Saying “Yes” | Opportunity Knocks

2025-04-14T12:44:06-05:00Articles|

Saying “Yes” When Opportunity Knocks I just sent out a New Year’s Newsletter  from Susan Hensel Gallery + Projects.  The responses are mostly “Out-of-office” replies that need to be looked at.  But there are also sweet, nice emails from friends and clients.  The “kudos” that we all enjoy when then arrive. The social network responses about how hard I work.   I do work hard, I guess, between an appalling number of appointments and administration tasks. But I also work with great joy. I am always experimenting on multiple fronts at all times, assembling parts and ideas until, seemingly all at once, multiple pieces come together and are completed. So, while it looks like I suddenly made 3 new pieces, the reality is that they have been kicking around the studio, sometimes for months, before I have to put my foot down and “finish it up, dammit!” […]

Stitchery Stories | A Conversation | Susan Hensel Projects

2023-01-05T12:47:54-06:00Articles|

STITCHERY STORIES A Conversation   A few weeks ago I had the intense pleasure of speaking with Susan Weeks of the Stitchery Stories Podcast. Though parted by an ocean and a vast time difference. King with her in Great Britain was like talking to my favorite neighbor or long lost friend!   […]

Finding Your way | Persistence | Susan Hensel Projects

2025-04-14T16:17:33-05:00Articles|

Finding your way takes persistence and maybe a few wayfinding devices. 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! […]

Collecting Art on a budget | Why does art cost so much | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-08-05T00:25:22-05:00Articles|

Collecting Art… on a Budget? And, why does art cost so much? I love art.  I make art and I sometimes wonder, too.  I make art that I cannot easily afford! Collecting Art on a budget. You and I see the news flashes about auction prices at 10’s of millions of dollars.  You go to galleries and museums and see tiny, precious things, or huge piles of ordinary detritus and you wonder, ” What gives here?”  I get asked questions from time to time. […]

Titles Are Weird Things | New Work | Susan Hensel Projects

2025-04-14T16:22:10-05:00Articles, 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 withholding and it takes help to find the title. That was the case with this piece. I knew that the piece was talking about weather changes, ocean currents, magnetic poles...all kinds of climate change things!  The oceans are key to our survival even as they rise and consume our shorelines and, in concert with rising temperatures, create huge, destructive storms.  My imagery was based on weather maps, navigation maps, longitude lines coming together at the poles, movement that seemed to whirl on the edge of chaos. I started brainstorming: Mapping Currents Heat Maps Mapping Time Change Map None of those were right.  When Sarah came to work, we brainstormed together: Change Sutra Climate Sutra Topographical Sutra We talked about the function of a title in my  abstract art.  I use titles to give clues to my thinking, to open up questions in the viewer so they can ask their [...]

Making a new artwork! | Chromatic Wave 4 | Susan Hensel Projects

2025-04-14T12:05:46-05:00Articles|

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. […]

What is Art Storage | Next steps | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-07-22T16:10:21-05:00Articles|

What is Art Storage? or What are the next steps on the Triptik? What is Art Storage. In the last blog post I talked about finding my way in this long, circuitous career. At the first of every year I sit down and write some goals for the year. It’s more like a task list in my case. My tasks this year revolve around taking care of the artwork and meeting with my attorney to update the estate plans as necessary. […]

Genesis of an Artwork | Nothing Wasted | Susan Hensel Projects

2022-07-07T12:49:02-05:00Articles|

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

2025-04-14T15:27:53-05:00Articles, 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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