Reader’s Art 8: handmade with care. Nearly 200 images have arrived in my mailbox this year. Beautiful books of all sorts from all over the country. The postcard has been ordered and preliminary sorting has begun. It will be a hard decision this year because all the work is topnotch.

The primary decision to be made right now is How large will the emphasis on handmade paper be? I always jury the show as a single entity. That means that I look at how the work goes together and how it will flow in the space. Will the show, in total, make sense? While this has always been a survey show, the pieces are chosen for their place in the gestalt as well as for their intrinsic quality.

It is an interesting process. I put out the call for art with a vague idea in mind…with some expectations of how a show might look. But all shows, and this one in particular, seem to tell me what is going on out there. The entries dictate the show by demonstrating what artists are concerned about right now. There is one more day to receive entries and then official results will go out .

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 continues to work on small and largescale artwork that engages both sculptural and cultural space. You can find her current work at www.SusanHenselProjects.com. The Susan Hensel Gallery is now both a large window gallery on Cedar Avenue, a main thoroughfare in south Minneapolis, and an online venture represented on Artsy.net.