After Polly Collins pays tribute to the Shaker religious community that settled near the site of Albany International Airport in the late 18thcentury. Shakers lived communally and are remembered for their industrious and celibate lives. They are renowned for simple furniture design, light-filled architecture and the invention of the flat broom. The airport is built on their former agricultural fields and some surviving buildings nearby make up the Shaker Heritage Society.

After Polly Collinswas inspired by a gift drawing made by Polly Collins (1808-1884), a member of a community in nearby Hancock, Massachusetts. Gift Drawings were made only by particular Shakers who had experienced spiritual revelations. And although the Shakers lived in spare and unadorned clothing and interiors, their gift drawings could be exuberantly colorful and were kept only for occasional private display.

This version of the floral wreath from the Polly Collins drawing is rendered in lightweight colorful acrylic beads held together with clear chenille stems. These beaded constructions are based on 19thand 20thcentury beaded flowers made by hobbyists with origins in Europe. The flowers are affixed to a steel armature.
The wreath measures approximately 9 feet in diameter and is suspended in a light well midway down Concourse B at the Albany International Airport through 2022.

Five, human-scale rugs are patterned on tracings of the artist’s body. Each is woven or stitched or hooked using scraps of old woolen clothing and bedding, hobby craft yarn and/or pompoms. Initially inspired by an exhibition of carpets depicting flayed humans seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art these rugs merge the artist with the terrain.

Series of 50 enlarged flags.

For this exhibition, a grand cache of Aloha shirts was cast to heaven and revamped into trees of life.
The Paradise series is dedicated to the memory of Peter Marvit.

Mine
Wool blankets and fabrics piled in the corner of a staircase landing. Affixed to the wall all the way to the ceiling in Albany International Airport, Albany, NY. Commissioned by the Albany International Airport's Art and Culture Program.

While walking in Baltimore, I discovered the undulating patterns of wood grain left on stumps after trees were sawn down. They seemed to lend themselves to hooked rug designs. The completed hooked rugs - made from thrift store wool clothing and blankets - were returned to the stumps and photos were taken and made into souvenir postcard pictures.
In exhibition, the rugs are displayed scattered on the floor near a rack of post cards showing the rugs on their stumps of origin.

In celebration of Valentines Day, Temple Gallery director, Robert Blackson, commissioned Susie Brandt to create an artwork for the Temple Gallery couch. Brandt’s response, I <3 CZ, is a tribute to the late fiber artist Claire Zeisler. Based in Chicago for much of her life, Zeisler (1903-1991) was internationally known for her draped forms of braided and knotted threads. These “Cousin It” like sculptures are the inspiration for Brandt’s commission. Made from 60 skeins of red Red Heart yarn and linen canvas, Brandt’s commission spilled over the gallery floor in a heartfelt tribute to Claire Zeisler.

Everyday I was in Baltimore in the year 2010 I took a walk and made a gps recording. These traces have been used to make maps of the city in various media.

Projects commissioned for hospitals in Maryland and Michigan.