This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: The United Kingdom

Susan Chapman

I live in a small farming village near Winchester in the U.K. I teach adults in Eastleigh College, including City and Guilds, a Masterclass, and am Course Manager for a Degree in Stitched Textiles and HNC Contemporary Art Practice. I also work as a freelance artist, and give lectures and workshops.

My work is about our relationships with others and our place in the world. The passage of time as I reach retirement age is also a strong feature. Handwriting is used as a markmaking device, and of course used as a metaphor for identity because of its personal uniqueness. I am influenced by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Tracey Emin, Dorothy Caldwell and Rozanne Hawkesley.

Girlfriends

Self portrait corrected

Friendship

I make contemporary quilts and also wrapped book forms. I constantly work into sketchbooks, documenting the world around me and my interaction with it, combining my drawings with textiles using stitch, both hand and machine. 

I draw from life into my sketchbooks and my practice involves working into these books nearly every day ...except for my two long college teaching days. 

Inner City

Inner City is amongst my most recent work and combines the quilt form and a wall hung book form. It looks at youth culture and attitude, from observational drawing on the South Bank in London. 

Inner City, detail

Inner City, detail

I belong to several exhibiting groups which keeps me very busy with exhibitions, do Google them and look at their websites; ArtQuiltFusion(AQF), Studio21, ByDesign, Room6, and ContemporaryStitchWorkshop(CSW)