Transformation: The Works of Susan Hensel & Janna Rhae Johnson

Transformation: 

The Works of Susan Hensel & Janna Rhae Johnson

OPENING SATURDAY, JAN 24

Opening reception for this show is Saturday, January 24 from 6-8pm.

Jan 24- Feb 22, 2015

This show showcases two different approaches to creating art from the detritus of human existence. Susan Hensel explores the nature of memory, nostalgia and longing for narrative that may never have truly existed. She finds shreds of story in attics, closets, basements and thrift shops. By sewing, gluing, dying, painting and placing these items with one another, she transforms these items into assemblages that illuminate shared human stories of longing. Janna Rhae Johnson creates sculptural jewelry that reveals the exquisiteness of a material rarely considered as such — steel.  Working with steel belted tires scavenged from roadways and discarded window screen, she transforms these materials into body adornment that challenges the very definition of jewelry, requiring a precarious interaction between object and body.

Installation day at Hopkins Center for the Arts

Transformation: The Works of Susan Hensel & Janna Rhae Johnson

OPENING SATURDAY, JAN 24

Opening reception for this show is Saturday, January 24 from 6-8pm.

Today was installation day...always an exciting day.  I am showing the series REINVENTED PAST in this two person show at  Hopkins Center for the Arts.

Installation begins!

Dale measuring

Figuring out locations

Janna Rhae Johnson

Hopkins Center for the Arts

1111 Mainstreet
Hopkins, MN 55343

Gallery free and open to the public
Monday-Friday: 8am–8pm
Saturday: 10am–8pm
Sunday: 12–5pm

Just a little bit more

While I bought Puffs with lotion and Vicks Vaporub today... a tiny bit is getting done between nose blowing and naps. I updated the Susan Hensel Projects website, correcting a typo and putting in the right  photos for the Patterns of India series under the other artworks tab.

I also glued up these things today.  I love cutting up old stuff and re-assembling to make new things.

I don't know what I think about these three things.  I know I like the first one...the others?  Don't know.

Suit Dollies #1

Suit Dollies #2

Suit Dollies #3

A lot of progress on the Habitat project

I finalized the module forms and made template from Davey board.  All the template will fit within a 12 inch square, my basic grid unit.

 I then cut windows from posterboard using the templates so I could chose fabric orientation more easily.

A couple of days ago I made brick and siding rubbling plates from Davey board.  Today I used them to decorate a group of plain and printed pieces of cloth.

At the end of the day I had completed four samples.  I assembled the painted cloth pieces in a variety of manners with a variety of backings.
 I concluded my tests with the decision to assemble each side of these 2 sided modules on featherweight fusable pellon which will then be assembled into finished units on super heavy fusible pellon called Peltex.
    Much more testing to come.  The next set of tests involves developing the transparent/translucent modules and some systems for including text.

 
I think I said a few days ago that much fun would be had in the studio.  The FUN has definitely begun.

Deconstructing Power on a disjointed day

Today was an odd day.  Beastly cold.  Spent time waiting for the electricians who never came.  Went to the little studio  to work on the Deconstructing Power pieces only to have a poor little dying mouse lurch out of somewhere and discombobulate me.  He was quivering, and panting, having a hard time righting himself.  While I do not want mice to live inside with me, I felt so bad for his misery.  With horror and sadness, I removed him.

   Then I did a little more work on this piece and moved on to the next, only to discover that I had no thread with me and that I need to be able to hang  them on the wall to see what I am doing  and I had no stapler with me.   So I moved on the the shoe pieces.  Last week I finished the assembly of the shoe rubbings.  Today I began composition of the skeletal parts of the wing tip shoes.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

So,  some time ago, I tore apart a pair of men's wingtip shoes.  It was a fascinating dissection...so many parts!  I did rubbings of the uppers and put them away in a drawer.  I think I am about to tackle them.  I am sure there will be some stitching.

Fashion, power, signification.