Susan Lenz
Oswald Home Laundry
2021

About the Item

Artist Commentary: It all starts with Linnie Rose Oswald. She was my Great-Grandmother, the eighth of Elnore Rose's nine children. (All but one were girls.) During the 1920s she operated her own business and posed for a photo beside the laundry's vehicle. Family stories tell of a feisty red-headed woman with a will of iron, a temper, and a very strong work ethic who drove down the middle of Huntington, West Virginia's city streets as if she owned them. In all likelihood, Linnie needed these qualities. Being a female business woman in this era had to be hard! She would have gotten the right to vote around then. Later, Linnie owned almost a block of town and rented apartments. I remember her from the days when managing her apartments was problematic. Linnie lived to be ninety-six years old but dementia took her years beforehand. I was in college when she died in a nursing home in Kentucky. The last time I saw her, she wasn't aware of the visit. Her mind was elsewhere ... talking about the clothes she was making and the quilts she would stitch. What a woman! Keywords: art quilt, textile, paint Artist Biography: Susan Lenz describes herself as the daughter of German immigrants, a soul mate of a wife, a failed mother, a homeowner, an avid traveler, a custom picture framer, a college graduate, and the servant to an adorable cat. Yet, she is first and foremost, AN ARTIST. Using needle and thread, Susan works with an overall theme toward a mixed media installation. She stitches both by hand and machine and indulges a passion for book arts and 3D found art objects. Altering found photos is an obsession. In another life, Susan is convinced she was a kidnapper whose fixation with letters snipped from assorted, antique ephemera continued into her current life and studio practice. Stained glass windows, decorative building motifs, and even aerial views of urban cities inspire Susan’s custom framed, decorative fiber art series. Each piece is a collage of synthetic fabrics with metallic foiling, free-motion machine embroidery and unique melting techniques developed by the artist. The substrata is recycled felt that was once the packaging material for a kayak being shipped from a distributor to a retail outlet. Each piece is a unique, one-of-a-kind creation inspired by the colors and shapes of Austrian Freidensreich Hundertwasser's eco-friendly buildings and his concepts of individualism. Susan’s work has appeared in national publications and juried exhibitions and at fine craft shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Smithsonian Craft Shows. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC and the McKissick Museum in South Carolina. Susan is represented by the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, and her solo shows and installations have been mounted all over the country.

Creator:

Susan Lenz

Creation Year:

2021

Dimensions:

Height: 44 in (111.76 cm)Width: 61 in (154.94 cm)Depth: 0.2 in (5.08 mm)

Medium:

Paint,Found Objects,Mixed Media

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location: