Susan Fecho has shown in 30+ solo exhibitions and in over a hundred invitationals. She is an established and respected artist in the region and uniquely qualified to address the contemporary issues in technology and the fine artist. Fecho’s published images have been accepted into several major collections: the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library, Washington, D.C.; the Word and Image Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; and the Museum of Women Artists, Washington, D.C. Fecho is a multi-media printmaker/surface designer with an earned M.F.A. from East Carolina University as well as postgraduate studies from various institutions including; Penland School of Crafts, Humboldt Field Research Institute, and Northern Illinois University. She has exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally – and has received numerous awards, grants and residencies.

Artist Statement: “I am a collector of media and techniques – and strive for integration between collaged papers, fabric, traditionally and digitally produced images. Each medium has its own unique characteristics. In work characterized as “sophisticated elegance.” I remain fascinated by the layering and coloration of elements. Layers are left translucent to enhance the textural feel of the surface. Driving the subject choice in my work is historic iconography. I enjoy researching symbols and architectural elements related to culture and genre – and to ponder the content, design, color relationships between them.

Trained as a traditional printmaker, I am intrigued by the richness and variety inherent in varied techniques. Storytelling is at the core of my work, with the sculptural book as a vehicle for narrative, expressing feelings, and sharing imagery.

My work is most easily identified with the landscape of home – poetic and lyrical archetypal views of nostalgic landscapes – and include traces of friends, family, and relationships.  The work is personal and introspective, like a journal or diary in which an object is often a representation of self or of viewer.

The body is gone but there is a residue, a memory; with something that stays behind to keep these images from being sterile representation of spaces. In these mood pieces, I revisit ideas and actual places to suggest life and memory, to evoke imaged sounds and emotions. My pieces are never static but continue to evolve and change. Both hand and mind manipulate, gather, reshape in effort to preserve and to open a door or a window for the viewer.”

Reviews:

“Fecho’s memories on paper are archetypal. It’s not just a personal memory as such, but more of an intrinsic type of memory that we store that might conjure up a past moment. They are images that allow the viewer her/his own personal recalled moments.” Jane Kessler, independent curator, writer and founder of the Curator’ Forum of Charlotte, NC.

“The spirit of Susan Fecho’s work is most easily identified, with the abandoned homeplace, the deserted front porch… a ghost of friends, family, relationships that is universal. Her work, personal and introspective, is like a journal or diary in which an object is often a representation of self or of viewer. Chairs, rooms, stairways, are all images of things vacated…but not empty. Poetic and lyrical, there is a hint of apparition in her work. The body is gone but here is a residue, memory; something stays behind that keeps these images from being sterile representation of spaces. Fecho revisits ideas and actual places. Pieces are never static but continue to evolve and change. Both hand and mind manipulate, gather, reshape in effort to preserve and also to open a door or a window for the viewer.” Meade B. Horne, past director of the Blount Bridgers Museum, Tarboro, NC

“There is- some artist’s beliefs to the contrary- a great deal of subject matter better suited to the miniature than the gigantic. Proof lies in works of Susan Fecho. Her miniatures are finely etched mood pieces suggesting life and memory, evoking imagined sounds and emotion. They are as intimate as chamber music… and as moving. What makes them work- evoking mood, combining the emptiness of desertion with whispering of past laughter, cries, footsteps of human habitation – is that the “rooms” are fragmented. This series is finely crafted by an artist who knows that suggestion is frequently more powerful than reality. She also obviously knows the value of angles and conveying lines to convey mood.” Richard Schqarze of the Times Publication, Kettering, Ohio.

“She has an abiding love of interpreting the past as both personal history and cultural artifact. She finds inspiration from the American artistic traditions. Fecho has frequently used then landscape and abandoned building as subject. Her still lifes always convey a sense of being tabletop landscapes. Her work blends the traditional with the experimental by working across media lines between painting and printmaking.” J. Chris Wilson. Professor Emeritus, Barton College

“Fecho’s work is retrospective in other ways – intimately so. To retrospect is to look back on, to contemplate things past. Fecho’s best, most haunting work does exactly that, drawing on the deep well of familial, historical, symbolic memory for inspiration and imagery. Her love of collecting the lost or abandoned objects and memories of others – faded photographs, postcards, dusty trunks found in garage sales and flea markets – then assembling them into new patterns that reference her memories…. one of the pleasures of viewing these pieces is the time it takes for the eye to move around in and inhabit them, to see and feel the figural and textural relations evoked by subtle overlay of materials and imagery. And while her subject matter often looks back, her methods increasingly activate a contemporary send of hyper-connectivity.” Dr. Elaine Marshall, Professor of English, Barton College.

“In the south, we are accustomed to writers being referred to as Southern Writers, their work completely connected to the place, the land, the culture, history. I believe this to be true of the visual artist, Susan Fecho, born in Virginia and long-term resident of North Carolina. Susan is connected to this place – she has a deep appreciation for the natural world of North Carolina, her home. Her intense response to her environment is evident in this body of work. Nature and “her land”, what she sees and responds to, observes and studies, is here in this work. From an entire landscape to a single leaf – we get a chance to see how Susan sees.” Maureen O’Neill, Director of Exhibitions and Educational Programming, Barton Art Galleries