Susan Allison-Hatch
Dover Beach, 2023
Hand-dyed and commercially dyed silk 20.5 x 39.75
This image comes from Matthew Arnold's poem, Dover Beach--the opening lines, "The sea is calm tonight/The tide is full, the moon lies fair/Upon the straits...." shape the image and the closing stanza "Al, love, let us be true/To one another! ...we are here as on a darkling plain" gives voice to the cry behind the image.
Susan Allison-Hatch
Mississippi Flyways, 2023
Antique Boro Cloth on Hand-dyed Silk on Antique Boro Cloth, Embroidery Floss, Sashiko Silk 52 x 27
It was the last field trip my mother took me on before she died--a trip to a wildlife refuge just south of St. Paul, Minnesota. A stop on the Mississippi Flyway that extends from Canada in the North to the Gulf of Mexico. As I stitched on this piece the moment and memories of such mom-driven field trips surface in my consciousness. A meditation on a moment with my mom.
Susan Allison-Hatch
Into the Silence, 2024
Hand-dyed Silk 36 x 16
This meditative piece is a gift from the dye pot which caught my eye. Serendipity at work.
Susan Allison-Hatch
Detritus, 2024
Seaweed of many varieties and washed-up fish net 13.5 x 13.5
"Detritus" is a gift from the North Atlantic. It comes from the shore of Waukill Bay in the Orkney Islands.
Susan Allison-Hatch
Doors to the Holy, 2022
Joomchi, Gold Leaf 11x 11
Doors to the Holy is a meditative piece both rising from a meditative moment and opening a door to such moments. It's meant to be pondered.
Susan Allison-Hatch
Churchill’s Riddle, 2023
Paper Thread, Joomchi, Antique Japanese Newsprint, Antique Japanese Account Ledger Paper, Handmade Paper 20 X 16.5
In 1941, Churchill was asked "What Gives with the Soviet Union"? He answered, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". What are we, after all, to one another? Perhaps riddles wrapped in mysteries and enigmas. Incorporated in this piece are questions we might ask about one another and the world around us. Among the questions I might ask are "What is my dog thinking?" "What's fair?"
Susan Allison-Hatch
Sandias Enshrouded, 2023
Hand-dyed silk, Antique Japanese thread, Joomchi 22 x 32
The clouds were low over the Sandia Mountains--the backdrop of my home town--I photographed them from the grocery store parking lot, an intersection closer to the mountain, and even closer a park quite far from home. I was chasing the mystery enshrouded by those low-hung clouds. The silk and paper and lines of stitch are as close as I could come to those mountains draped in fog and clouds.
Susan Allison-Hatch
Bound Together in Love, 2019
Kelp, Sashiko Thread, Antique Safflower-dyed Boro Cloth, Wedding Sari 47 x 15.75
There is a delicacy to Bound Together in Love--in the varied tones of the safflower dye on mended old piece of boro cloth, in the gold bands of the wedding sari on which the boro cloth rests, and in the seaweed collected by my husband from our favorite California beach. All tenderly held together in and by love.
