Summary: Artist Susan Shie opened an art exhibition at Heartland Point in Orrville. The Wayne County resident and Orrville native is trying to find a niche and fan base for her unique quilt art.
No one would ever accuse Susan Shie of being a copycat. Art, the written word and quilting merge together in one-of-a-kind pieces. July 28, Heartland Point in Orrville held a reception to view the exhibition of Shies work, now on display and also available for purchase.
Shie was born in Orrville, and her family moved to Smithville when she was five. However, Shie spent most of her young adult years in Akron, at a school for the sight-impaired. She said the Akron culture influenced her as a young woman. There was more racial integration and a different mix of people than her small-town Wayne County upbringing. Longtime friends helped her integrate back into the rural culture. As a child, Shies family attended the East Chippewa Church of the Brethren, where her big-city views clashed with Anabaptist theology.
During her childhood, Shie began a lifelong love affair with art, and she laughed, saying she began drawing on paper in the church pews. Her sight impairment meant that she couldnt play outside much with other kids, and art became an outlet for creativity. Calling herself pigheaded about creating her own style, she merged it with writing, also another childhood activity through pen pals and writing stories.
Shie attended the College of Wooster and learned from coursework and professors that I could make a style that was my own that nobody used. She wanted art that was instantly recognizable. The art history courses she took helped her to see that the great art masters had broken the rules. I might as well do my own thing, she said, referring to art.
Today, Shie and her husband, Jimmy Acord, live in Wooster. She works out of Turtle Moon Studios, and pieces can be viewed online at turtlemoon.com. Acord makes custom-order leather fly fishing cases. He does something that Shie also wants to do: his work is sold before he creates each piece. Her goal? To have a waiting list of people who are waiting to see what comes out of me next and have the right of first refusal to purchase my works.
Exactly fitting into a category of artwork is the conundrum. Its tricky. Its not wanted in either place (painting or quilting), she said. Shie uses elaborate quilting methods and an air pen, much like an air brush, to create her works of art, then writing around the pieces, to tell stories about them. Some of the Heartland Point displays are smaller pieces. She said a normal quilted piece is about 83 by 86 inches, and she uses time capsules to capture the moments news, feelings and ideas for the artwork.
One recent piece, featured her granddaughter, Eva Miller, making French toast, the September 11 attacks, and the death of Betty Ford. Many pieces include personal stories and pictures, and Eva has worked with her on several pieces. Life inspires me, she said, pointing to a piece with elaborate stitching and quilting, mixed with the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middelton. She noted she does a lot of research on her subject matter.
Pieces, she said, are happy and tragic together. Because thats how life is. Life is a mixed bag. I want my artwork to reflect that.
The writing around each drawn part on the piece is not usually easy to read at first glance. Shie added the writing serves as a surface texture. She hopes that people come away with some feeling about each work. I would feel bad if someone looked at a work (of art) and not get it, she said.
Shie has participated in local, state and national quilt shows, and her goal is to get art displayed at her daughters place of employment, which would be no small feat. Daughter Gretchen Shie Miller works behind the scenes at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
As she greeted friends and happily chatted about her artwork, Shie took pictures of those who came, no doubt looking for fresh inspiration in the everyday, and a way to piece them in, one word, painting and stitch at a time.
