Susan Lenz

"Found Object Mandala CXII" - mixed media, assemblage, pattern, circle, wheel

2024

Columbia, South Carolina-based artist, Susan Lenz uses needle and thread for self-expression. Her fiber and found object mandalas speak to the universal desire for a place of belonging and a sense of home. Working in partnership with her materials, Susan strives to articulate the accumulated memory inherent in discarded things. Her work speaks to morality and the desire for a lasting legacy. She uses multiples of seemingly mundane items to put into perspective the abundance of life and the capacity to keep things as if for a “rainy day.” Paper clips, keys, bottle caps, buttons, nails, plastic spoons, and old clock parts are combined with dominoes, film reels, old toys, and holiday decorations. These and so many other, often vintage items, are repetitively hand-stitched into meditative patterns on sections of old quilts, bringing an extraordinary new life to otherwise everyday things. Susan’s work has appeared in national publications, numerous juried exhibitions, and at fine craft shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show. She has been featured on art quilting television programs and on South Carolina Etv’s Palmetto Scene. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC and the McKissick Museum in South Carolina. Susan has been awarded fully funded fellowships to art residencies including The Anderson Center; the Studios of Key West; Great Basin, Guadalupe Mountains, Catoctin Mountain, and Hot Springs National Parks. Her solo installations have been mounted all over the country including the Mesa Contemporary Museum of Art and as far away as the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England.