My fascination with fibers and fabric began at an early age, around twelve, when  I learned to sew from my mother. I have  fond memories of the annual, back-to-school trips to the local textile mills, where the most popular prints and plaids were made in the 1950s and 60s. The trunk of the car would be filled with fabric, and within a week would be magically, it seemed,  turned it  into new dresses, skirts, and jackets for the ten children in our family. The transformative and evocative powers of patterned fabrics and textile objects began to take hold in these childhood adventures. 

​ My training as an artist at Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University, & Penland School of Crafts focused on drawing, painting, & surface design. Forty years of teaching art to different populations, twenty of those with young children,  has given me a world of stories to tell. My collection of textile artifacts such as aprons, doilies, lace, & gloves  appear in my pictorial quilts, and I create patterned & painted fabrics to add to the narrative. From these different experiences & materials my work has evolved into a narrative style that exploits a wide range of fiber & fabric processes.
 

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Recent Exhibitions

• Oct 1-31, 2019--Story Me This: Narrative Quilts by Susan Sharpe, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro TN
• Feb-March 9, 2019--Elemental Visions: Fiberart by Sandy Adair, Susan Sharpe, and Vasanto, Sunset River Marketplace, Calabash, NC
• Feb-Apr, 2017--A Thousand Steps, A Thousand Stitches: Figurative Quilts by Susan Sharpe, Turchin Center, ASU, Boone, NC
• June 3-Aug 21, 2016--525,600 MINS, Waterworks Gallery, Salisbury, NC
• July 28-Aug 2, 2016--Artist-in-Residence, Edgewood Cottage, Blowing Rock, NC