Sue Sherman is enjoying her second career as an art quilter, creating realistic art quilts mostly of animals she has photographed on her travels. She uses thickened dyes and thread to bring her visions to life, bringing attention to the state of the earth’s ecosystems.
How did you get started making fiber art? Why did you choose that medium?
I have been working with fibres since I was very small – knitting, crochet, sewing, etc. The medium chose me long ago.
I have loved making art for almost as long, but it wasn’t until I retired from my first career in 2017 that I put these two passions together and started making art quilts.
What do you do differently? What is your signature that makes your work stand out as yours?
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I make realistic art quilts, mostly of animals that I have photographed myself, and mostly with a theme or message of environmental responsibility. My technique is painting with thickened dyes, which I learned in a workshop with Hollis Chatelain in 2018. Although many have taken her classes I am the only one I know of who is using this technique on all their quilts.
Does your work have stories to tell?
I am very concerned about the state of the earth’s ecosystems and their ability to enable human and other life to thrive in the long-term future.
I think it’s best to bring attention to the positive side — what we can do to help. And I like to mix it with a little humour or lightheartedness wherever possible.
What different creative media do you use in your work?
Painting with thickened dyes is my primary medium. This allows me to create on plain white cotton an image with an incredible amount of detail and nuance, including shading.
All my pieces also feature heavy quilting/thread painting on my sitdown longarm machine. I select my thread depending on the image – it could be shiny trilobal polyester, soft matte cotton, fine silk, or even sparkly metallic thread.
Where do you find your inspiration for your designs?
I love to travel and to take photographs of wild animals around the world.
I have been to all seven continents and have had the privilege of seeing a lot of natural habitats first-hand. I like to visit the colder parts of the world.
Especially on my whimsical pieces, I believe it is very important to bring as much realism and detail as possible into the animals that are depicted. This is partly because I love creating animal images, but equally because I don’t want my art to look cartoonish.
Do you plan your work out ahead of time, or do you just dive in with your materials and start playing?
A great deal of planning goes into all my pieces.
I often work on the design in my head for many months before anything goes on paper. Once on paper, there are usually a few iterations of the general layout before I am happy.
On my pieces with multiple animals, I usually sketch each one onto a separate piece of tracing paper and tape them onto the background. They get moved around a lot over a period of days or weeks until I’m happy with the overall composition. I go through a lot of paper, pencils and erasers.
Do you have a dedicated space for creating? If so, what does it look like?
I have a studio where I do all my sewing. It contains a lot of storage, plus my longarm with its table and a table for my regular sewing machine.
There’s no room for a design wall in there, so I use a small wall in another room for that. And I use the dining room table for applying the thickened dyes, and my laundry room for preparing the dyes. I basically work all over the house.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
I virtually never have two projects on the go at the same time. After 36 years in consulting I developed a strong discipline around completing projects before moving on. Also, I find can’t get my mind in the right space to work on a new project while it still has to allocate brain cells to an old one.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
I have generally found that it doesn’t work for me to actively try and think up a design. Most of my best concepts have happened on their own, and they have just jumped into my head unannounced (and sometimes unwanted). They usually won’t leave until I actually try to make them into a piece of fibre art.
I have often found that these ideas, when they enter my head, seem crazy and unworkable, and even more so when I try to describe them to someone else. They don’t arrive fully formed, but just at the edge of my mind as a nebulous concept, and I need a lot of tries to make them into something I am happy with. The finished pieces are a combination of my deepest thoughts, trial-and-error and hard work.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
Applying the thickened dyes is the best part. This is when a flat pencil sketch starts to look like a real animal. I like to make sure that I’m in a happy place while doing this work, with no pressure and no distractions. In order to get the realism and detail, I have to be able to focus without thinking about how long it’s going to take.
Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?
My concern for the environment is the most overarching theme. The specific topic may be climate change, habitat loss, or perhaps just an animal who is vulnerable to these things.
How is your work different than it was in the beginning? How is it the same?
In my first career I made a point of being a generalist. For this, my second career, I have decided to keep with one thing and try to be as good at it as I possibly can. This has been a challenge, as my interest is easily distracted by so many interesting techniques and approaches, but in general I have stuck to fibre art created by applying thickened dye to white cotton and depicting animals I have photographed myself.
I have sometimes expanded a little by adding some fabric paint for emphasis, mostly to depict non-natural components in the piece.
The main difference is that, as I get better at this technique, I can take on more complex design ideas and pull them off.
Do you critique your own work? What is your process?
I apply self-critique as I work. But this is limited to my own experience and is dragged down by my tendency towards being over-critical.
For a few years now I have belonged to a critique group which meets by Zoom twice a month. This has been a great opportunity to expand my world, to learn from others, and sometimes just to hear from another fibre artist that I am on the right track.
How do you know when a piece or project is finished and needs no additional work?
My pieces usually tell me when they are done. It’s usually earlier than I was expecting. It’s important when I work on something to not be thinking of the finish line. I try to stay in the zone of “ongoing project” until the end is reached.
One technique I use with my quilting is to work an area lightly, to secure it and allow me to quilt the adjacent area, and then come back to the first a bit later when the piece is finished. It surprises me how much I realize when I come back to finish the quilting that it was actually already quilted enough.
When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t see myself as creative. As a child and a teenager I always made things, and in many cases tried to change or improve whatever pattern or instructions I was following.
Having said that, my creativity was heavily constrained during the many years of raising children and working in my first career, because so much of my mind was occupied with details and responsibilities.
On the first day of my retirement, it felt like I had a new external memory pack and a supercharger for my brain. Like the starting gun of a horserace, all this new creative headspace belonged to me now, and I could use it however I wanted.
Do you enter juried shows? Do you approach your work differently for these venues?
Yes! I have had pieces in five global exhibitions with Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA).
I have entered my work in the Canadian National Juried Show every year since 2018, and have won several ribbons there, including Best of Show in 2023. I have also had pieces in Houston – most notably winning the Superior Thread Award for Thread Mastery in 2022.
I try to be guided by what I want to say with my art rather than trying to tailor it to a specific show. But if I’m working on a piece with a view to submitting it to a particular show, I will at the very least check the dimensions they require and try to fit within that boundary.
Where can people see your work?
I have a website www.sueshermanquilts.com, and folks can follow me on Instagram or Facebook @sueshermanquilts, where you can learn about specific exhibitions including my work.
Articles on my career and work have appeared in Art Quilt Quarterly and Canadian Quilter. There have also been articles about specific pieces in Art Quilting Studio.
I had the opportunity to recorded an episode of The Quilt Show in the summer, and it will be airing March 3 2024.
A solo show of my work is planned for the summer of 2025 at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.
Interview posted January 2024
Browse through more art quilt inspiration and projects on Create Whimsy.