Her work in fiber and thread intersects layers of reality and fantasy, life and rebirth. It explores what we are made of. In it, there is a strong dose of realism such that the viewer ‘knows’ the subject right away. But something more lies within and that is the draw and the depth of the work of fiber artist Susan Schauer John of Easton, Maryland.
Schauer John is catching the eye of a national audience with her fabric collage and creative stitching. This month her work will be featured in the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, DC, and at the Oxford Fine Arts Fair in Oxford, Maryland. In June she will be teaching at the Winslow Arts Center in Bainbridge, Washington. Her work has been exhibited and sold in galleries from Washington, DC to San Francisco and she has work in the permanent collection of the White House.
“Peter Hears a Noise,” by fabric artist Susan Schauer John who is exhibiting May 3-7 at the Smithsonian Craft Show and will be at the Oxford Fine Arts Fair in Oxford, Maryland May 19 – 21.
Schauer John has been an artist all her life. She was introduced to drawing, painting and sculpture at a young age by her father who was a renowned watercolorist. Educated in both the sciences and the arts, she received her bachelor of science in biology at Denison University and went on to receive a graduate education in the neurosciences at Princeton University, all the while studying the arts on the side. In the late 1980s, however, Susan turned her full attention to her art and has not looked back. She has had inspiration and recognition in many art forms, including woodturning, portraiture, and fiber arts.
“During COVID, I wanted to do something that I had never done before. I had my sewing machine on the third floor and thought, now that I’m home, I can spend a little time sewing. The first thing I did was to make some fun art quilts that I hung up,” she recalls.
Fiber artist Susan Schauer John who is featured in the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, DC on May 3 – 7, 2023.
“Then one day, I started to think about being in my 60s and whether my work was leaving any kind of legacy. I realized I needed to express myself in something that was just me. And it dawned on me that I love realism. I can do realism. I can sketch anything, and make it look like the real thing. But where I hadn’t grown in my art was in abstraction.”
Schauer John then decided to take a collage of fabrics, based on values from dark to light, that would maybe give her a chance to explore abstraction more, but still do what she liked to do – realism. This began her journey into her fabric art. Since she lives on the Chesapeake Bay, she decided to start with species of birds native to the region.
“One day I was looking out my window and saw a Merlin, which is in the falcon family, come down to my bird feeders and steal a bird and fly off with that bird. I found a photograph of a Merlin and asked the photographer if I could use it to draw from. From my drawing, I then laid down my cut cotton fabric shapes from light to dark to create value. And that’s where I finally was able to kind of force myself into doing some abstraction. The fabrics form the base of a collage. Once that is done, then then I start stitching with my sewing machine and go straight for realism. I use the thread as my painting/drawing form to put realism back into the work. When I’m stitching or thread painting, I think about it as if I’m doing colored pencil,” she explains.
“This medium puts everything together. It is a combination of abstract and realism.”
Quality is important to Schauer John as she uses high-quality cotton fabric and quality Italian cotton thread sourced from England. Sometimes she uses layers of batting to add depth to her work. She starts sewing from the middle of her fabric to be able to stitch out and not get big puckers in it. She states, “You have to start in the middle and radiate out, just like a stone that you throw in the water that ripples out.”
Some of the elements that are distinctive about Schauer John’s work are the realism in the eyes of her animals and the hidden surprises in each piece. In several of her recent pieces, she hid a Peter Rabbit using the fabric in a creative way for viewers to play “I Spy” when looking at her work. Because of the detail in each piece she creates, it can take up to a month to complete.
“Art is how I see the world, and what I see continues to evolve.”
Schauer John has studied with the exceptional figure painter and sculptor Robert Liberace and the talented realistic painter James Plumb. She is a member of the Portrait Society of America, and the Colored Pencil Society of America, and teaches art to adult students.
In its 41st year, the 2023 Smithsonian Craft Show will bring 120 artists from across the country to the National Building Museum for a five-day event, May 3 through 7, to be themed “Celebrating the American Spirit.” Produced by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, the annual event will showcase the work of contemporary American artists, including this year a selection of Native American and Indigenous artisans.
Representing all facets of contemporary craft and design, the Smithsonian Craft Show will include basketry, ceramics, decorative fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, wearable art, and wood. The works will be for sale with collectors and shoppers able to find one-of-a-kind pieces at a wide range of prices.
To learn more about Susan Schauer John’s fiber artwork, visit sfsfiber.art or email [email protected], or call Susan Schauer John at 410-253-9131.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.