On-Line Catalog
Suzanne Gerandt
Finding My Way Home
Acrylic with hand-woven fabric and silkscreen on hollow core door
Suzanne is primarily a fiber artist who works from her home studio, nestled in the trees and hugging the side of a mountain.
The process of my work has a definitive effect on the outcome. Whether I start with cloth woven on my own loom, or cloth ready to use, natural fibers are vital to me: the touch, the smell, the visual – all my senses are affected by the materials I use: cottons, silks, linens. The descriptions that these materials bring to mind are the elements that make up my compositions, words such as smooth, shiny, soft, silky, sensual, sturdy and strong. I bring color to the cloth by a myriad of methods from simple painting with dyes and pigments to more sophisticated and technical printing processes. Over dyeing between each process layers the colors, creating depth and complexity and increasing surface texture. Each piece of cloth is processed anywhere from four to twenty times before it is ready to be used in a composition.
I work from an attentive and open stance, responding to the qualities that make up the cloth itself. Each element of a composition is carefully placed and considered for its relatedness and authenticity. In a very real way, each composition is a meditative exercise. In the juxtaposition of and interplay between texture and pattern, intense color and subtle nuances of shade, I seek a delicate balance.
