Embroidery Art of Susan Hensel

THE BIRTH OF ZIG-ZAG

looking, playing, recognizing

ZIG ZAG, embroidery art by Susan Hensel, premiering in In and Out of the Fold, is the result of looking and playing and then recognizing a useful composition. Check out our shop here.

Much of my time as an artist is spent looking. Not seeing exactly, but actively looking at things. It is simply how I am wired: I need to look at lots and lots of things… a lot. Finding the relationships between shapes and objects. Taking the time to see and train your eyes to see what most people can’t is what art is all about. Awakening the human mind. I enjoy finding the shape of the spaces surrounding an object. While also discerning the shapes of ordinary things and imagining how else that shape could be employed.

I also like playing with shapes and objects and diverse materials.

About Embroidery Art of Susan Hensel

These grey folded shapes were test pieces that were laying around the studio for a long time. The test at hand was two-fold:

What is the effect of stitch direction on the light?
How much of a gap must there be to be able to fold the stitched fabric?

With those questions answered, I was left with three little widgets!

The test pieces tried to become books.
They tried to become a single sculpture.
They succeeded magnificently at collecting dust.
And then they hid from sight for the better part of a year.

Enter the pandemic when we have had lots of time to sort and clean and maybe sew masks. That’s when the trifecta of looking, playing, and recognizing came together.

In rummaging through my fabric stash to make masks I found the perfect fabric that reminded me of the zig-zagging widgets! And ZIG ZAG was born.

See more in the show IN and OUT of the FOLDS