I am only 3 inches taller than these frames

It's not so much that I am short, although I am that.  I top out at 60 inches in height, give or take a decimal or two.  But these frames top out at 57 inches.

Heavy duty framing!  And I mean HEAVY. These things weigh a ton.  But it is so good to see them framed!

These are part of the His Suit, Hirsute, Power Suit project for which I continue to seek funding.  In addition to these singular pieces, there are triptychs that were developed to be the surface of three dimensional objects that will loom at the center of an installation.  So, I am now beginning to frame the parts that are framable while I await grant results and seek yet more funding sources.

exhibitions and websites

Most of the activity in the studio has been on the Wearing My Age Project.  I have surveyed 168 people about their attitudes toward their work clothing.  I have learned to digitize embroidery and am now draping a dress form to make clothing to carry the messages.  Follow the project on http://www.susanhenselprojects.com/wearing-my-age-blog

Meanwhile, I have been working diligently on the new website...again.  I have added a calendar and you can expect to see a pretty thorough re-design soon.  The work above Closeted #5 is going to be showing in the  8th annual University of Michigan Alumni Exhibition entitled Unintended Consequences, Jul 14 – Aug 2, 2014 at the Slusser Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI (map)

Fed Ex Freight came today: Framing again!

The collar drawing from the Reinvented Past series are finally getting their frames.  I ordered the frames and matts assembled, making it much easier to deal with.  But they were so big, they had to come via Fed Ex Freight.  They will show later this year and next at the Hopkins Art Center and at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts.  Here are the ones I finished today:

A Reinvented Past 6, 38" x 40"

A Reinvented Past 3, 23" x 44.5"

Silenced

It may or may not be part of a series, but this mixed media pastel with hand stitching is the first, I think, of several that speak to  the systematic silencing of women over time.

The image arose in some doodles one night and scared the crap out of me.  It occurred again.  It was so authentic and so scary that I knew I had to pursue it.  The DIY cruciform stitching is intentionally crude.  As I was drawing this face, the symmetric cruciform of the body appeared.  I decided to emphasize it with the stitches done in waxed bookbinding linen thread.  The crudeness of the thread and the elongated limbs of the cross seemed to echo hundreds of years of silencing women of faith...seems to reflect the crude, hamfisted denial of the power and the wholeness of women.

And, I found the frame for $18 at an occasional sale today!

Much new work

I ordered the frame for this today..a black metal frame. The top arm extends beyond the frame on foamcore. Dresses are still an obsession for me. I have been dyeing cloth lately that was part of the Kristalnacht installation ( go to susanhenseldesign.com and click the link for installations.) It is indigo dyed, with ghostly images of the lists of concentration camps. I am wondering what would happen if I made dresses from this indigo dyed muslin in styles that might have been around during World War II. While I do not imagine them ON anyone, I suppose I could have a trangressive fashion show... Just thinking, you know? (Drawing on UV Utra paper with gesso and various colored pencils)

The flow of the studio

It has been so good to be working regularly in the studio again. I have regained a sense of BEING an artist. I awake in the morning with urgent work to accomplish...hands to get dirty, pastels to grind down to nubs, exacto blades to change. The work flows smoothly...or as smoothly as this mysterious vocation can flow. You sweat, you wonder, you get very dirty, you make lousy mistakes, fix them, destroy them, wonder if you'll ever figure out how to finish, staple, rip, rub, read, research and seek the state where you are simply the tool of the divine. Sometimes, at the end of a very good day, you might stand back and say, "Did I do that?" Somehow you were able to get out your own way, having no real memory of how you could have commanded your body to accomplish what it did.

I took the Cow-Heart series to the framers today...after adding a pastel frame to the middle one. These 2 pieces are now finished. I added a bit of red and a framework. Now, after a few days admiring them, I will roll them up...too big to frame right now. They are around 48" wide.

I will be attending a dying workshop for the next few days...so no more drawing. And then, on Monday, the new windows are delivered and the work starts on Wednesday. The delightful flow of the studio will be interrupted again.

It's a matter of scale

I have been drawing hands for a logo I am helping develop. In response to the niggling smallness of computer work, I had to draw hands on 4 foot by 8 foot paper this afternoon...and somehow, bodies became attached to the outsized hands. And so it goes. I now have charcoal encrusted hands to start a 3 day technology workshop. So it goes.

Red diatoms among the Jellies? The collar/jellyfish return

I meant to put these photos up yesterday...but sleep called much too strongly! The red collar piece is almost complete...need to draw more tendrils and fix/affix the yarn. The media are acrylic paint, pastel, graphite, dyed textiles, handspun yarn on paper.This one is clearly just begun! I am excited by it, but must leave for a spinning workshop soon. Maybe I'll manage to assemble the first bit before I go so I can come home and get real dirty! (Pastel and graphite!!! under the fingernails and ground into the whorls of the fingerprints!)

Art Happens

It's not done yet, but Army Collar, started before Australia, has resumed. Paper, cloth, pastel, graphite, and army men.

collar progress

The boomerang, a weapon for hunting, and the army guys joined and then got smudged with camo-green. hmmm.

Sea-collar?

While I may be adjusting the blacks a bit, I think it is done. The addition of a lightweight handspun mohair took it where it needed to go. The sea creature aspect continues...these seem to be "jelly-fish of memory"? Who knows, it is still a mystery to me. I do think of the threads as memory, connections to the past, to shared histories...

In the flow, with rapids ahead?

I'm not at all sure what these are all about. Zach says this one is kind of scary looking. I agree. It is done now and the Jelly fish/collar/yawning yoni awaits meaning! I know it has to do with memory, femaleness and aging somehow. I have been collecting these collars, real collars, for ages. There is something about their delicacy, their histories, the embroidery and/or lace making, their shapes that captivates me. Most of the collars I am working with were purchased in Northern Minnesota, 2 years ago, when I stayed in Lutsen for a week. This is a detail of the very beginning of the next piece. Yarn and other fiber somehow relates as well....I think as metaphor for memory and female histories. more detail. And then it gets scary to work with as the real collar has been glued in. A commitment has been made to consume the beautiful collar. It is sheer, soft, delicate cotton, worn to near shreds, barely intact. What will happen to it tomorrow?

It is late now and I must stop and relax before bed.

In the flow

This one is not finished yet. The blacks will be darkened, some whites will be added. This one is called Broken Memory. I'm not thrilled with it, although I like it better in jpg form. This one, completed last night,I am happy with. With this one I am beginning to get a glimmer of the content I am working with. I always work instinctively, driven by materials and some small object or mark to begin. I never see the finished artwork in my mind's eye. I simply begin. But When or Where to begin is always mysterious. It began yesterday afternoon when Zach and I were working on a CSS template together for the gallery. Suddenly I knew I had to begin. I hung large paper and made a yarn-like mark on it and got back to work on the CSS (I learned a lot, by the way.) After dinner the real work began. My hands are gritty, with compressed charcoal ground into the cuticles. I am happy. Several days ago I was wondering if this flow would ever return. Artmaking is so mysterious, a difficult task master/mistress.

So, what am I working with? It seems to me that the issues of memory, aging, nostalgia remain key. All the drawings refer to yarn in some way. Indeed, I am surrounded by it in the studio. As I draw, I think of the deep history of yarn making as functional, needed, mostly women's work. In the New England colonies, households were taxed according to the spinners therein. But here, in the 21st century, I explore handspun yarn as art with a history. In the drawings, it is as though the yarn elements are fragments and arteries of the deep unconscious, of the deep memories we are born with.

yarny drawings

Pastel, compressed charcoal and 4 feet of paper. Whole body drawing. My fingernails are as dirty as though I had been in a Ragdale studio for the day.

Cowhearted Woman #4 is started

Cow Hearted Woman #3

She began the day like this. She proceeded to this. Now I am about to spray the living daylights out of it so I can do the last little bit without undue smudging.

Cow hearted Woman series

I'm working on #3. I guess I can now call the cow-hearted woman a series. The hearts wind up looking like a cross between a pepper and an eggplant...kinda cool, actually. I've been dreaming of planting a vegetable garden.

cow hearted woman wears a mask

Yje cow hearted woman is now wearing a mask. I think I will crop it to the smaller image.

Cow Hearted Woman