New Exhibit on Cedar At Play in the Fields of Color Perception Susan Hensel

With every new exhibit in Susan Hensel Gallery. Whether on artsy.net or elsewhere, there is a companion show in the Windows on Cedar Project.  The windows of my old building are HUGE, walk-in/ crawl-in shop windows. What I put in is part of the Neotectonic show on artsy as well as pieces related  Middle Ground, the show at St. Paul’s Monastery.

New Exhibit, AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF COLOR PERCEPTION By Susan Hensel

I make sculptural textile work, transforming personal experience, private and public spaces, with experiences of beauty, through the alchemy of color, scale, lighting and placement. I combine mixed-media practices with fabric and embroidery across digital and manual platforms.

“Why?” you might ask. Let me tell you the story.

Discover Blue!

Some years ago I discovered a “blue” unlike any blue I had ever seen before.  I had never considered myself a colorist or a color hoarder. But I had to possess that blue!  That “ultra” ultramarine blue was being stitched out on a computer aided embroidery machine at the Minnesota State Fair. It took several years of grant writing and loans to buy the equipment. Get the training, and put in the hours of experiment, discovery, failure, and success to get to where I am today. At play in the fields of color perception!

Designing images in the computer using specialized software.  It is a form of drawing in stitches that combines aspects of both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.  I transfer the design to the embroidery machine. Assign the colors and stitch. The stitch-out creates a “module.” From the “module(s)” I proceed to create the final piece. Using whatever other materials are necessary to complete the idea.

Background Color Of The Fabric

I work in this field because of the revolutionary (mind-blowing) color possibilities. Each thread provides multiple tones of a single color because of the unique triangular structure of the thread. When the thread-color choices are made in relation to other threads and the background color of the fabric. Color work unlike anything I have ever worked with is available.

Using a minimal number of colors and basic techniques I create sparkling, changeable chromes. I exploit the physics of light as it interacts with the structure of the triangular embroidery thread. The light scatters in multiple directions off the sides of the triangular thread. Creating different tones and saturation of the base color.

I also exploit the science of optics, relying, like the French painter Seurat, on our brain’s ability to optically mix spots of color in close physical proximity with one another. Further relying on the principles of color as taught by Joseph Albers and Johannes Itten et al. I exploit the vibratory effects of complementary colors and close saturation split complements. All of this creates a real-time. Changeable optical environment activated by the viewer’s movement from side to side as they view the artwork.

Fall In Love With This World

Historically, flatness is a key characteristic of most embroidery. My work breaks ground by engaging with sculptural space. I use thread and fiber techniques to shift light and perception through structures in the real world. Relying on my extensive knowledge of materials. I create small to large-scale hard-edge sculpture from soft fabrics that paradoxically keep their crisp form with minimal armatures.

I create a compelling viewer experience: one of puzzling beauty, playfulness and sometimes awe. The work invites people to slow down, engage in a place of wonder, enter a more contemplative state, giving themselves time to fall in love with this world and each other again.

After such a long  two years of mostly virtual exhibitions. This is one more opportunity to see some of my work in person!

New Exhibit

A lot of the paper pieces that are part of the Neotectonic Period exhibit on artsy are in the windows along with a few never-before-seen pieces, so new that they do not have their formal photographs yet.  See if you can spot them in these vertiginous photos taken lying in the windows!  Or being reflected back wildly in the cold, bright sun today!

The Susan Hensel Gallery

In 2013 the interior space reverted to a working studio where I continue to work on small and large scale artwork that engages both sculptural and cultural space. As the pandemic continued, I saw an opportunity to re-open Susan Hensel Gallery as an online gallery on Artsy.net, representing a small stable of Midwest artists. The need for Midwest artists to be seen by the broader market is large, and I wanted to do my part. There are so many marvelous artists toiling away all over the world, but very few get their work seen broadly. I want to do my part.
​
The focus of the 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. Originally opened September 10th, 2004 Susan Hensel Gallery as a gallery/ workspace presenting 5-6 shows per year in an intimate space, with hardwood floors and high tin ceilings. Sometimes people wonder how huge changes like this affect an artist’s output. Many artists I know suffered a protracted time of stasis. I, too, was frozen in place for a while. But then I began to work with an absolute fury on work that combined my concerns with the active roll of beauty to foment change, especially climate change. In the end, this awful pandemic time, TIME-NO-TIME, has been a fruitful time of development despite dealing with COVID-19 and art simultaneously.