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Susan Mohl Powers
Born
Susan Elizabeth Mohl

(1944-06-01)June 1, 1944
Saint Paul, Minnesota
DiedOctober 24, 2023(2023-10-24) (aged 79)
Fall River, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
  • Mount Holyoke College
  • University of Minnesota
Occupations
  • Artist
  • Sailshade Studios owner
Known for
  • Sculptures and paintings that blend art and science
  • Sailshades
SpouseAlan W. Powers
ChildrenTwo daughters
Websitesailshadestudios.com

Susan Mohl Powers (1944 – 2023), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was a contemporary artist who sculpted in polygon and planar metal as well as sewn fabric, blending art and science to design sculptures and fabric-on-canvas paintings.[1] The owner of Sailshade Studios in Fall River, Massachusetts, she also designed, trademarked and fabricated an energy-efficient window shade.[2]

Biography

[edit]

Susan Mohl Powers, daughter of Judson Jasper Mohl and Florence (née Kling) Mohl, was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, of Swedish ancestry. Her family lived in Kansas and also in New England, where she completed high school.[3][4] She married Alan W. Powers in 1966. They lived in Westport, Massachusetts.[5]

Her interests in science and mathematics shaped her approaches to art. As a child she was fascinated by fossils; as an undergraduate, she conducted public open houses at Mount Holyoke College observatory.[4] Powers was also a science teacher at a private school in Minnesota.[1] Her early artistic influences included Buckminster Fuller and D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's On Growth and Form.[3]

Powers died October 24, 2023, in Fall River, Massachusetts.[6]

Education

[edit]
Redwood Seed
by Susan Mohl Powers
Mosaic Nude
by Susan Mohl Powers
Susan Mohl Powers with two of many large pieces exhibited at Squibb International Headquarters, Princeton, NJ, 1979, reviewed in the Times, "Blending Science and Art."
Susan Mohl Powers in Sailshadestudios, Fall River, MA, with pieces from her Nemasket show (Fairhaven) in 1988. It has since exhibited at Heritage Park, Fall River.
Fabric Glass Blue Rose
by Susan Mohl Powers

Powers earned a baccalaureate in 1966 from Mount Holyoke College,[7] having studied studio art, physics, and astronomy.[8] She began her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at the University of Minnesota, and completed a Master of Fine Arts in visual design in Massachusetts.[1] She studied with Henry Rox, Jānis Kalmīte, Hui Ming Wang, Leonard DeLonga, and Harold Pattek. Early in her career, she created welded steel sculptures under Katherine Nash, who founded Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota.[9]

Powers wrote that her art was an effort to record imagery from scientific studies and observations: "I now see cellular and fossil-like forms everywhere. The expression might be a fabric sculpture. It might be an oil painting in which ribbed structures are sewn into the canvas before stretching. It might be works on paper; when I draw pastel nudes, the thighs, the breasts, and the torsos all break apart into geometric, refracted patterns of the expanding universe."[3]

Reception

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Powers' fine art abstracts and commercial fabrications were well received. A 1979 New York Times reviewer wrote that some modern artists are "able to create successful mixtures of science and art. The mixtures by Susan Mohl Powers, now on view at the Squibb Gallery, are fascinating, relying heavily on both disciplines for their expression."[1] Acknowledging that a few pieces "might not be eminent successes", the review described most of her pieces as "striking for their adventurousness and for their emphatic presence... What makes these pieces interesting from an esthetic point of view is their apparent contradictory nature. One look might tell us that they are an Expressionist canvas using geometric shapes as imagery. Another look might tell us that they are soft sculpture. In fact, they work well as both."[1]

Susan Mohl Powers with Lion's Tuft for Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg at Sailshade Studios
Dancing Galaxies
by Susan Mohl Powers
Susan Mohl Powers creating bust of Theodore Baird

A Boston Globe review described her solo installation of soft sculptures at the Nemasket Gallery in Fairhaven as "a series of gauzy, boxy fabric shapes suspended from the ceiling and moving gracefully in the air currents". It also highlighted her commercial ventures with Sailshades, and commented the artist "capitalized on the big open space by creating a series of sewn rectangles that, when hanging, stay open without folding or flopping, even though there is no armature other than the seams".[8] The review mentioned layers of translucent materials and stitching lines: "The effect can resemble crazy quilt patterns, or ice floes cracking apart."[8]

A 2003 reviewer observed, "Referencing skeletons and membranes and animals and insects, her suspended works appear to float weightlessly despite their sometimes-large size and volume", and noted that sections of a wall piece "appear to freeze differing fragments of cascading liquid waves movement".[10]

Sailshade Studios

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Powers designed and began fabricating an energy-efficient "insulating decorator roman shade with a self-creating valance"[4] out of her home in 1979, trademarking the name and design Sailshade in 1984 with her husband under the business name "Cloth Construction Partnership".[11] By 1987, with diminishing sales, Powers took a job at a fabric mill and joined the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which she later saluted with a large installation, "Under the Microscope of Spirit–A Tribute To The I.L.G.W.U.", at Nemasket Gallery in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.[8][12][13]

In 1991 she opened Sailshade Studios, Inc., in Durfee Union Mills, a granite 1860 textile mill complex in Fall River, Massachusetts.[4] Powers installed Sailshades in 32 states, created applications to address acoustic challenges, and installed heat-reducing "planar net artwork" in other venues.[14][15][16][17] She also conducted do-it-yourself workshops locally in Massachusetts on making insulated shades that cut energy costs.[14] The Sailshade trademark was re-registered in 2008 under "Sailshade Studios, Inc."[18]

Collaborations

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As a subcontractor for Paul Amaral, Powers fabricated the 9 ft (2.7 m) tuft for Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Venice Biennale piece, "Lion's Tale", a gift Oldenburg and van Bruggen installed originally May–October, 1999, in Piazza San Marco outside Museo Correr, Venice, Italy (now at Musei Civici Veneziani in Venice).[19]

Powers directly collaborated with Paul Amaral in 2014 to fabricate the 9 ft (2.7 m) perforated stainless steel sculpture, "Dancing Galaxies".

Powers collaborated on three public sculpture installations with architect Kathryn Duff of the Studio to Sustain, Inc., of New Bedford, Massachusetts: at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island; Prima Care in Fall River, Massachusetts; and The Incognito restaurant in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[20][21][22]

In collaboration with her husband, who wrote Birdtalk: Conversations with Birds, Powers provided chapter drawings to help readers identify birds whose calls are being described.[5]

Exhibitions and installations

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Powers' résumé includes solo and group exhibitions, as well as public installations.[9]

Solo exhibitions

[edit]
  • 1979 — "Polygons and Planar Nets," Squibb Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey[1][22][23]
  • 1988 — "Under the Microscope of Spirit–A Tribute To The I.L.G.W.U.", Nemasket Gallery, Fairhaven, Massachusetts; with immediate follow-up exhibition at Heritage State Park, Fall River, Massachusetts[8][12][13]
  • 1994 — Digital Corporation, Worcester, Massachusetts
  • 1994 — Piano Mill Gallery, Needham, Massachusetts
  • 1995 — Sterling Millworks Gallery, Sterling, Massachusetts
  • 2002 — "Solo Exhibition 2002", Galleria Eclettica, Milano, Italia[24]
  • 2004 — New Bedford Art Museum, Lower Vault and Upper Vault Gallery[25]

Selected group exhibitions

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  • 1971 — Kramer Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota
  • 1975 — Image Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts
  • 1994 — Donovan Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island
  • 1998 — Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island
  • 2003 — "Sun Spots 2003" and "Juno's Corset 2003", Grimshaw Gudewicz Art Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts[26][27]
  • 2005 — Annotazioni d’Arte, Milano, Italia

Public installations

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Selected sculptures by Susan Mohl Powers

[edit]
  • Seahorses (viewed from balcony) by Susan Mohl Powers
    Seahorses
    (viewed from balcony)
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • Seahorses (viewed from below) by Susan Mohl Powers
    Seahorses
    (viewed from below)
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • Juno's Corset by Susan Mohl Powers
    Juno's Corset
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • City Hall–red panel by Susan Mohl Powers
    City Hall–red panel
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • City Hall–blue panel by Susan Mohl Powers
    City Hall–blue panel
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • To Take Wing (bronze) by Susan Mohl Powers
    To Take Wing (bronze)
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • Fossil 473 (bronze) by Susan Mohl Powers
    Fossil 473 (bronze)
    by Susan Mohl Powers
  • Artist Susan Mohl Powers standing by her perforated metal sculpture, "Dancing Galaxy"
    Susan Mohl Powers with Dancing Galaxies
  • Bust of Theodore Baird, by Susan Mohl Powers
    Bust of Theodore Baird, by Susan Mohl Powers

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Shirey, David L. (March 11, 1979). "On Blending Science and Art" (PDF). New York Times. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 29, 2013.
  2. ^ Mopsy, S.K. (October 9, 1983). "Getting Around: Saving Sunshine". Boston Globe Magazine. ProQuest 1637330945. Retrieved December 29, 2023 – via Proquest.
  3. ^ a b c "Susan Mohl Powers - Programma". Sailshade Studios, Inc. 2014. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d "Biography - Susan Mohl Powers". SMP Installations. Sailshade Studios, Inc. 2014. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Powers, Alan (2015). Birdtalk: Conversations with Birds. Foreword by Richard C. Wheeler, illustrated by Susan Mohl Powers. Frog Books. p. xi. ISBN 9781583940655. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  6. ^ "Susan Mohl Powers - Obituary - Westport, MA - Potter Funeral Service". www.currentobituary.com. October 24, 2023. Archived from the original on November 17, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
  7. ^ "Leading Women in the Arts". Weissman Center for Leadership > Public Events. Trustees of Mount Holyoke College. 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014. Susan Mohl Powers '66 studied studio art, astronomy, and physics during her years at Mount Holyoke. After participating in the M.F.A. sculpture program at the University of Minnesota, she completed the M.F.A. degree in Visual Design at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. The New York Times hailed her first solo exhibition at the Squibb Corporate Headquarters in Princeton, N.J. as "striking for its adventurousness and its emphatic presence." Her work is part of numerous public and private collections, and her studio is located in a nineteenth-century granite mill in Fall River, Massachusetts
  8. ^ a b c d e Temin, Christine (August 31, 1988). "Lives in the Arts - Stitching a Crazy Quilt of Art and Science". The Boston Globe. ProQuest 294406067 – via Proquest.
  9. ^ a b "Susan Mohl Powers résumé" (PDF). Sailshade Studios, Inc. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  10. ^ Boyce, David B. (November 27, 2003). "Current BCC offering is an exceptional exhibit". South Coast Today. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  11. ^ "U.S. Trademark 73411973, Registration #: 1,296,384". United States Patent and Trademark Office. September 18, 1984. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Under The Microscope of Spirit 1988". Sailshade Studios. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Fabric artist pays tribute to fabric workers". Herald News. Fall River, Massachusetts. November 1988.
  14. ^ a b Kerr, Paula (October 28, 2005). "Made in the Shade - Designer reveals the secret of the energy-saving Sailshade". Herald News. Fall River, Massachusetts.
  15. ^ "Art on Sailshades Heat Loss Solutions". Sailshade Studios. 1994. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  16. ^ a b c "Fabric Glass Acoustic Solutions". Sailshade Studios. 2015. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  17. ^ "Overheating solutions". Sailshade Studios. 2007. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  18. ^ "U.S. Trademark 77222319". United States Patent and Trademark Office. August 12, 2008. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  19. ^ "Lion's Tail 99 Oldenburg van Bruggen - 1st". Expresso Beans. 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  20. ^ "s2s Studio to Sustain - Collaborating partners". New Bedford Internet. Studio2Sustain. 2014. Archived from the original on October 1, 2023. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  21. ^ a b "Incognito". Sailshade Studios. 2014. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  22. ^ a b c d "Health Care Installations". Sailshade Studios. 2015. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  23. ^ National Arts Guide: 1979, Volume 1. Michigan: University of Michigan. 1979. p. 220. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  24. ^ "Fine Art Abstract Paintings Canvas Giclee Prints". Susan Mohl Powers. 2002. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  25. ^ "Vault series focus: Susan Mohl Powers". Sailshade Studios. 2004. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  26. ^ "Three Degrees of Separation". Grimshaw Gudewicz Foundation. 2003. Archived from the original on February 2, 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  27. ^ "Grimshaw Gudewicz Art Gallery". Sailshade Studios. 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  28. ^ "Artist Honored". Herald News. Fall River. March 1994.
  29. ^ Mello, Michael (March 1994). "Fall River recognizes Dacron fabric images created by Westport woman". Standard Times. New Bedford, Massachusetts.
  30. ^ "Seahorses 2003". Sailshade Studios. 2003. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  31. ^ "The Back Eddy". Sailshade Studios. 2014. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  32. ^ Welker, Grant (April 4, 2010). "Westport Planning Board office displays local art". The Herald News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
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