As I became aware that the history of art is the history of people, I saw that it is possible to bring people together through the language of art. Following the tradition of women using stitches to create, mend, and heal, my quiet pictures portray the fragile wonder and miracle that is our world. Through photos cut apart and fractured pieces stitched back together, they offer hope that humans will come together, assuring succeeding
generations a healthy, peaceful, safe, and breathing world.
- Susan Hyde Greene, 2018
WATERSTORIES
Susan Hyde Greene is not part of an organized movement, there is no name for this movement. Yet like artists, writers and intellectuals the world over she is clearly playing out a role in trying to heal the dying planet. These artists are pretty ticked off that the modern world has allowed pollution to happen and proliferate. They are so angry, in fact, that they are in the time-honored artistic tradition of protest. Some loudly protesting, others like Greene, protesting in more subtle ways. By using mending techniques of cutting, pasting, and gluing collaged patterns she disturbs the serene moments she catches with her camera. This is her way of calling attention to the impossible task ahead to repair the world. If asked, Greene will say that she is deeply troubled by the devastation caused by pollution but only recently understands that in her artwork she has been unconsciously using methods of mending to heal the dying planet all along.
