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One of Suzanne Pretty's thought-provoking works. (Courtesy)
The Franklin Gallery at RiverStones Custom Framing in Rochester will host an exhibit during November featuring hand woven tapestries and multimedia pieces of Farmington artist, Suzanne Pretty. An opening reception will be held on Nov. 4, from 5-6:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend.
Suzanne Pretty graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a BA in painting. Her work then evolved from thick paint and texture into quilted, stuffed and painted pieces and eventually into tapestry.
"My grandmother was a lady's tailor in London and planted the seeds of her love of fiber with her knitting, crocheting and interesting fabric samples," says Pretty. "I did production weaving for a number of years when I first moved to New Hampshire, but then I set this aside as my focus shifted to tapestry and multimedia works. I develop my images in multimedia painted in gouache and then enlarge and translate the images to be used to develop my tapestries."
The thread of the environment and its fragmentation has been a major focus of her work for a number of years.
"My focus has increased as the impact becomes more apparent," she says. "We cannot continue to ignore these changes any longer. The interweaving of technology and the natural world explodes into every aspect of our lives. I work with this contrast between the hard edge modern world of glitz and glitter against the natural environment. In this love/hate relationship lip service is given to the natural world while technology bulldozes through the environment both literally and figuratively. The struggle is a world of contrast and conflict.
"As a tapestry weaver, I find paper weavings a fascinating outgrowth of the medium. Tapestry is methodical process with the image progressing slowly. The paper weavings by contrast are similar to sketches allowing me to work with contrasting textures, images and colors to explore variations and ideas in a different format. This medium suits the subject of the fragmenting landscape cut apart and then pieced back together."
The Franklin Gallery and RiverStones Custom Framing is located at 33 N. Main Street and open Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Unless otherwise indicated, all exhibited Franklin Gallery artworks are available for purchase. For information about this and future Franklin Gallery exhibits, contact Kris Ebbeson at krisebbeson@comcast.net or 603-812-1488.
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