| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
August Issue 2007
Francis Marion University in Florence, SC, Features Works by Susan Lenz
Stitched!, a solo exhibition by Columbia, SC, fiber artist Susan Lenz, will open on Aug. 7 at Francis Marion University's Hyman Fine Arts Center in Florence, SC. The exhibition will be on view through Sept. 27, 2007.
This exhibition will feature sixteen large embroideries from two related bodies of work. One group is created on water-soluble fabric. The other uses burning tools. Both approaches seek to dissolve the very ground on which the embroidery is made.
Strata is a series made on Mokuba's adhesive coated, water-soluble free lace sheets. The product allows Lenz to carefully build up layers of yarn, snippets of fabric, ribbon, and gauze into which she can stitch by machine without becoming tangled. Once free-motion embroidery is complete, each piece is submerged in warm water to melt away the Mokuba. Only the threads and fabric remain, linked by sewn lines. The compositions are inspired by earth sciences. Most resemble cross-sectional profiles of geological strata. Some reflect seasonal changes in the atmosphere. One depicts the hidden treasures found in geodes. Lenz plans to continue the series.
The In Box series was started over two years ago but is still evolving. The work for this exhibition was done within the last six months. Design inspirations include aerial views of urban architecture and the whimsical structures designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundretwasser (1928-2000). Each piece is a construction of "boxes" cut from polyester, stretchy velvet that is bonded and sewn onto acrylic craft felt. Once free-motion embroidery is complete, the work is tooled with a soldering iron and melted with a heat gun. Only the "boxes" remain, linked by sewn lines of cotton thread.
For additional information check our SC
Institutional Gallery listings, call Roberta Olmstead, curator,
at 843/661-1385 or visit (www.fmarion.edu/famc/gallery.htm).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2007 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2007 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.