Susan Feller
Nine Patch – Barns, Barns, Barns, 2025
Cotton fabrics, hand hooked motifs, quilted 36” x 36”
Using my digital drawings reproduced on cotton fabric to illustrate farming in West Virginia I combined commercial materials in the traditional log cabin block. Hand hooked motifs, hay rolls, a view of harvest in fields and fall add texture and dimension to the wall hanging.
Susan Feller
Loy’s Barn, 2025
Wool fabric, printed cotton, paint, on linen, yarn 9” x 9” x 9” on 12” square base
Barns have Stories was the theme for an exhibit honoring the timber framed structures built over a century ago. Many are gracefully deteriorating, sun shining through open roof and sides yet still storing hay and equinox. They portray strength and endurance.
Susan Feller
Iconic Democracy, 2025
Wool, cotton crochet and embroidery 24” h x 18” w
Fifth in series addressing women’s rights, equality and social justice. Evoking a cathedral window, the words were voiced by Kamala Harris during her campaign for President of the United States. They are the inspiration for us to organize to retain Democracy
Susan Feller
Jane S. Choice #2, 2025
Wool fabric 24” h x 18” w
Second version was created when the first was selected by Governor’s Purchase Award for the WV State Museum collection. The colors evoke a gravestone. Janes are term for people helping others obtain an abortion.
Susan Feller
Jane S. Choice, 2022
wool and other fabrics, threads, yarns, metal hanger to display 24 x 18
Fourth in series, documenting women's issues. The vertical format depicts a headstone, inscription tells the story of US Supreme Court decisions Roe v Wade to Dobbs v Jackson with message "she will return". Hand hooking is a slow process, allowing the maker time to reflect on the subject. Craft has spoken for decades.
Susan Feller
Miss Mountaintop Removal, 2023
acrylic yarn, wool and cotton fabric, stainless steel, Starbucks labeling 20 x 16
In response to poem 'Boom, Boom" by Chrystal Good and photography by Paul Corbit Brown both included in video published in Sept 2022 WestVirginiaVille the design was first created digitally. Finally the fiber techniques and mixed media evolved giving tactile dimension to the daily destruction of Appalachia.
Susan Feller
Mountains of Energy, 2019
plastic straws, paint, cotton threads embroidered, yarns and fabric hooked and applique' 11 x 19
Human impact on natural resources destroys habitat, and ecology but the gas lines had to go in. Then the permits were denied and the scars remain-on nature and communities.
Susan Feller
Our Mountains Past, Present, Future?, 2022
wool and silk fabric 20 x 20
From Old-Growth Forests and crystal clean waters to corporate extraction of the natural resources in Appalachia the land has changed. Mountain tops are blasted off for the last coal, spreading carcinogens in the air, heavy metals into the waters and erosion from clear cut logging. Will we be able to halt this destruction? The tourism economy flourishes but for how long?
