September 4, 2006

Fecho’s “Landscapes Of Convergence” On View

At The Barton Museum

(Unrestricted News Release to Area News Outlets)

Wilson, N.C. – “Through my work, the familiar reappears in unfamiliar configurations; a new sense of significance is imparted to an otherwise everyday object. The effect is a layered, multifaceted, tactile surface that seeks an emotional response in the viewer.” Susan Fecho describes her latest exhibition of work, “Landscapes of Convergence,” currently on view in the Barton Museum.

An opening reception for the exhibition will be held tonight from 6 – 8 p.m. with an artist talk scheduled from 6:30 – 7 p.m. The exhibition will run until October 6.

Fecho, a prominent and award-winning Eastern North Carolina artist, views travel as an invaluable opportunity to expand her education and to bring inspiration to her work. During a recent semester-long sabbatical, she visited two artist residencies located in rural areas: the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Science in Rabun Gap, Ga., and Pouch Cove Foundation’s Residential Arts Program in Newfoundland. Fecho described these residencies as wonderful environments that supported creative interaction and where writers, musicians, and visual artists shared time together, discussing how they problem solved and how they approached studio work.

As the theme for this exhibition evolved, Fecho was confronted, during a recent visit home to Bristol, Va., with her conjured representation of “home”— once again experiencing those remembered scapes, but this time merely as a traveler. The concept of being a traveler to this once familiar location opened her eyes to sights and sounds previously gone unnoticed. This revelation proved to be a major catalyst in her work for this exhibition of landscapes.

She went on to explain that convergence, as a term, is connected to 21^st century modernism. Convergence refers to a meshing of global economics as it is impacted by consumer technology and ease of travel, including virtual travel. Fecho shared that the theme “Landscapes of Convergence” is about an ordering of chaos amongst our colliding cultures. This is a time of shifting landscapes and converging people. “I search for sense of place, for voice within the silence of the isolated rural scenes and forgotten corners of urbanism,” she continued. This exhibition represents an assemblage of personal, social, and political landscapes for Fecho.

With regard to her method, Fecho said she prefers a more realistic approach to her work where she can celebrate life, improve artistic skills, and have a reason to be outside in the fabulous scenery. She embraces the creative process that requires her to focus on the discovery of the unfamiliar. In her latest work, Fecho has captured the nuances of this navigation through the unfamiliar, and the result is breathtaking details of landscapes and cityscapes that have punctuated her recent journey up the East Coast through Philadelphia, Pa., Boston, and Salem, Mass., to St. John’s, Newfoundland.

“My recent work investigates the sensory experience of travel,” she shared. “How will the memory express a particular area’s geographic assemblage of forms and boundaries? The human body, architectural unit, and surrounding landscape become metaphors. I search for a sense of place, for integration, as I connect imagery together into a conjured representation of reality.”

Fecho sees her art as an eclectic fusion of digital and fine art, influenced by globalization, liberalization and consumer technology. She intentionally seeks relationships between the variables, and a voice among the silent opinions.

Writing also serves as a catalyst for Fecho’s work, which is almost always how her visual art begins. A poem, a discarded letter, a random note, or an excerpt from a book could provide the inspiration she seeks for drawing or painting. The viewer will notice in this exhibition that Fecho subtly integrates text into her design creating yet another dimension to be considered. She is always searching for that vernacular writing to provide inspiration for her work.

From the rural areas of America’s Deep South to the most northeastern point of the North American continent, Fecho made rubbings from trees, roots and rocks with graphite sticks and rice paper to create the foundation of her work. From there, she allowed paint, pastels, pencil, and digital technology to converge on her canvas as she brought attention to that which is so easily overlooked. The richness of seasonal hues in her work move from the cold grays and bitter browns of winter to the vibrant greens and yellows, the cool blues and warm reds of early spring. Fecho’s works seduce the viewer beyond the boundaries of the canvas to the remote places of nature, rural life, and even urban sprawl. These details spawn stories for the viewer’s imagination and capture life in its most abandoned corners.

Fecho’s lifelong devotion to art includes over 20 years of teaching and working with art students in the United States and abroad. She has shown her work in 18 solo exhibitions as well as numerous regional, national and international invitationals. Fecho also has published illustrations, designs, and photographs including seven illustrative artist books such as “Portrait of the Outer Banks: an Artist’s Sketch” in 1996 and “Trunkfull: an Illuminated Year” in 2003. “Trunkfull: an Illuminated Year” was accepted into several major collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library, the Word and Image Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Women Artists in Washington, D.C., and the Zimmerli Art Museum, NAWA Collection, at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her works are also included in the collections of Phillip Morris in Winston-Salem, the Chancellor’s Collection at East Carolina University, the North Carolina State Library in Raleigh, and the Blount-Bridgers Museum in Tarboro, among others.

Currently professor and chair of the Barton College Department of Art, Fecho joined the Barton College community in the fall of 1997 as an associate professor of art. She earned both a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in printmaking, painting and technology and a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and surface design from East Carolina University. Fecho also studied at Goldsmith College: University of London, the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastrict, Holland, Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and the University of Maine.

Prior to joining the art faculty at Barton College, she served as associate professor and chair of the art department at Chowan College in Murfreesboro.

Fecho and her husband, Scott, make their home in historic Tarboro.

Gallery hours for the Barton Museum are Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. For additional information regarding this exhibition, please contact Susan Fecho at 252-399-6480 or email: sfecho@barton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.