Who's Who: Artist Tells Stories in Cloth

[Editor's Note: This feature originally appeared in our "Who's Who" section, but has been moved to our section on artist profiles.]

Name: Suzanne Klein

Age: 66

Occupation: Artist

What kind of art do you do? Right now I'm doing mostly fabric art. For the last 10 years, I was working on the computer. I learned how to paint on the computer using Photoshop, so I made a series of images of horses. I got the idea from a particular song, "I Ride an Old Paint." I got to thinking about Old Paint the horse, and he became my vehicle for saying other things – philosophical observations about life.

Why did you switch to fabric arts? I began to feel that the product was all pretty hard, and I wasn't working with my hands as much as I wanted to. I wanted something soft. Then I discovered New Pieces, the fabric store.

I took a class; [the teacher] told me about Jude Hill and her Spirit Cloth website. Instead of plotting it all out, she has a vast knowledge and she builds [a piece] up – it has an evolutionary quality. It allows her to make pieces that can capture momentary thoughts, so I started taking on-line classes with her.

In my current work, I'm using a lot of her techniques. I use narration, and I've always enjoyed working with animals in my artwork.

How did horses come into your work? I got a job painting animals on furniture. I started going to the racetrack to get the feet right – there are so many bones in the feet.

Were you educated in art? I've always taken classes; I didn't major in art. I would wait until I liked someone's work, and then I'd try to take a class from them.

Did you seek out teachers or find them by chance? More by chance. I always felt that I had an obligation not only to take classes, but to develop my own ideas, so there were long breaks between classes.

Is there anything you'd like to add? I play music, old-time and blue grass fiddle, though I haven't been doing that lately. I went through a period of really simplifying my life. It's the idea of trying to be a whole person and not be too obsessed with any one thing. As I've gotten older, balance has been more important than doing things fast.

Learn more about Suzanne Klein's work here and buy it here.