More small works in process

Squeezed in this afternoon, before the party begins in the gallery.

Kim Madonna I think.

On the Kathleen Baroque piece I am still trying to figure out how much runching : just a piece or a whole frame?

Watercolor and MIxed Media

A new series seems to be beginning, just as the work load heats up for Reader's Art in the Susan Hensel Gallery. I must NOW put these assemblages away to make room for the food table for tomorrow's closing party of IN THE HOUSE OF THE MINERAL SPIRITS and for the installation of Reader's Art. I'll at least get them tacked together before the onslaught,

A sabbatical nears its end...

At the core of COLOR OF CONFLICT, at the heart, at the start:

COLOR OF CONFLICT

a collaboration between Susan Hensel and John Hensel

In this year of sabbatical, as I have wandered seemingly aimlessly at times, old themes emerged as they always do. Themes of nostalgia and aging as seen in the series of assemblages with the antique clothing et al. And now, the anti-war themes emerge as well, carried by yarn.

COLOR OF CONFLICT, now on exhibit at Susan Hensel Gallery

reception: DECEMBER 17, 7-10pm.

Black nostalgia

And the nostalgic collar quest continues.

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!)

A new red dress

More about Christchurch

I visited COCA Center of Contemporary Art, an independent non-profit, devoted to contemporary art. I saw artwork by Hannah Riley who used materials like quills, seed clouds and cobwebs to build elegant art that stretches boundaries of what can BE art. Her work was beautiful! Do look at the link. Jude Robertson's, on the third floor, was very impressive. He created a marvelous soundscape; Ecological Score. One of the best I have ever heard. Also a piece called SPILL, made of tiny soap houses...I brought one home. COCA survived the quake virtually unscathed.

Christchurch Art Gallery is the public contemporary museum/exhibition space. Look up Andrew Drummond, a NZ sculptor who works with coal, spagnum moss, brass, glass tubes, mysterious motors! His book is JUST published and probably worth hunting down.

The Arts Center, formerly Canterbury College, is a great area full of artists, restaurants and galleries. Most of it has reopened since the earthquake, but most of the artists studios are still closed. One of the amazing artists I met was Marilyn Rea-Menzies a tapestry weaver. This woman is amazing. I strongly suggest you go to her blog both for the art and the progress on clean up after the quake.