Studio life for artist Susan Hensel is a lot of things.  It is playing with colors, materials, and ideas: the fun stuff.  It is making decisions about how to handle material mistakes: also fun stuff.  This piece, Jester: Clown of God, started as one thing and became another because of inconsistencies that turned up in the stitch-out.  I can’t even see the “problems” anymore, because the piece became itself once I draped it over a chair.  The paradoxical heaviness of the fabric against the visual lightness of spirit reminded me of a story by Tomi DiPaola: The Clown of God,  about a character who used his unique talent to bring goodness to the world. So absurd, to think that a talent for juggling could be so valued. But isn’t that what art does for us? That’s all well and good…but if you are an exhibiting artist, you will probably need to ship the work that you had so much fun making.  […]