele Stuckey

Image by Leslie Mounaime

Image by Katie Riggs

Image by Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Image by Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Duality of Feminine

My grouping of red (and a few purple) Coin Cunts will be on view during the month of March at Gallery 66 NY in Cold Spring, New York. The exhibition, Duality of Feminine and Feminist, was juried by artist/curator Karen Gutfreund. These are some of the questions the artists were asked to ponder:

Endless news cycles emphasize the fragmentary nature of our present society and a divided nations’ opposition to a single logic or subject. With this in mind, how do women balance the duality of feminine and feminist? Should we be concerned with the manner in which a woman is portrayed as strong and/or feminine? In recent cultural movements, the ramifications of mixed gender attributes seemed to be growing in popularity yet with the recent elections and threats to women’s rights in particular, are we going backwards. This ability to carry the strengths of both genders is empowering but are we now dealing with a backlash? Is the current political atmosphere an attempt to return to the stereotypical view of women as submissive and passive?

Artworks in the Duality of Feminine and Feminist exhibit are varied with works on paper, glass, collage, porcelain, photography, painting, fabric, assemblage, appropriated imagery and mixed media, with messages just as varied.  The artists participating in this exhibit are from across the nation and include works by Torey Akers, Audrey Bernstein, Sarah Eagen, Sally Edelstein, Leslie Fandrich, Morgan Ford Willingham, Colleen Gahrmann, Lucy Julia Hale, Amy Hughes, Marie-Laure Ilie, Blond Jenny, Joan Lesikin, Lisa Levart, Sally Ann McKinsey Sisk, Jillian Nalty, Landon Newton, Antonella Piemontese, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Suzanna Scott, Samantha Senack, Rosalind Shaffer, Allegra Shunk, Susan Singer, Dafna Steinberg, Gail Stouffer, Terrill Warrenburg, Jennifer Weigel, Galelyn Williams and Meghan Willis.

 Duality of Feminine and Feminist
Gallery 66 NY / Cold Spring, NY
March 3rd – April 2nd
Opening reception, March 3rd 6-9pm

Common Chaos

Common chaos. Knots of life. Little irritants. Sometimes things don't go very smoothly or the way you planned. You gotta pause and work out the kinks. 

Wage On!

WAGE ON! Women, Art, and Money will be the featured national exhibition of the 2017 Women’s Caucus for Art national conference in New York City. Hosted at Ceres Gallery, the exhibition offers a timely opportunity to address the impact of a changing political and economic landscape on women and art through the lens of twenty artists selected by juror Helga Christoffersen, an assistant curator at the New Museum. As she remarked: 

I looked to works that took on issues of woman’s work, rights, and identity today, in ways that speak to fundamental underlying issues in our society that affect us all. This exhibition is an important initiative and an example of a way to bring together a broad range of voices, opinions, and practices under a united and urgent cause.

My grouping of fourteen 'Coin Cunts' was selected to be included in the exhibition which runs through February 25th.

Participating Artists: Torey Akers, Judy Ballance, Veronica Ceci, Pauline Chernichaw, Dorit Jordan Dotan, Palmer Earl, Christine Giancola, Julia Gutman, J.J. L’Heureux, Jessica Mieles, Katy Mixon, B St. Marie Nelson, Suzanna Scott, Ember Small, Genevieve Walker, Leslie Wallstedt, Jill Waterhouse, Anna Watson, Heather Weathers and Diana Zipeto

WAGE ON! Women, Art, and Money

January 31 – February 25,  2017

Ceres Gallery, New York City

Tuesday – Sunday, 12-6pm

WCA will host public Artists Reception on Thursday, February 16 from 6-8 pm. A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition and is available for purchase here.

About the Women's Caucus For Art: Founded in 1972, the Women's Caucus For Art is the leading national organization for women engaged in the visual arts professions, an affiliated society of the College Art Association, a founding partner of The Feminist Art Project and a United Nations NGO. The mission of the Women's Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism.

Red Coin Cunts

A fresh bouquet of Coin Cunts for the upcoming Valentine season--made with love especially for all you nasty women! This new print features the reds and purples found in my larger collection of inverted coin purses. Women around the world are fighting back and speaking out in multitudes to challenge the rise of misogynist, racist, and ignorant rhetoric that is dominating the cycle of our lives. Your purchase of this print will support my work and a portion of the proceeds will go to the local chapter of the National Organization for Women who sponsored the Women's March I participated in this past weekend.

Love & Empathy

Since November 10th, these words have been ringing in my ears:

To all the little girls watching...never doubt that you are valuable and powerful & deserving of every chance & opportunity in the world. --Hillary Clinton

On Saturday we joined with millions of others around the world for a "sister march" of the Women's March On Washington in Shreveport, Louisiana.

As we gathered on the sidewalk of the courthouse to march we met friendly folks of all generations. Many approached Lizzie to tell her they came today to march for her and for her generation. They told her they were proud of her for marching for what she believes in. They told her she was beautiful. I thank these kind strangers for empowering her.

My daughter is young and on the cusp of womanhood. She has so many questions, she is confused about the hateful rhetoric flying around the news and social media. She wants to do something to make it stop and to show love and empathy towards others.

Together we read the mission statement and like a wave it echoed through the crowd lined around the courthouse. Together we took a first step and we marched. Hear our voice!

Thank you for documenting our family at the march Kristen!

Encaustic Sculpture

 

Tangents, aluminum foil, plaster, encaustic, leather harness

During the second half of last year I spent a good deal of time experimenting with encaustic paint on three dimensional surfaces. Out of this process two finished works emerged and I've finally gotten around to photographing them for the website. This Spring I'll set up my window box fan to expel those pesky wax fumes and get to work on some more of these encaustic sculptures.

Convolution, epoxy resin, plaster, encaustic, artificial sinew, fabric, chain, fishing weight

 

Material as Medium

I'm pleased to have two fiber works included in Material as Medium at the Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. My tactile collection of Bound Scissors and recent wall sculpture, Lifeline will be on display along with the work of fifteen other fiber artists. The exhibition explores the future of contemporary fiber and textile art using traditional materials in a new context, or unconventional materials in a more traditional form. The juror for this exhibition is Aaron McIntosh.

Material as Medium

Torpedo Factory / Target Gallery

December 3, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Reception: Thursday, December 8th, 6 – 8pm / Juror Talk at 7pm

Participating fiber artists:

Meg Arsenovic, Richmond, VA

Emma Balder, Denver, CO

Diana Baumbach, Laramie, WY

Arisa Brown, Everett, WA

Danielle Burke, Black Mountain, NC

Brooks Dierdorff, Orlando, FL

Julia Gartrell, Durham, NC

Lindsay Hall, Arlington, VA

Krista Heinitz, Eugene, OR

Hannah Hiaasen, Brooklyn, NY

Kathleen Kennedy, Mechanicsville, VA

Tiffany Lange, Menomonie, WI

Matthew Paulson, Rockaway Beach, NY

Suzanna Scott, Ruston, LA

Meaghan Westfall, Rock Hill, SC

Katie Westmoreland, Brooklyn, NY

New Print

In light of recent political events here in the United States my series of 'Coin Cunts' has continued to gain interest and raise awareness of women's issues on many different fronts. I am continuing to seek out used kisslock coin purses with colorful and/or interesting interiors to grow the collection. As of its last installation this past summer it numbered over 100 pieces! 

This image is now available as a limited edition, poster-sized pigment print in my webshop. Its proceeds will be used to fund the growth of this project and its exhibition. You can purchase the new print here.

Ann Tower

Ann Tower, January 2001, in her home studio in Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by David Stephenson, Lexington Herald-Leader file photo

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/entertainment/visual-arts/article113318818.html#storylink=cp

On Tuesday night I heard the sad news that Ann Tower, a talented artist and champion of artists across the state of Kentucky, passed suddenly from this life. As a young artist I had the privilege to work alongside her for a time when she opened Ann Tower Gallery in downtown Lexington in 2002.  Over the years Ann remained a friend and mentor to me in both life stuff and art stuff. Every time we chatted on the phone she encouraged me to keep at it as an artist. Her enthusiasm for beauty, life and art was endless and inspiring to so many. My memory of her will always be of this beautiful, smiling woman breezing into the gallery, her arms filled with a fresh bouquet of stargazers.

I will miss you Ann.

Layers Of Life

Layers of life are built of time, memory and experiences both significant and insignificant. Oftentimes it is those negligible things that spring to our consciousness time and again. Simple gestures are the found objects of life we hold onto for reasons we cannot explain. We are cocooned in these layers. We are bound by them. Our lives are like surprise balls with hidden treasures fossilized in its strata. Some are happy, some are sad, we share snippets with others as we meet and greet. Acquaintances grow into friendships. We mine their treasures as we share our own. We communicate and we connect. This is the sediment of life. It makes us vulnerable.

Shafts & Glands

An evolution of glandular shapes and biomorphic shafts, this family of Fiber Forms has been reproducing, and I've added several new ones to the website. 

I am thinking of the intricate web in/of our reproductive bodies and throughout the natural world. A tangle of coital life, I explore the animate and inanimate alike--whether ovaries, stamens, mammary glands or ancient fertility fetishes, modern sex toys and contraceptive devices. 

Through these forms I seek to meld the visual pleasures of knots and knobs with the endless labyrinth of time and sensual memory through repetitive twisting, wrapping and stitching. 

Read more about the process of creating these Fiber Forms.

A Lifeline

A year and a half ago, soon after I turned 40, I gifted myself a sabbatical to explore a new direction in my work. One of the first projects I tackled was to fabricate a sculpture out of an antique quilt top that I'd been holding onto for years with this purpose in mind. The slow evolution of this unfinished quilt has been a learning process for me with many stops and starts.

First, I created a simple drop pattern and proceeded to cut up the entire quilt. The drops were stitched together and stuffed inside-out so the hand-pieced, textured surface would be visible. Ironically the quilt lent me 42 drops--the age I will be turning in a few months.

In order to unify the forms and emphasize their texture without the distraction of a country craft palette each one was painted with black gesso. The gesso transformed the drops from a soft pillow form into a calcified cocoon. After painting, I sanded and stitched the pods to re-emphasize the lines and textures of the original quilted surface. The final surface was fused with a layer of wax lending a skin-like smoothness to these seemingly rough forms.

Through each step this work has pushed and pulled me along. The process was much more involved than I could have predicted at the outset. Nevertheless, I'm glad I keep pulling it back out to puzzle out each step of its transformation. It is a quilt no longer. The 42 drops have been bound tightly to a spine of sorts. I arranged them onto an old lead rope using the measurements of my own torso. For whatever this is, I call it a Lifeline.

Pink Palette

In need of a wider variety of peachy-pink material for my series of Fiber Forms and other studio experiments, I've turned to an unlikely source--avocado pits. After searching online for what natural dyes would lend my desired palette I came across this recipe and proceeded to buy/eat avocados for weeks. Unfortunately I'm the only one in the family who likes them so I collected them in the freezer til I had enough to make a full dye pot. I boiled eight pits for this batch of old linen scraps, stained cotton doilies and cheese cloth. The aged whites and creams were transformed into a subtle palette of the fleshy pink textures. I was more than pleased with the outcome and have already started stitching with my new stash.

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on Aug 16, 2016 at 9:11am PDT

Reform: Subversive Fashion

Last month, before our move, I finished stitching over 100 'Coin Cunts' and shipped them off to Albuquerque, NM. They will be included, along with work by four other artists, in an exciting counter-culture fashion exhibition opening Friday at Central Features Contemporary Art. This will be the largest installation of the 'Coin Cunts' thus far. 

Missouri-based artist Suzanna Scott challenges visual and societal perceptions with Coin Cunts, a collection of coin purses. By turning each purse inside out to reveal and reform the different interior linings, Scott teases the imagination and sparks conversation about the ties amongst sexuality, gender, money, and fashion. 

 Nancy Zastudil, Central Features Contemporary Art

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on Aug 23, 2016 at 8:24am PDT

Contemporary fashion is in question and on display this Fall season at Central Features Contemporary Art. Cross programming and promotion is presented in conjunction with the exhibition ReFashion at form & concept in Santa Fe, NM. ReForm: Subversive Fashion is an exhibition of select garments, accessories, and other adornments that thwart conventional expectations. The exhibition features JUMPSUIT by The Rational Dress Society, an installation by Suzanna Scott, an interactive dress by Nina Silfverberg, collages by Kirsten Stolle, and new textile work by Sarah Wagner. 

Reform: Subversive Fashion

August 26 - September 30

Central Features Contemporary Art

514 Central Ave SW #2, Albuquerque, NM

Opening Reception on Aug 26th, 6-8pm

We've Moved

Cocooned sculpture waiting to be loaded onto the moving truck.

Our family has moved from Springfield, Missouri. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of packing, cleaning, and unpacking. Not to mention the better half of a day spent at the DMV getting our driver's licenses and most importantly registering to vote! Patrick is joining the Department of Economics & Finance at Louisiana Tech University this Fall--thus the reason for our relocation. We are excited to get acquainted with our new city of Ruston, Louisiana--aka The Peach City.

My two favorite movers. Lizzie was a trooper & earned her triple-allowance.

 

Boxes piled in my new studio. Now it's time to get back to making!

Fiber Options

Cheese Box of Vulvas by Susan Hensel and Plexus by Suzanna Scott

I'm pleased to share that one of my fiber pieces, Plexus, is included in the exhibition Fiber Options: Material Explorations at the Maryland Federation of the Arts Circle Gallery. The show is comprised of seventy-two works using fiber in varied range of material and application. It is a wonderful collection of contemporary fiber works.

Fiber Options: Material Explorations

MFA Circle Gallery

Annapolis, Maryland

July 14 - August 6

Opening Reception: July 24th, 3-5 pm

 

Getting To Quiet by Laurie LeBreton

From hand-knit pieces felted into sculptural monuments to video monitors shrouded in hooded sweatshirts, the options in fiber are limitless. Combining an array of materials, both traditional and unexpected, with historic to digital techniques, the artists of Fiber Options: Material Exploration exhibit artistry, innovation, and emotion. Precisely pieced quilts, meticulously knotted vessels, and delicately dyed silks are a few examples of the supreme skill and dexterity employed over countless hours by these artists. Oftentimes, several skills appear in a singular piece: stitched still lifes on hand-dyed cotton or fabric and thread encased in encaustic, all demonstrate supreme artistry.

Innovation commingles with tradition in a quilt deliberately severed into quadrants or sweetly stitched flowers paired with a expertly embroidered dead cockroach. Several artists reinvent conventional notions of fiber art by including unexpected materials. Typewriter ribbon and VHS cassette tape replace wool and linen in woven constructions. Fiber is no longer precious with roofing nails driven into silk and sticks set afire dangerously near hand-painted ropes. Technological advances provide artists with the ability to print on fabrics and digitize embroidery, opening up new options in the world of fiber.

Beyond the tangible, emotion and character can be observed in the stab of the needle, throw of the weaving shuttle, submersion of fabric into dye, and sometimes, sorrow and devastation literally spill forth onto the floor. Steadfast resolve surfaces in a hyper-realistic embroidered black eye while vulnerability lingers in a threadbare cloth. Clothing carries deep-rooted symbolism—a hooded sweatshirt, a bridal veil, a Hijab—and immediately conjure a range of emotions and viewpoints.

Fiber speaks to us in so many ways. It can be intricately detailed or all encompassing, traditionally constructed or surprisingly innovative, intimately displayed or globally outspoken. The options in fiber are endless.

Susanna Fields-Kuehl, juror

Big Flower by Lisa Marie Barber

A Dripple

The sun-faded pink door caught my eye, and I stopped to take a closer look. For some reason this color has begun to resonate with me in a way it has never done in the past. I find it creeping into my work, and I gravitate towards its supple allure when I'm out and about.

My eyes grazed the door for a closer look at the roughly painted facade, and I spotted a substantial drip on the bottom right hand corner. Drips and drops speak to me. The form of the drop and the action of a drip frozen in time is a theme I've been exploring recently. I took note that this particular drip resembled the shape of a breast with a nipple (a dripple perhaps?), and I clicked the shutter to capture its descent.