American contemporary artist and sculptor (born 1944)
Susan Mohl Powers
Born
Susan Elizabeth Mohl
(1944-06-01)June 1, 1944
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Died
October 24, 2023(2023-10-24) (aged 79)
Fall River, Massachusetts
Nationality
American
Alma mater
Mount Holyoke College
University of Minnesota
Occupations
Artist
Sailshade Studios owner
Known for
Sculptures and paintings that blend art and science
Sailshades
Spouse
Alan W. Powers
Children
Two daughters
Website
sailshadestudios.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
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'sOn Growth and Form.[3]
Redwood Seed by Susan Mohl PowersMosaic Nude by Susan Mohl PowersSusan 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 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
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 OldenburgClaes Oldenburg at Sailshade StudiosDancing Galaxies by Susan Mohl PowersSusan 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
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]
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
Powers' résumé includes solo and group exhibitions, as well as public installations.[9]
Solo exhibitions
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
^"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
^ ab"Fabric artist pays tribute to fabric workers". Herald News. Fall River, Massachusetts. November 1988.
^ abKerr, Paula (October 28, 2005). "Made in the Shade - Designer reveals the secret of the energy-saving Sailshade". Herald News. Fall River, Massachusetts.
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