An exhibit called Five Stumps, running now through mid-February, features the hand-hooked wool rug art of Baltimore artist Susie Brandt. I know what you're thinking: "Great - more Etsy old lady art that the world doesn't need". But there's so much more than that going on here. For one thing, Brandt bases the designs on graphite etchings that she takes of old tree stumps in Baltimore city parks. The artist, a fibers instructor at Maryland Institute College of Art, doesn't then buy skeins of wool to make her stump design rugs. She repurposes clothes and blankets from thrift stores, and uses those materials to create the colorful designs. The tree stump etchings, the repurposed fibers - I'm totally sold.
It's an obvious and yet totally original idea. One of those - "Wow - I wish I had A) thought of that and B) had the technical know-how to execute it" ideas. I love folk-art like that.
One of the rugs that will be on display at the Delaware Center for Contemprary Art. What you might not be able to tell from the picture is that the rug is sitting on top of the tree stump that inspired it
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