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Suzanne Swannie
Suzanne Swannie (1942-) is a Halifax based textile artist who was born in Copenhagen Denmark and created work for over 40 years. She is known for her functional textiles, tapestries, large architectural installations and hand woven miniature pictorial tapestries. Her work displays danish modern style through repetition of modular units to create a grid like patterns.

Early Life and Education
Suzanne was born in Copenhagen Denmark in 1942. She held an apprenticeship for three years in hand weaving with Kirsten and John Becker, in Søllerød, Denmark ending in 1963. After completing her apprenticeship she studied Textile Design and Technology at Textilinstituetet in Borås, Sweden. From 1965-1967 she worked as a design consultant for the textile mill Damgaards Vaeverier, in Copenhagen she also worked on a commission for the famed Danish designer Arne Jacobsen.

Early life in Canada and Teaching
Swannie immigrated to Newfoundland Canada in 1967. After moving she developed and generated a hand weaving department for the Newfoundland Department of Education in St. John's. She than received her Master of Fine Arts in 1986 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where she taught from 1978 to 1986 and again from 1999 to 2003. Between 1978 and 1999 she worked as a visiting artist and guest lecturer at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine, USA (1979), the Ontario College of Art (1982), Cabot College (1867-1996), Bay St George Community College (1987) in Newfoundland & Labrador, and Nunavut Arctic College, in Sanikiluak (1997) and School of Art and Design, institution Teknologi Mara in Shah Alam Malaysia (1995).

Art work
Swannie's work follows closely with traditional Scandinavian design and Danish Modernism. These both emphasized the balance between craft, art and design. Her time in Sweden helped to further her industrial process. She often drew on her domestic life and objects, as well as nature, poetry and folklore for subject matter. Her works are restrained, geometric, textural, colorful and conceptual. Her 'ground covers' are woven as mismatched, irregular modules that represent tectonic displacement and are designed to be walked over.

From 1977-1980 she was contacted to design and coordinate two art projects based on traditional Mi'kmaq textiles for the women of the Eskasoni Indian Reserve in Cape Brenton, NS. She worked under Margaret Johnson. One project was commissioned for Eskasoni School and the other for the Albert White Gallery in Toronto.