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Susan M. Hess talks more about "I'm Nobody"
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Susan M. Hess talks more about "I'm Nobody"
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In this week's paper, I wrote about tapestry artist Susan M. Hess. (And, for the record — I did not know this before — tapestry does not refer to the poor décor that college students rely on, but to woven pieces of art that incorporate illustrated poetry.) Here's what I said about her upcoming exhibit:
It's no wonder artist Susan M. Hess used Emily Dickinson's poetry as therapy. The famous recluse had a way of making ennui feel fun, or at least funny — in the poem "I'm Nobody" (which inspired Hess' exhibit), she jokes, "How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog." Hess' needlework, precious and proper, depicts Dickinson's words. Next to the stitched-out poem "A Great Hope Fell," which explores how despair sucks you in like a rip current, Hess sewed a rosy pink blind, shut tight without a speck of sunlight coming in. And there's nothing funny about that.
Here's more from my talk with her:
City Paper: Have you loved Emily Dickinson since being forced to read her in middle school? Or was it something you've come to enjoy recently?
Susan M. Hess: I actually hadn't read any of her work until just a few years ago. I was teaching piano to children, and kept an Advent calendar around to read off to them, which one day said that it was the anniversary of her birthday. So on a whim I bought a book of her's and felt very connected to it right away.
CP: You say in your artist's statement that you use her work as therapy, which is interesting because she's pretty dark at times.
SH: Oh yeah, she was a recluse most of her life. But that made her able to describe pain, depression, death and psychology in a way that few people can, which is why I was drawn to her.
CP: Do you see your work as an homage to her then?
SH: Not really. Freud says the subconscious thinks in images, and I think that that's what I was doing here. Prior to this, I didn't think I was an artist, but I knew I could sew things Â… so I made art in the way that I knew how, in response to someone who inspired me to.
To read more on Hess' exhibit, which begins June 3, click here.
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