The ethereal and intricate work of seasoned art quilter Susan Leslie Lumsden will be showcased at The Uptown Gallery’s January Exhibition entitled “In the Mind’s Eye.” The exhibition opened January 13th and runs through the end of February. Among the many local artists whose work will be shown, at least a dozen of Lumsden’s large-scale art quilts will be on display.
Lumsden recently moved back to Florida after a 17-year absence caring for her aging parents. During that period she developed her fiber skills and style. For nearly a decade she sold her work at juried art festivals nationwide and exhibited in many art venues. Two of the works being shown in this exhibition have garnered national awards. She has several pieces in public art displays, including the Student Union building at Missouri State University. She curated a traveling art quilt exhibition to invite discussion on racism which traveled the country for 2 years before being chosen as the art for the Ambassador to Pakistan’s residence. That exhibition was entitled Roots of Racism: Ignorance and Fear.
Lumsden’s recognizable style comes from the use of the traditional Bull’s eye design. But her take on it is decidedly non-traditional. Starting with white silk and cotton, Lumsden dyes most of the fabrics she uses. She also adds texture through printing her fabrics with handmade carved stamps as well as silk screens based on her drawings.
In order to qualify as a quilt, it must be multi-layered. Lumsden adds a layer of cotton batting, and the third layer is often printed using more of the hand carved stamps. For one of her best known pieces, Live Water, Lumsden made print blocks using the tip of her glue gun to create the fish shapes. These were then printed onto silk organza and appliqued onto the surface. On that quilt, she replicated the imagery on the front by dye painting a similar scene onto the back. An additional requirement to be considered a quilt is that the layers must be attached to each other in some manner. To accomplish this, Lumsden skillfully uses her domestic sewing machine to freemotion stitch–controlling not only the direction but the size and speed of the stitches.
Lumsden is an active member of Studio Art Quilt Associates where she is a professional artist member–an international juried level requiring proof of skill levels and marketing savvy. She also was a founding member of the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild where she is an active member. Now that she has resettled in the area, she hopes to resume teaching workshops in various fiber skills.
IF YOU GO:
Uptown Gallery is located at at 201 Howell Ave (Brooksville City Hall).