The Ancient Mariner Awakes | New Work | Susan Hensel Projects

2024-02-06T15:10:10-05:00Embroidery Art, Articles|

The Ancient Mariner Awakes | New work | Susan Hensel Projects February 5, 2024, during the winter that did not arrive in Minnesota! Life is a strange thing, de-stabilizing at times.  Whole swaths of time can fly by un-noticed.  I heard on the radio this morning that that sudden awareness of lost time, like the morning commute finishing fast, is evidence of a state of flow.  (Yes, I suppose, but, God forbid,  it could be a black-out as well!)  Sure, sometimes it is a creative time.  But sometimes it really is a lost time, perhaps a hibernation; a period of regrouping, of reconsideration…maybe even a paradigm shift.  […]

New Art | New Exhibitions | New Life At |Susan Hensel Projects

2023-10-31T12:09:16-04:00Articles, News, Exhibition|

New Art, New Exhibitions, New Life At Susan Hensel Projects a meandering post about what’s up now? The leaves are bright and falling from the trees in brisk, sunny, windy gusts and maybe even slush by the end of the week! Where on earth did the time go? New art, new exhibitions, new life at Susan Hensel projects. Well, truth be told, it went to setting up a new home and studio, going to physical therapy, and…yes…RETURNING TO NEAR FULL TIME STUDIO WORK! […]

How do things become? | creativite process | Susan Hensel Projects

2023-10-31T12:01:42-04:00Art, Articles|

How do things become? or what does the creative process look like? How do things become? I  thought you might like to see “the process” of becoming for a new work of art. As I return to the studio full time, my creativity is waking up.  It’s pretty stiff and creaky, like the broken parts of my body.  But, also like my body, it knitting back together.  I am playing with stitch outs from “Before the Fall!” (As in broken leg, not Adam and Eve in the Garden.) When I fell on the ice 6 months ago, there was one large, multi part piece in process awaiting a wood armature and a small wayfinder awaiting finely shaped maple.  I ordered the maple, perhaps the day before “The Fall.”  It arrived while I was in rehab. There were enough modules stitched to make the large piece larger or manipulate some of them into something else, while I await the completion of the woodshop. […]

Finding Your way | Persistence | Susan Hensel Projects

2023-10-31T11:37:16-04:00Articles|

Finding your way takes persistence and maybe a few wayfinding devices. [su_custom_gallery source=”media: 11383,11382,11381″ limit=”7″ link=”lightbox” width=”310″ height=”310″ title=”never”] Finding your way takes persistence and maybe a few wayfinding devices. It is easy to get myopic in the studio.  We artists tend to get caught up in the details: each blade of grass offers an opportunity to linger. And then…there are the droplets of dew!!!  Oh My!  It is all so beautiful! Awe inspiring!  I could gaze at it forever! Such GREEN! Green is a hard color to work with…what am I gonna’ do? Is it going to be a painting?  Where’s the canvas?  Or shall I stitch it?  Maybe beads? OOPS!  I forgot what I was doing! […]

Titles Are Weird Things | New Work | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-06-28T14:40:16-04:00Articles, Embroidery Art|

Titles Are Weird Things New Work   Titles are weird things.  I make new work all the time.  Sometimes I know, right from the beginning, what the title of the work will be.  But, more often than not, the finished piece takes time to reveal itself. Sometimes the piece is with holding and it takes help to find the title.  That was the case with this piece. […]

Making a new artwork! | Chromatic Wave 3 | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-06-28T14:42:22-04:00Articles|

Making a new artwork! Chromatic Wave 3 at Susan Hensel Projects There is a lot that goes into making any artwork.  I thought I’d take you behind the scenes again.   I wanted to see what would happen if I up-sized Chromatic Wave 1, Chromatic Wave 3 was just finished last week.   Chromatic Wave 1 is only 24 ” w.  Chromatic Wave 3 is 77″ tall!  Architectural in scale. The digitizing took an afternoon. The stitching took about two days. The cutting, sewing and ironing took another day. At this scale, movement of the pleats into new forms was limited to the triple curve. […]

Genesis of an Artwork | Nothing Wasted | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-07-07T12:49:02-04:00Articles|

Genesis of an Artwork Nothing Wasted at Susan Hensel Projects Artworks come from various sources…including failure! Experimentation and intuition are key-words for Susan Hensel Projects. Genesis of an Artwork. When people visit the studio and see me at work, they are often astounded.  They expect that everything I do is strictly mechanical…that I design the artwork in the computer and then let the embroidery machine do its thing…turning out perfect, completed hands-free objects every time.  Boy oh boy!  That hardly ever, if ever, happens! Let me take you through how Solar Tide came to be. You will be astounded, too. […]

The Work of an Artist | completing a commision | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-07-07T12:52:04-04:00Articles, Embroidery Art, News|

On some level, the work of an artist is never done.Or another cliché: Old artists never retire. Completing a Commission The Work of an Artist. Sometime ago I received a commission from an art consultant out of Atlanta who had been trying to find a fit for my work.  We had been communicating for several months before something landed. The commission came in, requesting that I make 12 “bookblocks,” all different, but in a muted palette of indigo, beige, misty blue and some black. And could I do it in 3 months?  Was that doable? probably not unless I began the testing before the contract was signed and delivered! […]

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