From Woodstock Times, March 31, 2016

by Violet Snow

Susan Brown Woods draws with horsehair on sheep’s wool, sculpts with mirrors, paints with a blowtorch. Her fascination with materials, ironically, traces a path through both her personal and the collective unconscious, which are, perhaps, her real mediums. The Phoenicia artist will present her various yet interlocking recent works as the first art show at the Senate Garage, a new event space in Kingston’s Stockade District, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 2, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The show will include a dress made of mirrors, assemblages of burnt wood, and a series of horsehair pieces. “They all come from the same source, which has been driving me for the past six years,” said Woods. “The materials call me. They all have their own particular challenges and introduce me to new ways of experience.”

The works in horsehair and sheep’s wool began with a morning vision of a woman resembling an image from the classical Japanese Tale of Genji, her black hair draped over clouds. This compelling picture was planted in Woods’ mind when a chance meeting with a neighbor, Jen Holz, reminded her that Holz owned a herd of sheep. The artist went to watch a professional shear the sheep. “He was so graceful with the shears,” Woods said. “The sheep would be in surrender, coming out of their winter coats. I got these dirty, wintry, thick coats, and I washed and carded them.”

Like all Woods’ work, the carding process was meticulous and labor-intensive. Through Youtube and online forums, she learned how to use two carding tools, big wooden combs with short metal bristles, to repeatedly comb through each handful of wool, aligning the fibers. She piled up the straightened wool in four layers of four interlocking handfuls, then poured hot water over the wool and agitated it with her hands to create a soft white felt. Blocks of felt were assembled into a background of clouds, and then the horsehair drawing began.

“The horsehair comes from an American Indian reservation,” Woods said. “I took clumps of ten or twenty hairs, sometimes less, and sewed them together.” Arcs and loops of horses’ black tails, arranged hair by hair against the white wool, echo the vision of the woman in the clouds. The horsehair also referred to a poem Woods had written, beginning, “O tireless horse / blame me for my idleness,” expressing the idea that “one’s horse is one’s passion.”

She was already working with the wool and horsehair when a friend related the woman of the vision to Amaterasu, a Shinto sun goddess who grows frustrated by the clouds, which are blocking her light. A myth tells how the goddess retreats into a cave. The people, bereft of her light, aim mirrors into the cave, luring her out with her own reflected light.

This legend made an instant connection to two earlier bodies of work, the mirrored dress and the burnt wood assemblages. The wood concept was inspired by a trip along the coast of Sardinia, where Woods had kayaked into caves. Sometimes she came upon another entrance that admitted light from above, and she was riveted by the cathedral-like quality of the light reflecting on the water of the cave. She longed to reproduce the quality of that light in her studio.

Back in Phoenicia, her husband, a builder, brought home timbers from an 1841 house he was renovating, intending to use them as firewood. “I was putting them into the woodstove,” recalled the artist, “and they were so beautiful, I couldn’t feed them into the fire.” Instead, she took a blowtorch and began to char them, creating a patina that, when burnished, recreated the reflection of light on cave water.

Meanwhile, she had been working with tiny mirror fragments, wiring them into a dress, but she didn’t like the result. “It was too glamorous,” said Woods. “But I loved the light it reflected. When I shone light on it, the reflections created stars.” She remembered an experience from her twenties, when she had looked up at the night sky and was convinced the stars would hold memories of her life that she could access years later through their light. “It was a profound experience,” she said. “I wanted to try to catch that and present it as an idea.”

To enhance the starry effect of the dress, she bought a special effects scrim. At the Senate Garage, the dress will rotate behind the translucent curtain, as light bounces off the mirrors. Texts written by Woods will be projected against the scrim—a children’s story about night as a woman, short pieces about caves, and the legend of Amaterasu. Further research into the myth had revealed a significant detail. To keep her role as ruler of the heavens, the goddess had fought a duel with her brother. When she won, he took his revenge by killing her heavenly horse, and her grief had sent her into the cave to mourn.

“After I had been sewing and sewing on the horse tails, I read that,” said Woods. “Things always happen in reverse for me.”

Woods’ work will be displayed in the 8000-square-foot Senate Garage, a 1921 building adjacent to Senate House State Park. “It’s the original garage for the Senate House,” said Judy Tallerman, who renovated the property with her husband, Don. “We’ve created a space inside that continues to keep the industrial brick and steel but we’ve added elegance to it.” The owners are supporting culture and the arts, while making the space available for weddings, corporate functions, and celebrations of all kinds.

An opening reception for S.B. Woods–Sculpture and Installation Exhibit will be held Saturday, April 2, 5 to 7 p.m., at the Senate Garage, 4 North Front Street, Kingston. The show will run only nine days, through April 10.