Susan Brandeis

Bio

Susan Brandeis is Distinguished Professor of Art + Design, Emerita. She taught and coordinated undergraduate and graduate studies in Fibers and Surface Design; was a founding member of the Anni Albers Scholars Program faculty; and taught classes in the textile arts which focus on screen printing, dyeing, fibers materials and processes, off-loom structures, pattern, color, textile history, and contemporary issues in fibers. She served as the Director of Graduate Programs for the Department of Art + Design, and worked with a wide range of students whose interests span the spectrum from designing textiles for mass production to creating one-of-a-kind art works. She is a member of the University’s Academy of Outstanding Teachers and founded the Southeast Fibers Educators Association.

Her creative work has focused on continuing investigations in dyeing and printing both industrially produced and hand-woven fabrics, the juxtaposition of pattern and color, the contrast of materials and textures, and digital printing and embellishment. Her explorations are directed toward developing a visual “language” of materials and techniques which communicates the essential qualities found in nature, inspired by hiking and visiting places of great natural beauty. Her art works for the wall have been published in the books Celebrating the Stitch, The Surface Designer’s Art, and The Art Quilt, and in leading craft and textile art magazines such as American Craft, Fiberarts, and Surface Design Journal, and have been exhibited throughout the United States and in England, Ireland, Finland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Colombia, at the International Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. She is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian. She has taught summer workshops at Penland School of Crafts (North Carolina), Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (Tennessee), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Maine), Oregon College of Arts and Crafts (Oregon), and the Split Rock Arts Program (Minnesota). She is the recipient of three visual arts fellowships from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

She is the author of The Intentional Thread: A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch (Schiffer Publishing, 2019) and of The Cumulative Cloth: A Guide to Fabric Color, Pattern, Construction, and Embellishment (also Schiffer Publishing, scheduled for release in late Fall 2023).

Link to Website:

Area(s) of Expertise

Textile art and design, surface design (printing, dyeing, stitching), digital printing on fabric, fibers materials and processes, contemporary issues in fibers, and textile history