After Polly Collins

Susie Brandt
After Polly Collins
Steel, acrylic beads, floral wire, chenille stems
2019

After Polly Collins is an interpretation of a gift drawing made by Shaker sister Polly Collins (1808-1884), who lived in nearby Hancock, Massachusetts. Some Shakers expressed their spiritual revelations as drawings, and deemed them ‘gifts’ from God. Although the design of their architecture, furniture and clothing was marked by sparse elegance, Shaker gift drawings could be exuberantly colorful and were kept only for occasional private display. Susie Brandt’s work is rooted in textile traditions and the vernacular arts of her Adirondack, New York home. Recent exhibitions include the International Fiber Art Fair in Seoul, South Korea, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. She is the recipient of Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland Arts Council and a Visual Arts Grant from the Creative Capital Foundation of New York. Brandt resides in Lake Luzerne, New York, and Baltimore Maryland, where she is a professor in the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Fiber and Foundation Departments

Concourse B
Photos by Arthur Evans