Fiberarts Studios Contest

Suzanne Silk
Santa Fe, New Mexico

My studio/showroom/home is my center. This condominium complex was designed by the world-famous architect Ricardo Legoretto. This enclave of adobe-inspired and nontraditional spaces has touched my imagination. I am inspired by the many intense and high colors that make these buildings such a showplace and mecca for artists. The ever-present cool sky is a direct contrast to the warm tones of the land. I am this place, and this place is me.

I’ve created this space with regard to proper lighting to work in, at all hours of the night and day. The cabinets hold all of my creative materials. This was thought through down to how to incorporate my sewing machine and serger, with their expanding and unfolding work surfaces; they are all housed behind the clean “Mondrianesque” wall of cabinets. The print table, measuring 18 feet and wide enough for 54-inch fabric, was customized to my needs. This table houses my silk-screens, along with flat files for the many special papers and projects I’ve collected in the course of a twenty-five-year career of professional artmaking. There is always room for another shell, rock, or piece of wood that have become souvenirs of the path I’ve been on.

Another major part of my creative process is reflected in the high-tech corner of the studio. My digital life is self-evident! Armed with a high-powered Mac, an 8-MB Nikon digital camera and the latest in Photoshop software, I scan in and print with a bit of abandon. Having completed many digital workshops, I’ve come to the place where I encourage experiments and wonder at the results.

Suzanne Silk, Wind in the Pines kimono jacket (back), 2005; silk organza; rozome (Japanese wax-resist technique), overdyed, foiled with permanent iridescent surface pigments. Photo: Neil Silverman.