Guest Interview: Susan Fae, Artist, Part Three of Four

Self-portrait by Susan Fae

Question Number 3:

Your textile bird sculptures are wonderfully naïve, yet they represent the subject quite accurately through expression, texture and colour. Each bird has a character of its own and I am curious about your process. How do you capture the essence of bird using fabric, needle and thread?

The making of Miss Fancy Feet by Susan Fae

Birds are a joy, they continue to excite me even during -30 winter temperatures. Birds are my passion, a continual sense of inspiration just outside my window. It doesn’t take much to get me inspired to make a shape of a bird and then layer it with colour and textiles.

I believe that when you share what you love, people want to be a part of it and their enthusiasm sometimes comes in gifts of; thread, fabric, and stories.

Recently a friend gifted me a box of thread, yes! A variety of colours and a real treasure. Once I went to collect my mail and found a bag of fabric piece attached to my mailbox, talk about a surprise bag of inspiration. These wonderful gifts motivate me to get to work.

My process of creativity starts with an abundance of a colour or  fabric texture, then, excitement takes over and a bird is formed. I work one bird at a time, which makes each bird uniquely “one of a kind”. 

Though, it seems like I’m spontaneous with ideas and creation, I do begin with a bird shape in mind, often having to test and remake the basic form a few times to make it sustainable. The adornment is usually the most spontaneous, then, balance is often the final stage of the bird. Finalizing, the bird is the most difficult for me, sometimes I fall in love with the process and don’t want it to end.

Four Choir Members by Susan Fae

Check out Susan Fae’s Etsy shop

Keep up with Susan’s latest work on Facebook and Instagram.

Guest Interview: Susan Fae, Artist

Susan Fae

Part One of Four

Posing a series of questions to my new friend and comrade in art, Susan Fae, provides a glimpse into a fantasy world of 3-dimensional art. We connected through social media where I discovered her delightful bird sculptures formed from fabric, threads and objects, such as the cutlery you see as feet in the photo below. We have created a four-week blog exchange to share our favourite media and art techniques. Susan’s colourful birds are inspired by her love of nature but her passion for opera is also in evidence with these birds representative of The Three Tenors: Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and Jose Carreras.

Sing Like a Bird by Susan Fae

Now for Question Number 1:

Miss Fancy Feet by Susan Fae

The lovely Miss Fancy Feet arrived on my doorstep with a linocut greeting card depicting a beautiful butterfly. Which discipline came first, material art or printmaking? What drew you to each technique and do they share any commonalities?

Susan Fae:

Miss Fancy Feet – through your enthusiasm and encouragement she was created, and has a home that appreciates colourful and unique art. Thank you.

My appreciation and knowledge of fabric came first; both my grandmothers were handy with needle and thread. Reflecting back; I worked in the fabric department in two different stores while going to University in the 80s.

But it was later in life I returned to University to extend my Art Degree (drawing & photography) to “art developmental” so that I could teach art. While in the process of creating art curriculums I had to teach my peers an art form, it was linocut carving. That experience of sharing a process of creating encouraged me to extend the fun into a regular linocut art practice.

It was during a summer Artist’s Residency with my “Contextural” group that I began to combine the two techniques. Surrounding myself with creatives is one way of pulling out something I never knew I had in me, and that was printmaking and thread.

The Contextural Cooperative motivated me to create more textiles, maybe not to what anyone expected (including me) but I began to build sculptures and adorning them with fabric feathers. Along the way, I discovered my resourcefulness in saving found objects on my dog walks with Charlie came in handy, the found cutlery became the support for my bird sculptures.

I haven’t mastered the printing on fabric, but have printmaking with thread. My fabric sculptures share the same theme throughout my art and that is BIRDS.

• 

• 

Linocut greeting card designs by Susan Fae

Check out Susan Fae’s Etsy shop for more beautiful birds.

Follow Susan on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our interview next week!

Interview with Orca Book Publishers

Coinciding with the launch of An African Alphabet, Orca Books has posted an interview about my linocutting technique, “Learning about Linocutting.” This board book, written by Eric Walters, introduces babies and toddlers to a unique collection of African animals.