A sleepy John Hensel, just after arriving from Michigan on an AMTRAK bus.
The opening was a blast. Many people braved the cold, slippery roads and the 
ubiquitous holiday parties to welcome John "home" and to celebrate his achievements as a photographer.
A new exhibit at Susan Hensel Gallery
Dec 1, 2010-Jan. 1, 2011
reception on Friday, December 17, 7-10pm
The object is yarn. The subject is war.
Color of Conflict, opening at Susan Hensel Gallery December 1, is a collaboration with photographer John Hensel, my son
Always a multimedia artist who seeks narrative, I brought the world of fiber into my studio practice. Color of Conflict is a show of photographs that wrest the meaning from a series of yarns spun during my sabbatical. These yarns, containing army toys and the colors and forms of armed conflict, can be knitted. But their true horror is revealed in the photographic display.
In the art world, one talks about transgression. Transgression can be loosely defined as breaking expected boundaries or expectations. Yarn is expected to be soft, warm, useful, at times even life saving. It is often associated with leisure, craft and women's work. Rarely is it thought of as an object, a material or a subject of fine art. In this project, yarn paradoxically uses its traditional softness to express a hard/harsh/violent reality. It uses its allusions to its life saving properties( warmth, padding, protecting) as a field of discussion about war and death. It uses a "women's art" to discuss a "man's pursuit."
This body of work was completed during a six month sabbatical from gallery life. I took the risk of closing Susan Hensel Gallery for six months in order to return to studio practice and research. During the sabbatical I spent much time exploring the narrative capabilities of fiber. I have become part of the artyarn movement, a radical group of spinners who push the idea of what yarn can be to its maximum. Usually, it is a lighthearted game, spinning Christmas baubles and Halloween eyeballs into fluffy masses of wool. It’s mostly about process and fun. I love process as much as the next person, but process alone does not satisfy me in the long-run. I have been adding, multiplying, accreting and inserting meaning wherever I can in handspun yarn.
There will be a reception for the us on Friday, December 17, 7-10pm. Come see the yarn. Come meet the photographer.
The Dugong
Holly is a woman from Florida who wears fine jewelry and always arrives fashionably and creatively dressed. Except for the Florida connection, I would never have dreamed of her special talent. Holly can talk to the sea creatures, even through the glass, and they appear to listen. Holly's normal voice is quite loud, brash, carrying far. When she talks to the sea creatures, she speaks with the tone of a new lover, sweet & inviting. The leopard ray came right to the glass and seemed to reach out to her. The dugong stopped sleeping, and swam to her.
sleeping dugong.
And then, Dean Ebben's show will open in January. Dean is a local guy who moved on to New York. He comes back every year to see family and to teach at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. On January 14 he will open IN THE HOUSE OF THE MINNERAL SPIRITS at Susan Hensel Gallery with an installation and a performance. Stay tuned!
image from Bound, a series of Cyanotypes Ebben made in Austerlitz, NY. They are the result of a video-taped action of Ebben wrapping his hands and feet. 
The South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market was, once again, well attended and so much fun. Even if no one came, I think we would enjoy ourselves! What's not to enjoy about people engaged with fiber?
This darling little one finished her fiber day with Grandma at our place. She had started the day by making fairies at the Fiber Studio and ended by making a Wild Batt with me.
Her hand can be seen somewhere in this fluffy, curly single made from loose locks. I spun 3 skeins during the day, totaling nearly 300 yards..JPG)
(Leslie D., Martha B.,Deb G.,Fran N., me, Adrienne Sloane)
It was a power-packed class. The lists and the bulletin boards barely cover the intensity. We sampled, sampled and sampled, technique after technique, stretching our knitting concepts and forms into three dimensional space.
In the end, yarn bombing happened. Leslie, with the help of Martha, knit a garter for a baluster outside of Yudof Hall. Other bombs were sprinkled through McNeil Hall.
Do you remember Kari Gunther-Seymour? I do! She sent this bouquet celebrating 7 years of the gallery and the beginning of my sabbatical!
Leslie Sobel on the Stonearch Bridge overlooking the great Mississippi River.
Art yarn by Susan Hensel
, yawning from lack of sleep, evaluating the results of the current show in the gallery
, updating the website, interviewing several people for the potential new position of gallery associate in January, 
photographing fiber and recording dye results
. 
and I smiling as we we realized our work responsibilities were waning. He has finished 2 of his three jobs before grad school and I am almost to the sabbatical date! We are both waxing philosophical/nostalgic even though we will be working together another 2 months!
