Feast of Famine? It's newsletter time!

http:// www.susanhenselprojects.com

I DWELL IN IMPOSSIBILITY

October 25-December 1, 2019

The Phipps Center for the Arts

109 Locust St.

Hudson, WI

Gallery Hours daily 9am-4:30 pm (Sunday noon-4:30 pm)

IT'S A CELEBRATION! COME JOIN ME! MEET MY SON JOHN, THE

PHOTOGRAPHER!

The opening reception and celebration is Friday, October 25, 6:30-8:30pm

Put it on your calendar!

I am so pleased to share this with you. The collaborative suite of photographs, I DWELL IN IMPOSSIBILITY, that my son John and I worked on, is about to be exhibited in its entirety for the second time on roughly five years, and he is flying in from Boston to be at the opening!

John is a powerful artist and thinker in his own right. We have collaborated before

and would more often,I suspect, if Boston weren't so far away! The idea for this

began many years ago while I was at a residency in Illinois. I wondered what it meant

when a woman wore a "power suit." Time passed, I aged and I wondered what would

it mean if a grey-haired woman, with a "pregnant belly" wore a "power suit?"

As luck would have it, I had shoulder surgery and John flew out to check up on me.

We talked some more about the idea. He costumed me, I took my drugs and he

directed me. The photoshoot brought out all kinds of dissonances concerning age,

gender and power.

It has been a very successful group of artworks. Portions of this suite have been

exhibited all across the country.

Do come and meet him and say "HI" to me as well.

The reception and celebration is Friday, October 25, 6:30-8:30pm

_____________________________________

In Other News

Feast or famine; Flood or drought.

That is the way of the art world. You send out failing proposals, rejection after

rejection seemingly forever. And then the dam breaks and you are overwhelmed with

opportunities for exhibition. The studio is at "flood stage" right now!

TORUS INTERIOR is being exhibited at

the Art League of Rhode Island, in One-Zero-One

HEATWAVE is on exhibit at the

Farmington Museum, in Farmington New Mexico

CASCADE is on exhibit at the St. Louis Art

Guild, as part of the Surface Design Association shows.

HORIZON is featured in the Surface

Design Association Journal

SKEWED GEOMETRY is at Webster

University as part of the Surface Design Association festivities.

And, by the time you see me again, I will be a "Certified Ricoma Technician." But,

please, do not try to hire me! I am taking an intensive course on maintaining and

repairing my new commercial embroidery machine!

Hope to see you soon.

I

In the Windows- KATE SCIANDRA

Kate Sciandra

Artist’s Statement

One thing that unifies all my work is the theme of deeply seeing, being

seen, and the intimacy that results.

During the countless hours spent as a figure model, being an object for

others to find aesthetically and artistically useful, I became obsessed with

capturing the compositions that would reveal themselves to me while I

worked. I began to have a fascination with what it means to be seen and

to simultaneously be the seer, like an optical illusion where from one side,

the object becomes the viewer and then with a shift of the eye, flips back

again.

Having both the regular experience of my body being the subject, and

having worked in the healing profession with the bodies of others as my

subject for over 20 years, I have a deep understanding of the body as

something both intimate and abstract. This pairing has translated and

evolved into a way that I perceive, and then reflect the world at large.

Creating a balance of universality and specificity, I work to capture objects,

places, and people in ways that penetrate their nature, while also creating

an image that has an aesthetic distance, sometimes reaching into the

abstract. This generates a tension that is compelling for the viewer,

drawing them into an even deeper relationship with the subject and the

work itself.

Crossed Wires---an apology!

Not only am I sketchily abled dealing with calendars, but I am superb at crossed wires!  Durn!

The superb photography of Ayana Muata was supposed to grace the windows this month.  I encourage you to go to look at her website and drool with expectation!  She is a superb storyteller in visual form.  Her forte is portraits, self and otherwise, that share deep narratives without the need for text. She will be showing in October and November, 2014!

For that matter, check out all  the links on the "exhibition schedule" page of the gallery website.  There are some very interesting shows scheduled.

Painting the proscenium

 It may or may not be a proscenium...although we  have been referring to it as a stage...but upside down.

The projector is placed, the window transparencies have begun to find their way to the windows.

All things are moving ahead in good order.

Food and beverage are purchased and chilling

So, the public unveiling is Friday!

I'm not me, she's over there
by Debora Miller with Rebecca Miller

Jan 11-Feb 22, 2013

Reception Jan 11, 7-9pm

Numinous Space

 Andy McQuigg and Deb Miller are still hard at work installing the temporary ceiling which will establish the "stage" for the installation I'm not me, she's over there.


Huge cedar beams span the gallery space, establishing place, beginning to create the location for a numinous experience .


The exhibition opens Friday. January 11, 7-9pm


I'm not me, she's over there.
by Debora Miller, withRebecca Miller

January 11-February 22, 2013

Helpers make light work

Lots of help around bringing this show to fruition.  In these various photos people you see: Gideon, Roan, James, Karen (of Mother Earth Garden) and Deb.

It's a mystery!

On a lovely sunny, Sunday, work has begun in earnest! Andy has been spending the day in the rafters...or more precisely, making rafters. A room is taking form inside the room of the gallery.  The cedar rafters will become Deb's new bed frame.  You read it here!  It's a deal!

The show opens soon:

I'm not me, she's over there

opening reception Friday, January 11, 7-9pm

I'm not me, she's over there...it begins

I'm not me, she's over there

an installation by Debora Miller

opening Friday. January 11. 7-9pm

It's like a moving-in.  You know, when you gather friends, boxes, tape and trucks and haul  the mismatched parts of your life to new home. Deb Miller and her husband Andy have begun the move. Measuring tapes have measured and snapped shut across the space.  Plans have been drawn, tools have been assembled.  Mason jars, twin shots, paint, tape and a set of bound dolls that travel back and forth between Deb and her identical twin when they visit one another.  You can see Debora at work at work at http://artsquall.wordpress.com/

After a period of deep quiet...

Reader's Art 12 : Amandine Nabarra Piomelli

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home   Amandine Nabarra Piomelli

The Caretaker

A series of 14 photographs based on a true story (see below) and presented as a centered accordion book in a fabric like box. The title of the box is hidden by the band to keep the secret of the story safe.

Some secrets become obsessions and can change the course of one’s life. This metamorphosis is at the heart of a project made of several artistic short stories. One of them, The Caretaker, is based on the life of Mrs T. On her wedding day, her aunt, who she thought was her mother broke the secret about her  parents’ identity. This shocking revelation slowly changed Mrs. T.’s destiny and sent her off to roam about the world in search of her father.

Mrs T.’s Vietnamese mother had met a Chinese man in Hong-Kong, but their love story was short lived. Returning home to care for her dying mother, she realized she was pregnant. Two years after Mrs T.’s birth, her mother died and the little girl was raised by her aunt who hid the identity of her parents until her wedding day. Before the ceremony the bride received a box containing an old photo of a young man and a golden ring  that her mother had left for her. After spending the next 20 years raising her children, Mrs T. decides to leave her family to find her father. In order to finance her quest, she will work as a caretaker.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

March 16- April 26

A PRE_PRE_PRE_preview?

Ok, it is months from now...

But Debora Miller, whose photographic projects have graced the windows of Susan Hensel Gallery on multiple occasions, will be part of the Northern Spark Festival in June.

Check it out! http://northernspark.org/projects/murmur-2.html?org=a

She is also working on a new site specific piece for Susan Hensel Gallery for July and August.

City: A language we Spoke!

It was a good problem to have! Rosemary Ann Davis curated and organized a reading for the Susan Hensel Gallery last night. Twelve readers, including Susan Hensel, read about cities they have known and loved.
There were actually too many people to all fit inside for the festivities. Luckily, it was our first balmy night of spring. Crown Coffee, the new shop next door, stayed open late selling their Fair Trade coffee and putting out lawn chairs for the overflow.Reader's read. Listeners listened. Jaipur, Seoul, Istanbul, San Francisco,Buenos Aires, McMurdo Station, Cairo, Quetzaltenango,Paris,St. Petersburg and The Cities That Marco Polo Left Behind were all represented.Don't let the serious faces fool you. There was, as usual, much laugher, much levity.

Color of Conflict closes soon

The show is nearly done! Only a few days remain to see this powerful show...it comes down January 1!

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.

Color of conflict nears...

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

COLOR OF CONFLICT

a collaboration between Susan Hensel and John Hensel

The subject is war. The object is yarn. The exhibit is photography.

COLOR OF CONFLICT, now on exhibit at Susan Hensel Gallery

reception: DECEMBER 17, 7-10pm.

Color of Conflict opens soon

COLOR OF CONFLICT

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.