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Textile Artist
Materialize Textile Art is my online shop, to sell my work that is designed to help people do ‘stuff that matters’. I know that’s a broad category, but I believe that there is a need today to make meaning in our lives and we are literally making it up as we go along. But it’s hard to make sense of things on your own, sometimes we need a bit of inspiration and a bit of company.
My work tends to focus around end of life matters as that feels like the place that I’m called to the most. I’m committed to making artful acts of memory that can be used at home — cloths to set up a memorial space, little candle mats to hold vigil, ornaments to weave our losses into our times of celebration.
But I’m also building a line of liturgical stoles, inspired by my partner’s journey of becoming an ordained minister. What we do in public worship and the signs and symbols that we employ also matter — so for me it fits under my big umbrella of ‘stuff that matters’.
The word fabricate has a bad rep — often it has a negative connotation. But it is more about the art of making. Fabric arts –from blankets, to clothing, to tableware, to burial shrouds — have always been about what’s important in our life even if we don’t pay them much attention. My approach to textile art is deeply tied to the context of our lives, living into the meaning of the word that comes from the roots of con (together) and teks (to weave). Let’s show up, pay attention and help each other with what matters most.
Death Cultural Worker
Although it is a bit unfamiliar, I like the term “death cultural worker” because it reflects my commitment that death rituals belong to the people and it roots this work in broader change movements.
I am a part of an active movement of people who are reclaiming old ways of caring for the dead and creating new ways to re-connect ourselves with the reality of death and the presence of grief in our lives. Instead of an independent practitioner, I see myself as a part of this wider movement which is wonderfully diverse and growing every year. One place to learn more about that is the Community Deathcare Canada group on Facebook.
Death cultural work is about strengthening communities to carry their losses, honouring the dying, remembering the dead, resisting oppression and respecting all our relations.
SUSIE BIO NOTES
I live and work in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I have both settler and Red River Métis ancestry. I carry forward accountability for colonization, a familiarity with the thin places, a consciousness of class, and a connection to this country.
I am a feminist, queer woman, mostly able-bodied, a parent, a partner, an activist, an artist, an orphan, and the youngest of six children. I was born on the Prairies in a working-class family and raised in the city.
FORMATION
I have been formed in the Christian tradition, raised as an Anglican, nurtured by the global ecumenical social justice movement and have currently landed in The United Church of Canada.
I have been enriched by many religious traditions. I am interested in the history of Jewish and Christian burial practice and how communities can reclaim and preserve traditional knowledge, remembering what has been forgotten and inventing new ways to speak to our present day.
I am indebted to many teachers, including the Church of the Holy Trinity, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, the Institute for Traditional Medicine, Emmanuel College, Community Deathcare Canada, Walking with our Sisters Toronto, Day Schildkret and the Morning Altars community, and textile artist Isobel Moore and others.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
- 2022 Morning Altars Practioner and Teacher Training
- 2019 Deep Diversity Leadership Skills for Inclusive Workplaces and Schools, Anima Leadership
- 2018 Beyond Yonder Virtual School for Community Deathcaring
Certificate of Completion - 2014 Master of Pastoral Studies, Emmanuel College, Victoria University, University of Toronto
- 2013 Certificate in Contemplative End of Life Care, Institute of Traditional Medicine, Toronto
- 2009 Certificate in Bereavement Education, Continuing Education, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
- 1992 Certificate in Advanced Studies in Youth Ministry, The Centre for Youth Ministry Development, Loyola University, Chicago
- 1986 Bachelor of Arts, The University of Winnipeg
I am grateful that I have been blessed by many great teachers over the years, formal and otherwise, but I know that one of the most formative teachings that I have received about dying and death was from my mom, Lillian. Read more…
Articles and Interviews
- “Death Cultural Work Interview” Radical Reverend Podcast (August 8, 2023)
- “Community Acts of Remembering and Resistance” geez Magazine (Issue no. 58, Fall 2020)
- “Seeing the World as an Artist: Crafting Memory Cards” Cloth Paper Scissors (July/August 2016)
- “Watershed Walk”, geez Magazine (Issue 41, Spring 2016)
- “Re-wilding Worship”, Mandate Magazine, (May 2016)
- “Why we took our daughter to the HIV/AIDS Rally”, Making Waves: an ecumenical feminist journal (20 Volume 7:1)