August 23rd - September 28th, 2024

This exhibition featured the fiber and sculpture artwork created by Suzanne Hokanson, who was awarded a NYSCA grant to undertake this massive collection of work.

“Creating in fiber is my passion. I let the fibers inspire me to create intuitively. I improvise after choosing a color palette and textures that lead me into the final product. By setting up my looms to make different patterns I can weave in a slow deliberate way, making choices that create a cohesive whole. My banners or as I like to call them “Totems” tell a story by incorporating not only yarns and threads but unusual materials touched by the human hand.”

“I am in awe of the many workers who create the wide variety of products that surround us in our daily life. This exhibit is a way to honor the thousands of workers and the work they do every day. Many hands work together to make our world a better place. A couple years ago my husband and I moved back to Plattsburgh after a 25 year absence. It’s working for us - we’re loving being back in the North Country. I’m a weaver - I work in fiber to create my artwork. And finally, my maiden name is Work, so it’s always been with me. “Plattsburgh Works” for me on so many levels. I greatly appreciate the fact that being awarded this New York State Council on the Arts grant sponsored by the Strand Center for the Arts has challenged me to think outside the box. Taking scrap from our area manufacturers and using that scrap to create fiber artwork has been invigorating. Seeing the step by step process the workers go through to create the products as I was invited into some of these workspaces was inspiring. The dozen businesses who offered to give me their scrap inspired me to make something that represents the hands that go into creating their product. I hold these workers in high esteem and appreciate all they do to make Plattsburgh work.”

-Suzanne Hokanson, Artist