A Cheese Box of...

 Since this summer, and the Women's Art Institute at St. Kate's,  I have been working with shell/vulva/pod forms in all sorts of media: 
    pastel
   graphite
   embroidery by hand and by machine

In fact, this is the form I have committed to exploring for a year. It will be interesting to see where it takes me.

This particular piece,  A CHEESEBOX OF VULVAS,  will be showing in Detroit, MI December 4- January 23, 2016  at Whitdel Arts in the show titled CROTCH: Contested Territory.  How could I NOT apply to this call?

The units are about 7" tall, muslin and sometimes calico prints, high loft batting sandwiched between the layers, embroidered on my Babylock machine with designs that I drew, cut-up and reassembled, scanned, re-drew and then digitized into these designs.  There are 50 units in this iteration.  I find it funny to see them peeking out of this old cheese box!  They are like a garden.  I can also see them proliferate and hang about a space, dangling in mid-air, jittering around as the brezzes pass through.

 

Repetition and Pattern, Fredericksburg Gallery, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Three of my artworks were selected for the show Repetition and Pattern, at Fredericksburg Gallery, in the Fredericksburg Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a partner with the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, guest curated by Amie Oliver.

The show opened Halloween, but the opening celebration is Friday, Nov 6, 6-8:30pm. Wish I could be there. If you go, do let me know.

Some Pebbles and Statistics are premiering in Fredericksburg.  Inventory Methods was shown in the windows of Susan Hensel Gallery earlier this year.

Some Pebbles

Statistics

Inventory Methods

In Stitches

                                            IN STITCHES

Terra Firma # 2

Patterns of India:Pearls of India

I am pleased as punch to announce that I will be showing some little seen work in a solo show at Lake Nokomis Presbterian Church, 1620 East 46th St., Minneapolis, MN. While we are not planning an opening event, you can contact me or the church to set a time to see the exhibit beginning November 5, 2015.  The end date is unclear, but it may be up until roughly Christmas. The church phone # is 612-721-4463 or you can email me at susanhensel@yahoo.com.

IN STITCHES is an exhibit of two bodies of work:

Terra Firma  and Patterns of India

Terra Firma reminds me of home.  I grew up in the Finger Lakes area of New York State, tramping up and down hills and through deep gorges cut by glaciers, revealing waterfalls, rock strata and fossils, an overwhelmingly physical representation of time.

Terra Firma is a series of mixed media artwork built from drawings on Fabriano paper, done in waxy colored pencils, ink and gouache that have been torn, re-ordered and reconstructed into sedimentary layers, tossed and folded by continental drift.  They are machine stitched and mounted on black linen and Folio printmaking paper.

Patterns of India is a response to a show I curated on the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent to the United States.  I read oral histories, met local Indian artists, heard their stories, ate wonderful food and became increasingly curious about the colors of the subcontinent.  I collected images of Indian miniatures, photos of the blue cities, dye pots and stacks of colorful fabrics as inspiration.

Patterns of India is built from drawings done in oil pastel, pencil, acrylic paint, ink.  The drawings were torn, reassembled and held together with stitches, lovely stitches and beads.