Fecho’s travels turn into works of art

Mims Gallery exhibit features mixed media images of China, Italy

Laura Ashley Lamm

When Susan Fecho travels, instead of taking photographs with a disposable camera and buying tourist items like magnets, she makes rubbings of ancient walkways, sits on the Great Wall of China and draws, and takes a series of digital images from the same spot – all of which, she turns into artwork.

The artwork depicting Fecho's travels around the globe will be featured in an art exhibition of mixed media images, entitled "Travel Notations" at the Mims Gallery at N.C. Wesleyan College beginning today and continuing until Sunday, March 9.

"When you travel, you see someone else's environment as an outsider," said Fecho, 49, of Tarboro.

"I am forcing viewers to look at where I've been through my eyes. When you use a camera, you are seeing what the camera sees."

Her artwork, showcasing travels to China, Italy, Newfoundland, Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico, was created through mixed media or various mediums including paint and photography.

"People are the travelers. We are outsiders looking out and that's why there are no people these pieces," added Fecho.

In 2006, Fecho was granted a six month sabbatical for creative work from Barton College, where she serves as chair of the Art Department.

"I started at the bottom of the Appalachian mountains in Georgia and traveled to the other end of the Appalachian trail," said Fecho.

"When most people carry clothes in their luggage, I'm carrying art supplies in mine."

Fecho travels "to see how the world is connected" and the underlining theme in her work is the way the world is converging.

For her artwork from Western China, Fecho took a large piece of drawing paper and folded it into an accordion folding book that fits into her back pocket. Throughout her stops she picked up items (such as straws, an envelope from a garbage can and tea bags) and glued them in her book and paints over them creating a masterpiece as she travels. Some of the artwork contains rubbings from a small walkway built by Chinese monks and a drawing she made of the Great Wall of China while sitting there.

"I collected stuff, put them into my pockets, glued them down back at the hotel and paint on top of them. When I came home I had a travel journal," said Fecho.

She made one journal every four days and ended the trip with a total of three journals which are on display in the exhibit.

Her artwork from the Appalachian Mountains contains a merging of paint and photographs together along with poems, song lyrics and recipes that are 100 years or older.

"I try to find writing connected to the area I'm visiting," said Fecho. "I find older books and use writings from the 1800s to merge the past and the present together."

For Fecho's depicting rural areas, she painted them in plane air or rather painted them onsite. Fecho went to the furthest North Eastern tip of the Atlantic and used acrylic paint to make ocean blasts as real for the viewer as it was for her.

"I want to work with what's there in front of me. I like being opened minded when doing travel work," said Fecho.

In 2007, Fecho traveled to Italy where she used modern technology to create art.

"With a digital camera, I try to think to myself, 'what can I do that is different?'" said Fecho.

Fecho took a series of photos standing in one spot but rotating her directions and angles. The images are then merged together using Photoshop and anywhere from seven to 15 images are featured in one piece.

"I'm capturing that moment in time," she said. "It is a fast paced life. Everything is moving so quickly. To paint it would be to take it away from a medium that seems to fit," said Fecho.

"It is quite a wonderful exhibit," said Gallery Director and Curator Everett Mayo Adelman. "I knew about Susan through her work before I ever met her."

An opening artist reception for Fecho's exhibit will be at 7 p.m. Friday Jan. 18 at the Mims Gallery. She will be on hand to answer questions and discuss her work. The exhibition will be on display from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until March 9. The Mims Gallery is free and open to the public.