w Bloomfield exhibit catalog 2025

Living with Nature Susan Feller at Bloomfield-Richwood 17 E Main Street Richwood, WV June 12 - July 20, 2025

Miss Mountaintop Removal

Trees in the Forest

Catalog Contents

Mountains of Energy, Susan Feller

Artist Statement

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page 1

The woods around me

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page 2

Our mountains and extraction

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page 12

Barns and their stories

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page 20

Studies

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page 24

Resources/links

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page 29

Raised on 120 acres of

elds and woods, I

explored my environment throughout the years. The experiences in Girl Scouting, participating in protests to save lands from ooding along the Appalachian Trail, and learning traditional handicrafts from relatives, developed a passionate relationship with the natural elements. These blocks became the Maple Leaves

foundation for my art practice today.

I have admired Georgia O’Keefe’s close simpli ed studies and create my own vignettes of nature. The series Buckeye Leaves, Maple Leaves and Virginia Creeper boldly portray each species, yet, I want you to see the environment around them - light and shadows, the beauty of our fall season, and twisting in the trees with a blue sky. You can walk into the woods and feel small viewing Trees in our Forest, or a reduced version Color in Trees and then look down to explore the intricacy of techniques in Forest Floor #1 and #3.

During covid, isolation lead to an ‘artist residency’ at home. My dream to hike the full Appalachian Trail became a reality over the weeks of creating AT 2020 GA-WV and AT 2020 MD-ME. Personal places, mountains, valleys, and seasons came into view as I meditatively selected wool strips in values and colors to de ne them and pulled loops in each straight row Only the rivers travel along their irregular paths. These rugs are examples of how a goal can be modi ed and yet accomplished.

A challenge I set for myself is to simplify a composition but still tell the story. In the 100 Days of Nature series embroidered lines on painted canvas convey action, mood and time with simple design elements and techniques.

Although I live in the Potomac Highlands and have not experienced living/working in the coal mining region of this state, Miss Mountaintop Removal, Mountains of Energy, and the triptych Our Mountains: Past, Present, Future? and other pieces are meant to bring awareness to our demands for more energy using non-renewable resources. There are questions I would like to use for conversations with residents and workers in these elds 1

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and the many visitors, community members like me who are observers.

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Living with Nature Artist Statement

Why do you work in mining? How has this been for your family current and past? Why do you explore the mountains, rivers and communities here in West Virginia? Have you visited the old growth sections in our state parks and then seen the gray, bleak exposed tops of mountains while driving along I64? Tourism is a lasting economic bene t to local communities but extraction bene ts out-of-state corporations and destroys the eco-system for future generations. My expectation is this work to spurs awareness, the above mentioned conversation, and personal action in our choices of energy use.

Photography was the medium I used to earn a degree in Art. I learned to see and tell a story through value and contrast. Today the traditional handicrafts of rug hooking, embroidery, and quilting empower my hands to further develop stories the lens see.

Like Blanche Lazzell before me I purposefully use ber crafts as art.

“Whatever our gift, we are called to give it and dance for the renewal of the world.” end of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

SusanFeller.com Contemporary Traditions Augusta, WV

The Woods Around Me We built our home in the style of the region from local trees, milled ten miles from our 29 acres. It looks like an old homestead and blends into the forest and elds we care for. In this collection I share the trees which I consider my muse. Many are included in an article I wrote for Rug Hooking Magazine Trees are My Muse. It describes the design process, materials, and techniques to an audience who appreciate ber arts.

Pawpaws fascinate me from their unusual

owers through the developing fruit and

gorgeous yellow leaves of fall. But the winter silhouette is my favorite - its graceful elegant arching branches hide the fullness of the next seasons. There are two series featuring pawpaws.

And then there are the birds which nd haven in our surroundings each year. We chose this property because the Baltimore Orioles had built a nest over the driveway. Yes we are romantics. I think of the changes each year the migratory birds have to experience and am thrilled when each species returns. Hoping they all make it back next year.

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Trees in our Forest, 68” x 31” rug hooking with applique’ and embroidery exhibited Wisconsin Quilt and Fiber Art Museum, catalog

Color in our Trees, 36” x 18” rug hooking the same design as Trees in our Forest, half scale

Forest Floor #3, 22” x 21” rug hooking and braiding

Inspiration for the Forest Floor series

Forest Floor #1, 22” x 14” rug hooking and braiding

Buckeye Leaves, 20” x 20” rug hooking with wire, upholstery fabric

Maple Leaves, 20” x 20” applique’, quilting, wire, embroidery

Virginia Creeper, 20” x 20” rug hooking, applique’, embroidery, wire

PawPaw Leaves, 20” x 20” sashiko stitching, wood, eco-dyed fabric, beer can, upholstery fabric SOLD in 2020

Black Walnut Leaf and nuts, tan and reds 12” x 12” rug hooking, sculpted loops, upholstery fabric, embroidery

Black Walnut Leaf and nuts, browns 12” x 12” rug hooking, sculpted loops, upholstery fabric, wire, crochet

Pawpaw tree with snow

rug hooking, applique’, embroidery, hand dyed wools, leather

21st Century Willow, 10” x 20” rug hooking with wool and sari silk Ruckman Mill Farm rug pattern available through Spruce Ridge Studios

SOLD

Nest and Bird are a set

Baltimore Oriole Nest, Bird, Woods, 5” x 7” each rug hooking, weaving, needle felting wool and alpaca yarns

Spring Birds, 12” x 20” rug hooking, wool fabric

Wood Friends from 100 Days of Nature series, 10” x 20” rug hooking

Mountains and Extraction The Appalachian Trail traverses 14 states, with just four miles within West Virginia.

The headquarters are located in Harpers Ferry, WV. Using a vertical poster I traveled the 2200+ miles with hook and wool fabric strips. The linear design is reminiscent of another traditional craft - rag rug weaving. AT 2020 Thru Hike GA-WV and AT Thru Hike MD-ME could be rugs for a hallway or bedside or hang in the home of hiking enthusiasts.

West Virginia is known as the “Mountain State”. The welcome signs feature this motto along with current Govenor’s name. Tourism is a major economic boom and the newly designated New River Gorge National Park, along with several National Forests and 36 state parks feature natural beauty, trails, waterways, historic spaces and our mountain ecosystem. The series New River Gorge Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall depict the path of this ancient river through our state on its westerly ow to join the Ohio River. The pines, deciduous trees, ora and rocky cliffs change with the seasons but the mining excavation scars scattered in the region remain bleakly stark.

And now we come to the extraction of our natural resources (especially nonrenewable ones). Artists throughout the Appalachian region are speaking out. Miss Mountaintop Removal was designed after watching a video by Douglas John Imbrogno with explosive

lm, still photographs by Paul Corbitt Brown and the

poem “Boom, Boom” voiced over by poet Chrystal Brown. (see references for link).

The scene in Mountains of Energy captures the gas pipes piled along Corridor H in Randolph County prior to their installation as part of the highly contested Mountain Valley Pipeline route. Finally pushed through the last permits in a political negotiation during Biden administration with Senator Manchin as the hold out the wide path is visible through forests just as much as interstate highways and electric powerlines. Yes the disturbance of geography for wind turbines also permanently changes wildlife habits. What will the mega data centers requiring water, power and noise and pollutants add to communities? The series Our Mountains: Past, Present, Future? each depict the streams which begin at top of mountains, forests, and in Present and Future the impurities in those waters, and gray scars as over 500 mountaintops have been destroyed searching for the last veins of coal.

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Think about the impact you have when using energy, even “cyberspace”. fi

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AT Thru Hike 2020 GA-WV 58” x 19” rug hooking, paint

AT Thru Hike 2020 MD-ME 58” x 19” rug hooking, paint

Spring Along the New River in West Virginia, 10” x 20” rug hooking, embroidery

Tools and materials used to create this series - rug hook, scissors, thread, wool fabric strips pulled through linen canvas

Fall Along the New River in West Virginia, 10” x 20” rug hooking and embroidery

Design process, pattern on frame, fabric

Our Mountains: Past, 20” x 20” rug hooking with sari silk as rivers

Our Mountains: Present, 20” x 20” rug hooking with sari silk as acidic rivers

Our Mountains: Future? 20” x 20” rug hooking with sari silk as acidic rivers

Our Mountains studies each 5” x 5” Present Circles, Green lines Future? browns, greys

Mountains of Energy, 11” x 19” custom frame, rug hooking, plastic straws, embroidery, applique’, paint on canvas

Mountaintop Removal Jewel, 20” x 14” rug hooking, silver wire, applique’, beads the medallion can be worn as a brooch

Mountaintop Removal Puzzle, 20” x 10” rug hooking, weaving, applique’ top motif can be moved or worn as pin

Google Earth image 2019 excavation near Pax, WV just off I64 (Reeds Branch)

Miss Mountaintop Removal, 20” x 16” rug hooking, punch needle, wire, applique’, beads, Starbucks coffee bag

details: ABOVE Starbucks labeling LEFT wire and punched yarn loops

Barns and their Stories There has been a fascination with old structures since my childhood. As we drove the country roads and spotted an aging barn my mother would say “that building has a story.” Drive our roads and observe the architectural differences in barns. They were built in the past centuries for speci c purposes - storage, dairy, multiple animal breeds, milling and even housing. There are square silos in Grant County along just a few miles of road, quonset hut roofs, three story buckwheat processing mills, long sloping roof lines, multi gabled and winged and more. Many were built using chestnut which lasts for decades but the blight in early 1900’s wiped that species out of our forests.

I decided quilting to use the “new to me” old handicraft to emphasize the traditional memories of the barns around me and the one person who carefully takes them down to recycle the materials when asked - Stephen Kline. Using nine squares and two quilt block patterns I had my digital sketches printed on cotton

by Spoon ower. Incorporating these with commercial fabrics the quilts have an unusual sense of personality. In Nine Patch - Barns I added hooked hay rolls and bands of scenery. Nine Patch - Abstract plays on the digital sketch of the barn skeleton in squares cut from the full design and a center panel embroidered.

Nine Patch - Stephen honors him at work and tells the story of the huge barn he dismantled in preparation for the 200 acres to become a solar farm.

The 3-D Loy’s Barn was a fun challenge. I have made patterns that come together to make a box before but to incorporate the roof and have it all line up took patience. All of these were part of an exhibit with ne artist Kristen Colebank of Waites Run Studio titled Barns have Stories. We prepared a catalog and the link is in resources.

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Nine Patch - Barns 36” x 36” rug hooking, digital designed fabric with commercial ones

Nine Patch - Stephen 36” x 36” digital designed fabric with commercial ones

Nine Patch - Abstract 36” x 36” digital designed, eco dyed and commercial fabrics, embroidery

digital design on cotton, embroidered panel on linen

Loy’s Barn 12” X 12” X 12” rug hooking, paint, applique’, wallpaper digital design base, upholstery roof, lined with digital design cotton.

Over my creative years I have explored new techniques, materials, and design styles by making studies. There was an entire year of daily

ve inch square

sketches. No parameters just a bridge from structured folk art patterns to creative studio work. Rug hooking took on a linear pattern, embroidery and paint came back into my tool box and I even added weaving on pin looms. I wrote a book Design Basics for Rug Hookers, in 2011 published by Stackpole using the ve inch sketch to build con dence in designing learning how the elements and principles could be combined. For me value is the most important element then color, scale and line.

During covid I went back to an extended series this time over 100 days. Daily drawings in January were from the kitchen window, watching the shadows of time change on snow, bleak ground and then color up as spring birds and owers arrived in April and May. Posting daily on social media helped keep me on schedule and lead to an invitation to exhibit. The theme was 100 Days of Nature. Showing work and meeting people during 2020 was dif cult but the goal helped me complete the sketches.

I have lived with several of the works in this catalog and nally feel comfortable to send them out to new homes. Yes artists get attached to their work but the piece I on my frame at the moment is always my favorite.

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Trees January 30 5” x 7” rug hooking

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Studies

In the pioneering block printing style of the 1920’s championed by Blanche Lazzell and the Providence RI artists called white line, I worked these studies and several larger pieces.

Top left clockwise: Tomato and Garlic, Daffodils, Red Poppy, Orange Poppy all 6” x 6” rug hooking

Pine cones 5” x 5” rug hooking,

Winter Trees 5” x 5” rug hooking

upholstery fabric applique’

mixed bers

Sun ower 7” x 5” rug hooking

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backed with sun ower patterned cotton

White Daffodil, Yellow Daffodil Orange Flower, Pink Flower on green Daisy

all 5” x 7” rug hooking

Notes and Links Boom Boom: The Video Douglas John Imbrogno, photography by Paul Corbitt Brown voice and poem Chrystal Brown.

Barns have Stories catalog exhibit with Kristen Colebank, Waites Run Studio and Susan Feller, ArtWools. https://issuu.com/susanfeller/docs/ barns_haves_tories_catalog Thanks to Cecil Ybanez for this opportunity to curate my work and exhibit in Richwood where people live and understand the environment we are part of in 21st Century Appalachia.

I am glad to be part of the creative network

lled with artists, businesses,

collectors, and exhibition spaces all contributing to the economy and community of West Virginia. Follow me on BlueSky @sfeller24.bsky.social and IG @artwools. Website(s) SusanFeller.com

and ArtWools.com

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