We are all products of our immediate surroundings. We take in visual information constantly and filter out what our brain deems unnecessary, uninteresting, or disquieting. My work examines the objects and creatures that cause psychological discomforts that we filter out as quickly as they appear. The almost inexplicable disquiet we feel when we are surprised by a cicada husk or the fear of disease and filth associated with pigeons fascinates me. By focusing on these objects and making them the subject of larger than life drawings and prints, I am redrafting their narrative.
Within this narrative, I find beauty, tragedy, humor, depth, sadness, and joy. The elation and comfort a pigeon must experience when faced with a discarded hotdog is enough to fuel an entire series of monumental prints. The tragedy behind a cicada’s complex metamorphosis being cut short by a hungry crow is a story waiting to unfold.
I use a variety of print and textile processes to explore theses themes. Embroidery, suminagashi, direct printing , sumi-e and chine collé all play important roles in my creative process.
Snip. I find textures and patterns in the world and within my own drawings- and I snip them out.
Gouge. I sew and and I stitch. Then I find more things to snip.
Smash. I usually smash what I’ve snipped and sewn onto a piece of paper.
Signs of Rural Life- Bluecat Gallery, Wayne, NE
Small Works Show- Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, DC
Arts and Old Lace (group)- Artistic Artifacts, Alexandria, VA
Bodies and Trees (solo)- Amante Coffee, Boulder, CO
Seamless Grotesques (solo)- StarCCA Gallery, Savannah, GA
AC/DC - Art & Craft/Design Convergence (group)- Gordon Gallery, Savannah, GA
Pretty Little Dead things (solo)- Alexander Annex Gallery, Savannah, GA
Variegate (group)- Alexander Gallery, Savannah, GA
Merge (group)- Gordon Hall, Savannah, GA
Imminent End, Eminent Beginning (group)- StarCCA, Savannah, GA
Resurrectionists’ Daughter (solo)- Green Gallery, Ft. Collins, CO
Material Witness (group)- Hatton Gallery, Ft. Collins, CO
Wrapped In Cloth: The Human Form in Textiles (group)- TCCA, Tubac, AZ
MFA- The Savannah College of Art and Design, Fibers
BFA- Colorado State University, Fibers
Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in Fibers, SCAD, Savannah, GA
2005, 2006 Work selected for Surtex Design Conference, New York, NY
Work published in Surface Design Journal: Impact, Volume 28-2, Winter 2004
Honorable Mention from Il Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy
Golden Key member, National Society of Collegiate Scholars
susiejean.baker@gmail.com
Susie Jean Baker is a mixed-media artist who currently resides in Hyattsville, Maryland. She uses a variety of traditional textile, printmaking, and drawing processes to create haunting images of the treasures she finds in her immediate surroundings. She is a member of the Hyattsville Community Arts Alliance.