Sue benner workshops in store
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One of our most popular Fiber Arts Instructors, Sue Benner, will be at the Hudson River Valley Fiber Art Workshops to teach a five day class, Construction/Abstraction, August 23 to 29, 2015.
This 2015 Workshop is fully enrolled / Wait List only, but Sue will return in the Autumn of 2017. Like so many of you, we can’t wait!
How long have you been teaching and what got you started teaching?
Although I taught occasionally as a young artist, I didn’t begin to teach in earnest until after starting my family. After my first son was born, Nancy Crow and Linda Fowler asked me to teach at the Quilt/Surface Design Symposium (QSDS) in 1992. After my second son was born, I taught again at QSDS in 1996 and have been teaching steadily at various conferences and venues ever since.
Actually, I have recently reduced my teaching schedule to make more time for studio work. Hudson Valley is a venue that is still on my list for good reason!
What is your favorite part about teaching?
My fa
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Materials and Process
Fabrics:
I dye silk, cotton and other natural fibers using a variety of techniques with fiber reactive dyes. These include immersion dyeing, dye-painting, block printing and monoprinting. I call this “expressive” dye-painting, giving credit to the Abstract Expressionist painters who have influenced my approach. Some works are further layered with drawing, painting and monoprinting with metallic and opaque fabric paints.
I also collect vintage, retro, and recent textiles that inom recycle in my work. These are the “found” fabrics referred to in my medium descriptions. I am always on the lookout for the perfect 1980’s silk dress or blouse to deconstruct and reuse. These textiles have stories to tell in themselves, give a nod to quilting tradition and provide the works with a time and culture stamp. In my book, there is almost nothing that a trip to a thrift store won't cure!
Assembly:
• While pursuing a degree in molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin, Sue Benner took two classes that would change the course of her life: art history and fabric design. She continued her studies in art, eventually moving to Dallas to attend graduate school at University of Texas – Southwestern, earning a master’s in biomedical bild. During this time she transformed her vision of the microscopic universe into batiked quilts and soft sculpture. By 1980 Benner was working full time as a studio artist, primarily in the medium which later became known as the Art Quilt. From her East Dallas studio, Benner creates richly layered quilt canvases by collaging her dyed, painted, and printed silks with funnen fabrics rescued from the obscurity of attics and thrift stores. She is well known as a lecturer and teacher, conducting workshops internationally in the areas of surface design and textile collage. Exhibiting widely for thirty years, she has been juried into Quilt Na