Stitching Time & Space
Here, 2023. Handkerchief cyanotypes; hand stitched to found fabrics, 87” x 87.”
A needle pulling thread through fabric may be a means of construction or an act of embellishment. Stitching has a broad range of expressive and conceptual potential within cross-cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts. We will consider hand stitching as an event in time while exploring its impact on space, the body, and the community. Exploring different pliable planes and stitching techniques, related readings, presentations, and conversations, students will stitch a series of samples and develop personal and/or collaborative work. Basic cutting, piecing, embroidery, couching, shibori, kawandi quilting, and many forms of applique will be demonstrated. This workshop aims to reimagine the act of stitching for our present-day context. All levels welcome.
Susie Brandt’s (she/her) textile-based work rummages through matters of utility, consumption, abundance, time, and devotion. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo show at SPEEDWELL Contemporary in Portland, ME this summer. Brandt taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) for twenty-one years. During the pandemic, she organized and led an online quilt group of seventy-five MICA students, alumni, staff, faculty, and interested stitchers throughout the U.S. to complete a dozen quilts to raffle for scholarships. Brandt received a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.