Artist threads together visions from her dreams, tells the story of her people through quilt work
SHEEPSPRINGS, N.M.
Susan Hudson, a contemporary quilt ledger artist from Sheep Springs, N.M. tells of her quilt work at the Pagosa Springs History Museum on May 23. (Courtesy photo)
Dreams typically guide how Susan Hudson, 56, creates her ledger quilts— a contemporary art for which she’s becoming famous for at prestigious shows.
These reveries sometimes involve the voices of her Kinyaa’aa’nii grandmothers, who were prisoners of the Long Walk or forced attendees of boarding school. Or, they are elders from various tribes that talk to her in their respective languages that she somehow understands.
“I start dreaming things,” said the Sheep Springs, N.M. native on July 4, while explaining the creative process behind her famed ledger quilts.
Often, these dreams wake her in the middle of the night, where she’s crying or sitting upright. When that happens, Hudson admits having no choice, but to make a quilt from the messages in her dreams.
Her hands also guide what she creates.
And when her quilts are complete, they are a fabric that tell the sacrifices her ancestors made, such as the Navajo Code Talkers or even Master Weaver Mary Ann Foster, her maternal matriarch.
“Sometimes when people are talking to me…I feel my grandmas talking to me and that’s powerful,” Hudson said. “They were some strong women.”
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