Susan Mohl Powers

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.{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Susan Mohl Powers – Programma |url=http://www.susanmohlpowers.com/programma.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818212908/http://susanmohlpowers.com/programma.php |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |access-date=December 26, 2014 |website=Sailshade Studios, Inc.}}{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Biography – Susan Mohl Powers |url=http://www.smpinstallations.com/Meet%20susan/meetsusan/Biography.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708174305/http://www.smpinstallations.com/Meet%20susan/meetsusan/Biography.html |archive-date=July 8, 2023 |access-date=December 26, 2014 |website=SMP Installations |publisher=Sailshade Studios, Inc.}} She married Alan W. Powers in 1966. They lived in Westport, Massachusetts.{{Cite book |last=Powers |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zj0xPED99JYC&q=susan+mohl+powers&pg=PR3 |title=Birdtalk: Conversations with Birds |date=2015 |publisher=Frog Books |others=Foreword by Richard C. Wheeler, illustrated by Susan Mohl Powers |isbn=9781583940655 |page=xi |access-date=January 28, 2015}}

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. Powers was also a science teacher at a private school in Minnesota. Her early artistic influences included Buckminster Fuller and D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's On Growth and Form.

Powers died October 24, 2023, in Fall River, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |date=October 24, 2023 |title=Susan Mohl Powers – Obituary – Westport, MA – Potter Funeral Service |url=https://www.currentobituary.com/obit/279599 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231117092259/https://www.currentobituary.com/obit/279599 |archive-date=November 17, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=www.currentobituary.com |language=en}}

File:Redwood Seed.jpg

File:Mosaic Nude by Susan Mohl Powers.jpg

File:SusanMohlPowers-Squibb.jpg

File:SusanMohlPowers-Nemasket.jpg

File:Fabric Glass Blue Rose, by Susan Mohl Powers.jpg

Powers earned a baccalaureate in 1966 from Mount Holyoke College,{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Leading Women in the Arts |url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/6289/20191223104027/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/node/47214 |access-date=December 24, 2014 |website=Weissman Center for Leadership > Public Events |publisher=Trustees of Mount Holyoke College |quote=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}} having studied studio art, physics, and astronomy.{{Cite news |last=Temin |first=Christine |date=August 31, 1988 |title=Lives in the Arts – Stitching a Crazy Quilt of Art and Science |newspaper=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/294406067 |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |id={{ProQuest|294406067}} }} She began her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at the University of Minnesota, and completed a Master of Fine Arts in visual design in Massachusetts. She studied with Henry Rox, Jānis Kalmīte, Hui Ming Wang, Leonard DeLonga, and Harold Pattek. Early in her career, she created welded steel sculptures under Katherine Nash, who founded Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota.

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."

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." 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."

File:Susan-Mohl-Powers-with-Lion's-tuft.png

File:Oldenburg-Sailshade-Studios.png

File:Dancing Galaxy.jpg

File:Powers and Bust of Theodore Baird.jpg]]

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". The review mentioned layers of translucent materials and stitching lines: "The effect can resemble crazy quilt patterns, or ice floes cracking apart."

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".{{Cite web |last=Boyce |first=David B. |date=November 27, 2003 |title=Current BCC offering is an exceptional exhibit |url=http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031127/NEWS/311279953&cid=sitesearch |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095918/https://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article/?AID=%2F20031127%2FNEWS%2F311279953&cid=sitesearch |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |access-date=January 4, 2015 |website=South Coast Today}}

Powers designed and began fabricating an energy-efficient "insulating decorator roman shade with a self-creating valance" out of her home in 1979, trademarking the name and design Sailshade in 1984 with her husband under the business name "Cloth Construction Partnership".{{Cite web |date=September 18, 1984 |title=U.S. Trademark 73411973, Registration #: 1,296,384 |url=https://trademarks.justia.com/734/11/sailshade-73411973.html |access-date=January 21, 2015 |website=United States Patent and Trademark Office}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Under The Microscope of Spirit 1988 |url=http://www.smpinstallations.com/Templates/Nemasket.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227222918/http://www.smpinstallations.com/Templates/Nemasket.html |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}}

In 1991 she opened Sailshade Studios, Inc., in Durfee Union Mills, a granite 1860 textile mill complex in Fall River, Massachusetts. Powers installed Sailshades in 32 states, created applications to address acoustic challenges, and installed heat-reducing "planar net artwork" in other venues.{{Cite news |last=Kerr |first=Paula |date=October 28, 2005 |title=Made in the Shade – Designer reveals the secret of the energy-saving Sailshade |newspaper=Herald News |location=Fall River, Massachusetts}}{{Cite web |date=1994 |title=Art on Sailshades Heat Loss Solutions |url=http://sailshadestudios.com/gallery_heat_loss.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923044249/https://www.sailshadestudios.com/gallery_heat_loss.php |archive-date=September 23, 2023 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}}{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Fabric Glass Acoustic Solutions |url=http://www.sailshadestudios.com/gallery_fabric_glass.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603012840/https://www.sailshadestudios.com/gallery_fabric_glass.php |archive-date=June 3, 2023 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}}{{Cite web |date=2007 |title=Overheating solutions |url=http://sailshadestudios.com/gallery_overheating.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603012654/https://sailshadestudios.com/gallery_overheating.php |archive-date=June 3, 2023 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}} She also conducted do-it-yourself workshops locally in Massachusetts on making insulated shades that cut energy costs. The Sailshade trademark was re-registered in 2008 under "Sailshade Studios, Inc."{{Cite web |date=August 12, 2008 |title=U.S. Trademark 77222319 |url=http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77222319&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch |access-date=January 21, 2015 |website=United States Patent and Trademark Office}}

As a subcontractor for Paul Amaral, Powers fabricated the {{convert|9|ft|m|abbr=on}} tuft for Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Venice Biennale piece, "Lion's Tale", a gift Oldenburg and van Bruggen installed originally May–October, 1999, in Piazza San Marco outside Museo Correr, Venice, Italy (now at Musei Civici Veneziani in Venice).{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Lion's Tail 99 Oldenburg van Bruggen – 1st |url=http://expressobeans.com/public/detail.php/58526 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064546/https://expressobeans.com/public/detail.php/58526 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |access-date=December 24, 2014 |website=Expresso Beans}}

Powers directly collaborated with Paul Amaral in 2014 to fabricate the {{convert|9|ft|m|abbr=on}} 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.{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=s2s Studio to Sustain – Collaborating partners |url=http://studio2sustain.com/collaborating-partners/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001075338/http://studio2sustain.com/collaborating-partners/ |archive-date=October 1, 2023 |access-date=December 24, 2014 |website=New Bedford Internet |publisher=Studio2Sustain}}

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.

Powers' résumé includes solo and group exhibitions, as well as public installations.{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Susan Mohl Powers résumé |url=http://www.susanmohlpowers.com/smp_resume.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818214654/http://susanmohlpowers.com/smp_resume.pdf |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |access-date=January 27, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios, Inc.}}

• 1979 – "Polygons and Planar Nets," Squibb Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WnLrAAAAMAAJ&q=susan%20mohl%20powers |title=National Arts Guide: 1979, Volume 1 |publisher=University of Michigan |year=1979 |location=Michigan |pages=220 |access-date=February 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/WnLrAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Susan+Mohl+Powers |archive-date=January 2, 2024}}
• 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{{Cite news|title = Fabric artist pays tribute to fabric workers|date = November 1988|newspaper = Herald News|location = Fall River, Massachusetts}}
• 1994 – Digital Corporation, Worcester, Massachusetts
• 1994 – Piano Mill Gallery, Needham, Massachusetts
• 1995 – Sterling Millworks Gallery, Sterling, Massachusetts
• 2002 – "Solo Exhibition 2002", Galleria Eclettica, Milano, Italia{{Cite web|url = http://www.smpgiclees.com/|title = Fine Art Abstract Paintings Canvas Giclee Prints|date = 2002|access-date = January 30, 2015|website = Susan Mohl Powers}}
• 2004 – New Bedford Art Museum, Lower Vault and Upper Vault Gallery{{Cite web |date=2004 |title=Vault series focus: Susan Mohl Powers |url=http://www.smpinstallations.com/Templates/Newbedford.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227212510/http://www.smpinstallations.com/Templates/Newbedford.html |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}}

• 1971 – Kramer Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota
• 1975 – Image Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts
• 1994 – Donovan Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island
• 1998 – Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island
• 2003 – "Sun Spots 2003" and "Juno's Corset 2003", Grimshaw Gudewicz Art Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts{{Cite web |date=2003 |title=Three Degrees of Separation |url=http://www.grimshaworigin.org/Webpages2/Gudiewicz.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202013030/http://www.grimshaworigin.org/Webpages2/Gudiewicz.htm |archive-date=February 2, 2015 |access-date=January 21, 2015 |website=Grimshaw Gudewicz Foundation}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.smpinstallations.com/Templates/grimshaw.html|title = Grimshaw Gudewicz Art Gallery|date = 2015|access-date = January 21, 2015|website = Sailshade Studios}}
• 2005 – Annotazioni d'Arte, Milano, Italia

• 1991−1997– Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
• 1984 – Banners for Boston Ballet's world premiere performance of Choo San Goh's Romeo and Juliet, Wang Center, Boston, Massachusetts
• 1994−2008 – Fall River Government Center, Fall River, Massachusetts{{Cite news|title = Artist Honored|date = March 1994|newspaper = Herald News|location = Fall River}}{{Cite news|title = Fall River recognizes Dacron fabric images created by Westport woman|last = Mello|first = Michael|date = March 1994|newspaper = Standard Times|location = New Bedford, Massachusetts}}
• 2003 – "Seahorses 2003",{{Cite web |date=2003 |title=Seahorses 2003 |url=http://www.smpinstallations.com/mainiinstalition/primecare.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227205504/http://www.smpinstallations.com/mainiinstalition/primecare.html |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |access-date=January 30, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}} Prima Care Lobby, Fall River, Massachusetts{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Health Care Installations |url=http://sailshadestudios.com/gallery_health_care.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603004043/https://sailshadestudios.com/gallery_health_care.php |archive-date=June 3, 2023 |access-date=January 21, 2015 |website=Sailshade Studios}}
• 2004−2008 – Incognito restaurant, New Bedford, Massachusetts{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=Incognito |url=http://www.smpinstallations.com/mainiinstalition/Incoqnito.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227213235/http://www.smpinstallations.com/mainiinstalition/Incoqnito.html |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |access-date=December 27, 2014 |website=Sailshade Studios}}
• 2004−present – "Fifteen Walls of Bas Reliefs", Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island
• 2006−2009 – The Back Eddy restaurant, Westport, Massachusetts{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=The Back Eddy |url=http://www.smpinstallations.com/mainiinstalition/TheBackEddy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227214813/http://smpinstallations.com/mainiinstalition/TheBackEddy.html |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |access-date=December 27, 2014 |website=Sailshade Studios}}
• 2009 – Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
• 2010−2012 – Fall River Planning Board, Fall River, Massachusetts{{Cite news |last=Welker |first=Grant |date=April 4, 2010 |title=Westport Planning Board office displays local art |newspaper=The Herald News |url=http://www.heraldnews.com/x1664792192/Westport-Planning-Board-office-displays-local-art |access-date=January 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072559/https://www.heraldnews.com/x1664792192/Westport-Planning-Board-office-displays-local-art |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}

File:Seahorses from Balcony.jpg|Seahorses
(viewed from balcony)
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:Seahorses.tiff|Seahorses
(viewed from below)
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:Juno'scorset.jpg|Juno's Corset
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:Cityhall10.jpg|City Hall–red panel
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:Cityhall12.jpg|City Hall–blue panel
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:ToTakeWing.jpg|To Take Wing (bronze)
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:Fossil473.jpg|Fossil 473 (bronze)
by Susan Mohl Powers

File:SMPwithDancingGalaxy.jpg|alt=Artist Susan Mohl Powers standing by her perforated metal sculpture, "Dancing Galaxy"|Susan Mohl Powers with Dancing Galaxies

File:Bust of Theodore Baird.jpg|Bust of Theodore Baird, by Susan Mohl Powers

{{Portal bar|Biography|Visual arts}}

{{Reflist| 30em}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20231117092300/http://sailshadestudios.com/ Sailshade Studios]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20220430020958/https://www.smpinstallations.com/ SMP Installations]
• {{YouTube|id=qXoN_dmfcLQ|title=SMP Memorial exhibit review}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powers, Susan Mohl}}

Category:1944 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century American printmakers

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:20th-century American women sculptors

Category:21st-century American sculptors

Category:21st-century American women sculptors

Category:Abstract expressionist artists

Category:American abstract sculptors

Category:American people of Swedish descent

Category:American women in business

Category:American women printmakers

Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni

Category:Sculptors from Massachusetts

Category:University of Minnesota alumni