Susan Mathews

Ocean Grove, Victoria, Australia

A celebration of the complexity of forms found in Australian plants characterizes the work of Susan Mathews. Her work uses a variety of printing techniques highlighted by dense stitching. The importance of protecting our environment is subtly stressed as each portrait of natural beauty is lovingly created.

Environmental awareness

Protecting the environment matters. It matters to me as an individual living in this place and this time; it matters to society that we preserve the environment for future generations. To create work reflective of the environment and to exhibit it says to the world: This matters.

In Australia, we are lucky to have so much natural beauty, and it is with a sense of unease that I see what was once farmland being covered by housing estates at a relentless pace, with all the various stresses on resources that this development brings. It’s frustrating to see the lack of real commitment by government to exploring innovation in alternative power generation to control climate change.

Nearly all my work focuses on the natural environment. I’ve always been drawn to Australian native plants. Many of them have interesting textures and forms in their flowers, leaves, and seedpods. Banksias are my absolute favorites. There are many different varieties, and they appeal to me in all their stages of life. Since we moved from the inland to the coast 4½ years ago, even though we only have a small garden, I’ve been thrilled to be able to grow some banksias and kangaroo paws. It is wondrous how a tiny seed can become an amazing plant with all its complexity and its built-in time clock of growth.

Studio work

I love being in my studio and just “doing.” I most enjoy the processes of creating my work. Part of that pleasure is watching something evolve under my hands. Creating with white fabric as a starting point is a little like watching a plant grow from seed, blossom, and mature.

I enjoy drawing for the insights it gives, the personal interpretations it leads to, and simply for the satisfaction of doing it. Being able to use my drawings as a basis for my textile work is great research, which informs the imagery in my work. Drawing is really thinking on paper. While sitting and drawing, inter

left: Coastal Life 2 42 x 59 inches, 2013

esting ideas often pop into my head, and I can end up going somewhere I could not have predicted.

Printmaking

I have loved printmaking for many years and have worked with a number of processes that all come together in my current work. For some years when I was living in Yarrawonga and quite isolated, I attended classes at TAFE (Technical and Further Education) colleges in nearby towns just to be with like-minded people and focus on art. I extended my knowledge of linocut printing and silkscreen printing. In the early 1990s, I added stitching to my lino block prints and elements like birds to my banksia images with machine stitching.

Ode to Banksias 6

16 x 16 inches, 2016

Anigozanthos 3

16 x 16 inches, 2014

Celebration

41 x 57 inches 2015

My current work includes lino printing to create background and textural prints, which are pieced together and then overlaid with silkscreen images. I generally outline the shapes that I want to stand out, usually stitching around them at least twice to throw them into light relief. I like to stitch the backgrounds quite closely, echoing shapes while building further shapes into the larger areas. This approach gives energy and emphasis to the image by flattening the background while giving it added texture. I ignore whatever patterned fabric may be in the printed backgrounds, which I use for their textural qualities. I often follow the lines or shapes of the printed designs, creating actual texture as well as visual texture.

Celebration

This piece evolved directly from work I created for an exhibition with a couple of friends called Changes. I had just moved to the coast, and in preparing to get started on this exhibition, I created many drawings on site and from collected plants, seaweed, and shells of the area.

I created a grouping of patterns that I carved into Ezi-Carve blocks. I began printing them onto various hand-dyed fabrics. I then created backgrounds for some of the works by piecing together a number of printed fabrics. I have continued to use this method for a number of subsequent larger works, the latest finished piece being Celebration. In the Changes exhibition, additional images from local sources were carved on a larger scale in lino and printed onto white fabric. These were cut out and raw-edge appliquéd onto the pieced backgrounds.

At the same time, I worked with a couple of friends on an exhibition we called DECADEnce for which we focused on specific decades in time. I chose to harken back to my youth and the textiles that pervaded my life from an early age. One of the things I remember was the color gray: curtains my mother had silkscreened in gray and white for our lounge room and the dark gray carpet that matched them. I began to bring gray into the work I did following this exhibition, including white and black as well, and also toning down the normally quite saturated colors that I had previously used. This new lighter palette excites me and is seen in Celebration.

When I had finished silkscreening the top of Celebration, I thought maybe it was too chaotic. I decided

to stitch the top in straight lines—a very different approach for me—to give it more cohesiveness. This work has been exhibited frequently, and people seem to respond very positively to it. It makes me feel happy to look at it.

Connection to a world of artists

It’s wonderful to be part of SAQA, an organization of kindred spirits from around the world, and to see what everyone is doing. For 35 years I lived inland, a three-hour drive from our capital city. For most of that time the town I lived in was a bit of a cultural desert, and I took any opportunities that presented themselves to be involved with like-minded people. I was quite happy for most of that time doing my own thing, but I did feel a bit isolated from the textile community. Now, with the growth in digital communication, it’s possible to feel that I’m part of the wider textile world, even if still isolated. I feel connected.

Challenges for the future

Technically my challenge to myself is to expand and refine my printing repertoire, to explore new techniques, perhaps using photographic screens and drawing directly onto the screens. This will inevitably change and expand the imagery with which I am working.

I’ll continue to explore the colors and natural wonders of the coastal environment as I examine my physical presence in this place and try to showcase the environment as a thing to be treasured. As my work evolves, the challenge is to try to keep freshness and relevance in my response to the environment. It’s always a challenge to articulate the spark and level of excitement and protectiveness towards the environment that I feel.

I would like people to look at my work and feel uplifted. I want the work to be able to give viewers something different each time they look, to find interesting details each time they view it. I also want them to share my passion for the wonderful plants and landscapes that are unique to our country and to see the value of textiles as a valid medium for creating artwork.