susanne nielsen art &words: Brides - New Projects

Triptych of Bride# 2, "Bride:Tania",Bride #3 in the PAVA exhibition at the Octagon Gallery at the Unitarian Universalist Art Center,in Clearwater, Florida, February/March 2026

Brides - New Projects - Mixed Media Women

2026 marks the completion of the Brides Project, 12 paintings that are inspired by three weddings Susanne Nielsen attended as team leader of a Rotary Group Study Exchange tour of South Asia with an all women team. Focus on the womens' lives and livelihoods, the child and literacy and health situation and challenges, visits to sewing centers where young women receive training in the garment industry and their subsequent work in this textile heavy production of clothing from Silvaar Kamiz for women to Seidensticker shirts and jeans for the European market, brought the reality and the immense and intense colorful country as inspiration through photographs and then also sewn items like embroideries and saris ( half silk typical for Bengal!) and finally and beautifully the invitations to attend and witness three receptions , one of the four festivities each bride and groom are given as they wed. All brought the women, the textiles and a merging of these patterns of life together to a "tapestry of womens' lives" a twenty year journey from 2006 to 2026 - to its completion with the assistance of Theresia Thielke, couture seamstress who sewed the framing textiles around the painted brides.

First exhibitions were "Face Value", a juried exhibition at the Dunedin Fine Art Center in Dunedin, Florida in January/February 2026 .

The second showing is a triptych arrangement in a spiritual setting of the Octagon Gallery of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Clearwater, Florida in February/March 2026.