Susan Lenz

mixed media, painted canvas and embroidery

How Lucky Am I, White Privilege

Mixed: painted canvas and embroidery

Horrifying videos of police brutality, recent protests, and especially the number of email messages from businesses and non-profits with racial equity support messages got Susan Lenz thinking and wanting to better educate herself in regards to white privilege and justice for minorities. She learned that living a life “color blind” was not enough. “I dream of a world where race doesn’t matter … but we don’t live there! After all, if one isn’t part of the solution, one is part of the problem. To remain silent would be an act of cowardice; it would allow the white privilege with which I was born to go unchallenged. Speaking up and speaking out is necessary. Sending bulk messages supporting Black Lives Matter is easy … but for me, it wasn’t enough either. Action was necessary, and as an artist, my support had to be more than mere words. It had to be ART. These works are my statement.”

Susan Lenz, How Lucky Am I, White Privilege, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist

PHOTO GALLERY

Purchase this artwork and others from the Call & Response exhibition online at MCD’s Artists Marketplace.

ARTIST MARKETPLACE

ARTIST BIO

Susan’s work has appeared in national publications, numerous juried exhibitions, and at fine craft shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft and the Smithsonian Craft Shows. She has been featured on art quilting television programs and on South Carolina Etv’s Palmetto Scene. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, and the McKissick Museum in South Carolina. Her solo installations have been mounted all over the country including the Mesa Contemporary Museum of Art and as far away as the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England.