NOBLE TRUTHS OPEN STUDIO August 10, 6-8pm 3441 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN Why even do this? Artists do “open studios” for a variety of reasons. Wait! What is an “Open Studio” anyways? Oh! Sorry! An OPEN STUDIO EVENT is basically an opportunity for the public to visit your place of work. […]
Have Textile Will Travel! Work from Susan Hensel Projects is always on the move I love my studio! I go to it everyday, except when I was sleeping off the second Moderna Covid 19 shot. It’s not all create! create! create! There is also pack!pack!pack! For new shows!new shows!new shows! Fantastic Fibers, at the Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY; April 1st- May 29, 2021; Fantastic Fibers at the Yeiser Art Center Chromatic Bookblocks Chromatic Bookblocks is in the show with lots of great art by people! Follow them on Facebook and Instagram as their website is under re-construction! With any luck it will be live soon, as well. […]
In and Out of the Fold – Susan Hensel Textile Work [su_box title=”In And Out Of The Fold – COMING SOON” box_color=”#2a6bb0″]September 14, 2020 – November 2, 2020 Watch for NEW, never before seen work by Susan Hensel, ready to delight and uplift your spirits. MARK YOUR CALENDARS Return HERE for the link to the show on September 14![/su_box] Susan Hensel textile work is a dizzying journey of shifting colors and arresting, yet abstract, form. In and Out of the Fold presents biomorphic shapes and geometric patterns with sumptuous texture, representing Hensel’s long history with transformative, sculptural work. The series revels in overwhelming color, serving to create moments of intense sensation. In a world of increasing speed and economic literal mindedness, Hensel slows down time through visual intensity, pausing these dominant concerns. But the pieces do not merely prefer the transcendent to the physical, rather they unite the two modes into a shared space. […]
IT’S COVID-19 TIME, in which weeks pass in a day and a day takes weeks. TIME TO JUGGLE AGAIN! It is admittedly hard to develop flow in the studio when I have to stop and “juggle” again! I was very pleased a few weeks ago when a long-planned for the show was approved to open in August in Tallahassee, Florida. The state was opening up and so was 621 Gallery, with COVID-19 safety guidelines in place. The show is 3/4 packed and scheduled for pick-up in a couple of weeks. But COVID-19 has its own sense of time. Florida has now exploded with the virus again, the show has been delayed indefinitely again and I will take all these perfectly packed boxes back to storage, making more room to work in the studio. […]
Friendship and practical advice. My friend, Martha Bird, is a maker of traditional and sculptural basketry. She is a wonderful neighbor and friend I love going to for friendship and practical advice. We support each other on many levels. We bond over art, poodles and the power of art to support and help us heal from pains of being human. She came to this game of art later than I did (I think I was born making art) and it has been awe-inspiring to see her soar. You really should spend time on her new website. Wonderful images await you there. Which leads me to this: […]
New opportunities are starting to bear fruit for textile artist Susan Hensel. Throughout the pandemic, the cultural unrest and economic downturn, it has been hard to believe that the hard work of the studio will be worth the effort. Truthfully I have slogged through the work of finishing things, photographing things, boxing up things, adding data to my website. Slogged. However, it has been hard to feel creative or excited in the midst of such huge changes. But I truly believe that art is more important now than ever. It has the potential to heal, to take people out of their daily troubles, even if only for a moment. It can be a transcendent experience of peace. So I continued to work and send images out. […]
Music, Wordplay, and Numbers This new piece, Log Rhythm, is actually a tribute to my father. Not only did he love to play with music and words, but he also loved to play with numbers. My father was an engineer who loved music, wordplay, and numbers. He could play a tune on any instrument that he picked up. Mostly he played ragtime on our upright piano and comedic songs on the concertina. (I never played ragtime. I thought I was the next Edith Piaf, composing and singing heartbreakingly dolorous songs as a teenager.) At Christmas we would go caroling around the neighborhood with my father leading the pack, playing the concertina. […]
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. […]
