November in the Gallery – Susan Wood Coats

COATINGS
50 years of coats and Jackets from the studio of Susan B Wood
Opening –  Meet the artist on Saturday November 1st,
Runs through Saturday Nov. 29h
The gallery will be open every Friday & Saturday from 1-4pm

Coatings: substances applied to the surface of an object to provide a protective or decorative layer. For over 50 years I have used the coat as a canvas and a sculptural form carrying decorative pattern, imagery and describing a person, place or idea. At times the piece is wearable and conveys its importance in an event through the use of precious and antique fabrics as seen in the line of luxurious hand dyed silk velvet coats and jackets | designed for SBW:fine textiles. Finally, I must admit my favorite coat forms have been created using paper shopping bags with handles, keeping the handles on as a whimsical part of the design and many are included in this collection of “Coatings”

My comings and goings in a nutshell

My influences absolutely come from my beginnings in a small rural town in
Vermont. Growing up with grandparents during WWII gave me a multi-
generational view of our world and an appreciation of, what we now know
was, an uncomplicated life.

My creative development began at an early age when recognition by the
Southern Vermont Art Center in their search for young talent gave me a
new sense of accomplishment and focus for my studies in years to come.
After finishing my BFA at Alfred University and MFA at Syracuse University
my career as an arts administrator led me to Greenwich House Pottery in
New York City, as only the third Director in it’s 80 year history which
subsequently led to a position at The American Craft Museum, also in New
York City, setting up a new Department of Education and serving on
several non-profit arts Boards of Directors.

A short time after moving from New York to Mendocino, California to be
the Director of the Mendocino Art Center I took an opportunity to change
my focus from administrator to full time studio artist which I have been,
happily, for the past 30 years. During those years I established SBW:fine
textiles with two nationally marketed lines of hand dyed women’s silk
velvet clothing and a limited edition of hand screened silk bedding.
In the years that followed Syracuse University awarded me a research
grant to study and photo document the pre-Columbian pottery from
several of the Grenadine Islands and housed in the Botanical Gardens on
St Vincent Island. I also traveled with my sister to China and Mongolia
experiencing an eye opening time living for a time with a nomad family,
learning what life was like where the temperature was 40 below zero and
what we think of as modern necessities were unheard of.

I was later awarded an International Artist Grant which took me to
Indonesia where I lived and worked in an artist’s compound on the Island
of Java with side trips to Bali and Borobudur.

My art has been shown and sold through venues across this country
including opportunities to work with founder of Pacific Textile Arts, Lolli
Jacobsen who first encouraged my interest in textiles and I continue to live
and work in a wonderful big yurt in Mendocino, California.