What do Jazz & Machine Embroidery Have in Common? | Digital Embroidery

2020-05-26T11:25:49-04:00Articles, News|

What do jazz and digital embroidery have in common? Part of the answer is in this small interview I did on Jazz88 FM. https://www.jazz88.fm/2020/04/20/artist-susan-hensel/ Radio host Emily Reese has been interviewing artists during the “time of COVID” to see what and how they are doing! What I am doing is this: updating my website, writing blog posts, and, yes, plodding forward finishing some larger pieces, and testing out ideas. I talked about the business side of art. I also spoke about how I work improvisationally at the embroidery machines and how I got started in machine embroidery. […]

There is a certain mystery that lurks here…

2023-06-08T00:47:27-04:00Articles, News, Art|

There is a certain mystery that lurks here... Just off the center of the gallery lurks a mystery: a house that neither hides, nor quite shelters space. Enclosed in this house is our basic human vulnerability. It stands like a ghost, a chimera, a reminder that our sense of control and safety is a necessary trope that allows us to live in this world. When you look through it, it softens our vision like sweet nostalgia. ars domestica continues through the end of the month, May 28. More Mending Circles remain. Bring your mending and your stories. Libbie Soffer will provide company, expertise or her own nimble fingers, as needed.   Mending Circle times: May 16, 17, 18 & 23, noon-5pm Friday, May 20, 5pm until around 7 pm when Carolyn Halliday will lead a discussion with Libbie about her work. And, remember, the Susan Hensel Gallery is always open Monday 10-5 and on other days by very generous appointment. Susan Hensel Gallery The focus of Susan Hensel Gallery is on compelling objects, meaningful use of materials, and engaging sculpture. It is a gallery where experimental ideas and works of the hand join to create unique [...]

In The Windows: Sandra Brick

2023-06-08T00:47:44-04:00Exhibition, News|

In The Windows: Sandra Brick all? (white shirts from second-hand stores, hand-dyed thread and clothes pins) Sandra Brick 2020 The U.S. Declaration of Independence begins with the assertion that all are endowed with “certain unalienable rights.” Specifically, the nation’s founders listed, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” […]

In The Windows: Kate Vinson

2023-06-08T00:47:51-04:00Exhibition, News|

My work often comes from a place of mind, body, and spirit. As a sculptor. I use easily accessible materials to create contemporary forms. These forms are grounded in an organic sensibility interpreted with an element of transformation. I enjoy exploring philosophical constructs such as being/becoming, existence/potential, ways of knowing, universality, and the lived experience. […]

In The Windows: Kate Vinson

2023-06-08T00:49:25-04:00Exhibition, News|

My work often comes from a place of mind, body, and spirit. As a sculptor. I use easily accessible materials to create contemporary forms. These forms are grounded in an organic sensibility interpreted with an element of transformation. I enjoy exploring philosophical constructs such as: being/becoming, existence/potential, ways of knowing, universality, and the lived experience. […]

Installation

2023-06-08T00:48:09-04:00Articles, Embroidery Art, News, Artists|

Installation The gallery is a quiet studio, talk radio in the background. This Saturday, it will light up with the second South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market. Ideas have been knocking around in my head that involves the little dresses again, but in 3-d with fiber. SO, I today I began. I like the relationships that are developing among the parts, although it is still too linear, simply curated objects rather than a full 3-d experience. I think the placenta dress needs to hang in space rather like the stuffed dress at the left.But with the wool market arriving in a couple of days, I will leave it as is for now. Susan Hensel Gallery The focus of Susan Hensel Gallery is on compelling objects, meaningful use of materials, and engaging sculpture. It is a gallery where experimental ideas and works of the hand join to create unique sensory experiences. Opened September 10th, 2004 Susan Hensel Gallery is a gallery/ workspace presenting 5-6 shows per year in an intimate space, with hardwood floors and high tin ceilings. In 2013 the interior space reverted to a working studio for Susan Hensel where she [...]

Study with Adrienne Sloane

2023-06-08T00:48:23-04:00Exhibition, Articles, News, Artists, Art|

Study with Adrienne Sloane Study with Adrienne Sloane (Leslie D., Martha B.,Deb G.,Fran N., me, Adrienne Sloane) The class, Knitting and the Political Landscape, by Adrienne Sloane, finally taught this longtime knitter (like 40 years on and off) HOW to knit. The goal was to accumulate enough skills to be able to knit in a sculptural manner. It was so HARD ON MY HANDS! (The nearly 50 years of art working have taken a toll!) BUT, stay tuned. Things may happen! I organized and added a few needles to the stash and do have plans involving shifu, audio tape and wool. It was a power-packed class. The lists and the bulletin boards barely cover the intensity. We sampled, sampled and sampled, technique after technique, stretching our knitting concepts and forms into three dimensional space. In the end, yarn bombing happened. Leslie, with the help of Martha, knit a garter for a baluster outside of Yudof Hall. Other bombs were sprinkled through McNeil Hall Susan Hensel Gallery The focus of Susan Hensel Gallery is on compelling objects, meaningful use of materials, and engaging sculpture. It is a gallery where experimental ideas [...]

The Gallery is pregnant?

2023-06-08T00:49:02-04:00Articles, News, Art|

The Gallery is pregnant? Things are brewing, even as sabbatical continues. It is an exciting time in the quiet gallery. Nothing is hanging on the wall. Everything is pregnant with potential! The windows are growing and blooming with the art by Debora Miller. Drive by, especially after dark to see them at their best! Soon we will have another South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market: October 23. In December a new show will open...its title is unknown...but it is a collaboration between Susan Hensel and her son John Hensel. John is a fine photographer who is able to take an idea, a glimmer, really, and make it sing. I had a weird idea that involved yarn that told a story. His photography makes that potential story real. Stay tuned for dates! The party will be sometime over the Christmas holidays, since that is when he visits Minneapolis. And then, Dean Ebben's show will open in January. Dean is a local guy who moved on to New York. He comes back every year to see family and to teach at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. On January 14 he will open IN THE HOUSE OF THE MINERAL SPIRITS at Susan [...]

As summer slowly arrives…

2023-06-08T00:49:15-04:00News, Art|

As summer slowly arrives... The coming months at Susan Hensel Gallery will be pretty quiet... Well, not exactly quiet. A lot will be going on, but there will be no exhibitions scheduled for a couple of months. My summer exhibitor had to cancel for various reasons, leaving a hole in the schedule. Rather than fill the hole, I will be using the time and space to rest and spend time making my own art. I'm thinking of it as a trial run for my retirement! There will also be workmen around replacing windows! What will I be doing? Well, any number of things. First I will be filling the empty walls ( No, they are not empty yet! Carolyn Halliday's show continues until July 12) with huge sheets of paper so I can make really BIG drawings! But mostly I will be working on a couple of sculptures and installations. I will continue to dye and spin wool...Some will be for sale here and in my ETSY shop. Some will be used in my artwork. I will still keep Monday hours. The wool shop will be more open. It won't have to hide to prevent competition with the exhibitions. Textile [...]

In The Windows- Art Quilts

2023-06-08T00:50:04-04:00News|

I have known artist Gwen Schagrin for over 40 years. She and I were roommates late in our college years. Gwen got a degree in Interior Design while I got mine in Fine Arts. She went on to a varied career including institutional interior design and, ultimately, library science. In the last few years she has returned to her first love: color. Using the skills of quiltmaking, she investigates how color and form influence each other. […]

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