VANISHING
ARTIST
Susan Heller
As far back as I can remember I was always sewing something—making things. I think I was born with “busy hands”. So it was inevitable that as an adult I would find my way to quilt making. I use my quilts to explore states of mind – how different experiences make me feel. I use various techniques, eg. appliqué, embroidery and frame my pieces as they “tell me” to.
My work has been exhibited in various venues in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern CA.
COUNTRY
United States
PROJECT
Disappearing into Alzheimer’s
My father slowly disappeared from his body as the Amyloid Plaques of Alzheimer’s disease slowly took over his brain. His sweet personality would creep through in spite of his struggle to hang on to reality. I used the same image in all 5 panels to indicate that. I lightly hand quilted them and then embroidered my graphic interpretation of the tangles of plaques descending on him until he ‘disappears’ behind them. Each of the 5 panels float within a dark brown frame.
MEDIUM
Fiber Art, Quilting, Embroidery

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485 Main Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 2T7 Canada
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THIS Gallery acknowledges that it is situated on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
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