The Ancient Mariner Awakes | New Work | Susan Hensel Projects

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

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. […]

Saying “Yes” | Opportunity Knocks

2023-02-15T18:30:09-05:00Articles|

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

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

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!   […]

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! […]

Can Beauty help us | Perhaps a manifesto | Susan Hensel Projects |

2022-01-04T19:21:49-05:00Articles, News|

Can Beauty help us? Perhaps a manifesto Can Beauty help us? I make art to learn what I am thinking and feeling.  While it is always an internal investigation, I am engaged with the world and culture around me. I am a quiet contemplative, a delayed emotional reactor, a visual glutton.  I think and mediate, I get mad the next day and I just simply have to look…all the time. From this essential disposition and with study and thought I have adopted a theory for my artmaking that I call “radical beauty.” So, here goes!  Starting with a few appropriate quotes. […]

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