By Cinara Marquis
Plattsburgh weaver Suzanne Hokanson explained that her work as a dairy farmer many years ago influenced her regard for manufacturing workers today. “I don’t think a lot of people realize the process and how many people it really involves,” she said.
Hokanson has always admired manufacturing workers, the people who take raw materials and transform them into new products.
“I really appreciate those people who are at the bottom of the chain — the roots that make the product grow,” she said.
Manufacturer workers produce the items we use every day, from vehicles to baked goods and the furniture in our homes. In Hokanson’s new exhibition at the Strand Center for the Arts, “Plattsburgh Works,” she pays tribute to these workers.
Using manufacturing scraps such as electrical wire, sail material and tubing for maple syrup extraction, she weaves maps of the often-forgotten elements that make up our modern lives.
Hokanson has always been fascinated with working with manufacturer discards. “This whole idea of upcycling scraps into something interesting and beautiful made with fibers appealed to me,” she said. The scrap material also reflects the hard work of manufacturing workers, which is frequently cast aside and left unrecognized.
Utilizing scrap was a necessity for Hokanson when she did not have a lot of money. “You use what you have available, and sometimes it was cutting up old clothes. You have to do whatever you can with your creativity,” she said.
A love for textiles was formed when Hokanson’s mother gifted her a potholder loom, a simple frame with prongs on each of the four sides. She later bought a rug loom that she found at an antique store.
“I figured out a way to buy it and get it, and I started weaving rugs with wool,” she said. She got mill ends from a local wool mill. After that, she acquired a four-shaft loom, which can make a variety of woven items, and her passion for tapestry making bloomed.
“It’s just endless possibilities, and there’s always some new idea you can explore,” Hokanson said.
Since she was a child, Hokanson has always made art. Sketching and painting are only second to her favorite, weaving.
“I really like the tactile qualities of weaving, and I love feeling the yarn in my hands,” she said.
Hokanson was an art teacher for twenty years, and when she retired, she expanded her work and began to weave more and more. “I embraced freestyle weaving, which is having knowledge of how to thread a loom and set a loom up and how the threads interact on the loom,” she said.
Freestyle weaving has no rules on what one has to do; anything can be used, and the work can be of any style or size.
“I’m able to play, so I play with different colors and textures and see what happens,” she said.
After learning about the New York State Council of the Arts grant from an artist friend who had received it, Hokanson applied and was approved. With help from the grant, she was able to do things that she was not normally able to do, as well as things that she would never have been able to do.
“I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to pay for this and that. It freed me up, which was nice,” she said.
After living and teaching art in Plattsburgh for six years, Hokanson’s husband, Bob, got a job opportunity in Albany, which they both followed. She taught art in Albany, too, and after retiring, the couple moved to Savannah, Georgia, for 14 years, coming up to Albany, New York every summer to live on their sailboat.
“A couple of summers ago, we played with the idea of coming back to Plattsburgh,” she said. The two loved the mountains and the lake, and with their children all living within a couple of hours of the city, it was an easy decision. After 25 years, the Hokansons came back to Plattsburgh.
“Plattsburgh works for us, and that was part of the kind of double entendre of the name of the show, because it does work for us,” Hokanson said. “We really enjoy this community,”
You can view “Plattsburgh Works” by Suzanne Hokanson for free at the Strand Center for the Arts at 23 Brinkerhoff St. from August 23 through September 28. Learn more about the exhibition at https://rb.gy/ueft9r.
