Such a long time

It has been such a long time since my last blog post!  Hints of activity have been blasted out on Facebook:  so easy, so fast!

Tonight, I will slow down for an admittedly drowsy bit of time and try to catch up on the events and activities in the studio.

A magnificent deal came my way on a new embroidery machine.  In fits and starts, including a trip to the shop, I have begun using it. There is a learning curve, but it is not too steep.  It works like any other embroidery machine...except you have to set up the thread-to-needle assignments. It is a bit fussy.

It allows me to sew up to 10 threads with no spool changes. What a wonder! Mostly I have been doing color studies: stitching identical designs with identical thread choices on different color fabrics to see what happens.

I rearranged the studio to make room for the new machine.  In anticipation of the need for more wall space to work large, I finished drywalling the garage.  I have one really long wall out there...over 14 uninterrupted feet.  Now to get it heated...or designate it the spring-fall studio extension.

I applied for the Guggenheim fellowship earlier this fall.  It is unlike any other application.  You practically write a memoir : about 8 pages of narrative about your career and 3 pages about your proposed project and beyond.  No resume.  No artist statement. And you have to provide 3 references. BUT no pictures...until asked.  I was asked!  So I have been combing through jpgs, trying to find the right sequence, the right story.  It is a big-deal-lot-of-work!  I cannot tell you how many hours this has all taken...and it is not done yet.  You can see my progress on picture selection etc. at http://susanhenselgrantapplication.weebly.com/

The body of work I did with my son, I DWELL IN IMPOSSIBILITY, will be exhibited at the Phipps Art Gallery in Hudson, WI as a solo show, in  October/ November 2019.

The EROS DRAWINGS are on exhibit in Wyoming, Minnesota for this month.

And the Art of Giving Project continues.  More artists books have gone to collections:  Pratt Institute of Art in NY; Brooklyn Museum of Art; and now Long Island University, NY.

Stitched: Themes and Variations

Stitching on Rives BFK.  Digitized in 6D Embroidery software. STabilized with medium weight cutaway stabilizer.  Threads are rayon, polyester or cotton.  There is a thin layer of batting between the stabilizer and the paper.  Hand coloring with watercolor: bold pours; brush swooshes and staining from the back of the stitching with the rayon thread.  The rayon wicked the watercolor to the front, containing it to the stitched area.

This one is my favorite.  Stitched inoff white rayon, stained from the back with watercolor.

 

Holding it Together : testing the concept

For the past year, I have been feverishly applying for grants for this project. None have come through, yet, more are being written, and several are awaiting results. I can't really start the project until the grant period begins...But, I do need to try out some technical ideas.  These are 2 iterations. All together they took several hours of design work and about 11 hours of stitching.  I have 2 or 3 more ideas to try out.  Right now I am thinking that the text will be on suspended plexiglas.

The hoped for project is: Holding it Together: women's lifesaving stories, an installation of digitally programmed, machine embroidery, making freestanding lace, inspired by the history of Irish lace. Clones Irish lace re-emerged during the potato famine as a way to save families from destitution and starvation. Women designed unique motifs loosely based on Venetian bobbin lace that could be made simply with a crochet hook and common thread. Lace motifs were particular to families, identifying the individual and their relations as clearly as insignia or monograms. The individual motifs were collected and assembled by the "Netter," creating wildly popular luxury goods from the contributions of a broader community, a process that we now would call crowd sourcing. 

I posit that all people, and older women in particular, have unique stories, both dramatic and mundane, which create the foundation for their family's survival. The stories might be as simple as "How Thanksgiving dinner was saved" or as profound as a human life rescued or sacrificed.  In this project, I am taking on the role of both the lace maker and the "Netter", collecting women’s stories, creating motifs that express the content of their stories and piecing them together into an exhibition.

My saved the day story is: In the early years of my widowhood, when my son was still small, a playgroup decided to go sledding.  I did not feel I could participate. It was several years before my surgery and my back was too fragile to haul my toddler up the hill, much less ride the icy bumps with him. I returned home discouraged.  That night I received a phone call from my insurance agent, offering to be a "big brother" to my son and how would we like to go sledding!

  

New York exposure

I Dwell in Impossibility #14

Even as I continue to write unsuccessful grant applications (perhaps some will be successful again one day) and dye wool for Shepherd's Harvest Festival and shrinkwrap artwork for Art-A-Whirl, I keep sending show proposals and competition entries.

This week I heard from 2 New York galleries...in the affirmative!  Hooray!

I Dwell in Impossibility #14 , a collaboration with my son John Hensel, will be showing at the venerable Ceres Gallery.  I have wanted to show there ever since I heard about them more than 20 years ago.  The 12th annual National Juried Exhibition has given me the opportunity.

Ceres Gallery

547 W. 27th St. suite 201

New York, NY 10001

Juror: Carmen Hermo, Assistant Curator for Collections, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

May 24 2016 thru Jun 18 2016

opening reception  May 26, 6-8

My Mother, Myself

My Mother, Myself, a digital embroidery, will be exhibited at the First Street Gallery, in their National Juried Exhibition,

National Juried Exhibition

June 23-July 16, 2016

opening reception June 23, 6-8pm

First Street Gallery

526 West 26th St. Suite 209, 

New York 

The juror, Lori Bookstein, viewed 2,200 works in curating this exhibition.  Cool!

Competitions are not necessarily great career builders, but, hey!  It gets the work seen so it can begin to tell its story.

If you are in the New York area...Please go see the shows!  I'll be slaving away in the studio out here in Minnesota while you party for me;-)  

Erotica Aquatica Lace in production

The embroidery machine was in the shop for three weeks!!! but that did not stop me from digitizing more designs...or writing the grant that I unreasonably hope will support the next phase of development.

In the last post you saw some failed display efforts, on grids.  The grids overwhelmed the lace.  I moved on to biological specimen boxes, pinning the shell/vulvas to the soft backing.  Ish!!!  I think that is actually the response I want, on some level. 

I also threw a few on a small light box.  They are beautiful that way.  I have multiple 24" x 48" lightboxes in the garage.  I will drag one in this week and try a few things before I order more specimen boxes.

 Meanwhile, now that the machine has returned, I am stitching, threading, stitching, threading.  Many broken and shredded threads!  In the following photos you will see, not only 8 plus hours of stitching, but a technique that helps me prevent problems (only sometimes) and helps me to target adjustments needed in the designs.


I printed these designs out while the machine was in the shop to play with composition and develop photos shoots for the grant...helping show steps in the process, showing the technical mastery that is necessary for completion.

I have always printed out designs for cataloging purposes.  It's far easier for me to think of what I want to stitch if I can leaf through a binder.  Print-outs also print out thread instructions for multi color designs....exceedingly important since correct thread specs rarely transfer to the machine!

In the photos below, I have matched print-outs with stitch-outs.  The stitch-outs are still on their wash away stabilizer (Vilene) where is it easier to see obvious faults that need correcting. In all but one of the photos, you may be able to see orange highlighter marks. I have marked areas that need editing and improvement.  Once the stabilizer is washed out, more flaws will likely be evident.

For the embroidery nerds:
digitized in 6-D
75/11 needle
Threadart polyester thread
Vilene wash away stabilizer

Minor pull-aways.

This will probably hold together, but can be cleaned up.

The only one that needs no editing, so far, unless the red motif does not hold together!

This has a couple of minor pull-aways and needs higher density in the final satin stitch.

This needs a whole new layer added on the right side of the design in order for it to hold together.

So what's ahead?  More testing!!!  More digitizing.  I need to try these out with different threads: 60 weight will probably look flabby.  Try them out with cotton, will probably need less density. It will be a meaty looking lace.  I will be trying out different kinds of fills that will still hold the lace together. I get tired of tried and true crosshatch.  Gradient fills...motifs that I develop...inset text...stitching on netting.

Meanwhile, I am studying different way to think about assembling lace...developing motifs that can be mixed and matched to make a lace fabric...like the doilie in the machine.

This doily is in the machine now, shredding thread at an alarming rate! Time to change the needle and maybe order a higher quality, fresher cone of black polyester.