Susan L. Griffin

Susan Griffin grew up immersed in art and craft. Raised on her parent’s Saskatchewan farm, she was inspired by the beauty of nature and surrounded by abundant materials for creative exploration. Long prairie winters (where temperatures often reached forty below) offered time to develop her skills. From an early age she was constantly creating.

Eager to explore diverse mediums, Susan learned to sew, cook, cast ceramics, design paper crafts, style candles, and embroider, among many other disciplines. While still in high school, she instructed more than 150 students weekly in ceramics, while designing and painting pieces for retail sale. She also produced thousands of ceramic containers for her family’s honey business.

Susan has formal training in Ceramics, Interior Design, and Floral Design. She enjoys papercraft and is a self-taught gingerbread and sugar-flower artist. Her sugar creations and decorated cakes have been featured in national bridal magazines and international publications.

These varied creative pursuits eventually evolved into a deep commitment to fibre art. Her fascination with quilting began in the late 1970s with a hand-stitched, waterbed-sized cathedral window quilt. Since then, she has created numerous quilts; rarely following patterns. Preferring instead to infuse each piece with her own distinctive voice. Her body of work includes traditional quilts, true miniatures, non-traditional fibre pieces, and award-winning art quilts.

Five of Susan’s quilts were juried into the “O Canada” exhibits at International Quilt Festivals in 2010, 2012, and 2013. Her art has been shown and received several awards at the local, national and international levels and has been featured in several publications. In addition, she has presented at symposiums and taught classes. In April 2017, she held her first solo exhibition, presenting 50 fibre works reflecting her journey with Lyme disease. The following year she completed the final two pieces and renamed the series 52 Yarns of Lyme – The Lyme Dis-Ease Series.

Since her recovery and retirement from her professional career, Susan has devoted herself full-time to her art, embracing the art quilt movement. Her contemporary fibre works range from traditional quilts and wall quilts to fabric books and three-dimensional pieces. She uses art to tell the stories she wishes to communicate.