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Susan Hensel received her BFA from University of Michigan, USA. Her continued study includes Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Penland, Christies Education, Praxis Center for Aesthetic studies among others. She has a history, to date, of well over 300 exhibitions. Hensel's artwork is known and collected nationwide, represented in collecting libraries and museums as disparate as the MOMA and The Getty Research Institute. Upcoming, Susan has 2-person and group exhibitions scheduled with Suwon Museum of Art, S. Korea, Artistry, Bloomington, MN and the Garrett Museum of Art, Garrett, IN as well as solo exhibitions in Leipzig, Germany, Hopkins, MN, Duluth, MN and Springfield, IL.
Hensel's artwork is known and collected nationwide, represented in collecting libraries and museums as disparate as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Getty Research Institute with major holdings at Minnesota Center for Book Arts , University of Washington, Baylor University and University of Colorado at Boulder. Archives pertaining to her artists books are available for study at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle.
Her new innovative work that blends commercial embroidery processes with sculptural concerns is gaining attention and awards. Susan’s knowledge of materials makes it possible for her to create small to large-scale hard-edge sculpture from soft fabrics that paradoxically keep their crisp form with minimal armatures. Her knowledge of the physics of color allows her to create shape-shifting displays employing the special reflective characteristics of embroidery thread.
In recent years Hensel has been awarded multiple grants and residencies through the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Art to Change the World and Ragdale Foundation.
Hensel's artwork is known and collected nationwide, represented in collecting libraries and museums as disparate as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Getty Research Institute with major holdings at Minnesota Center for Book Arts , University of Washington, Baylor University and University of Colorado at Boulder. Archives pertaining to her artists books are available for study at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle.
Her new innovative work that blends commercial embroidery processes with sculptural concerns is gaining attention and awards. Susan’s knowledge of materials makes it possible for her to create small to large-scale hard-edge sculpture from soft fabrics that paradoxically keep their crisp form with minimal armatures. Her knowledge of the physics of color allows her to create shape-shifting displays employing the special reflective characteristics of embroidery thread.
In recent years Hensel has been awarded multiple grants and residencies through the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Art to Change the World and Ragdale Foundation.
Published on March 19th, 2023. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you fascinated with right now?
Bright, lively, complex colorways that shimmer from color interaction as well as the changing angles of sightlines. The thread I work with scatters light, shifting the visible spectrum for the viewer.
I am also fascinated with the themes of wayfinding in these exceptionally chaotic times. While materials always lead me...they also always express what is on my mind. I have been focusing in on climate healing, creating beautiful sculptures that refer to the world as we want it to be and wayfinding devices to help us create that world.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Persist! Follow your gut! Be courageous and kind, to yourself and others! Try not to sweat the little things. Understand that the work you do is important to the world, even when the public does not seem to notice. Always show your work so it can do its work in the world. That may be as simple as sharing it with a friend or as dramatic as showing it in a museum. I believe that art is an essential part of being human.
I realize that sounds awfully pat and cliché-ridden…But these are ideas I keep returning to for myself and for the artists I have mentored over the years. Remember, clichés become clichés because there is at least an element of truth in them.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
In April of this year I sustained a debilitating hip injury that prevented me from working. I am 5 months out from the injury and only just beginning to be able to work part time. What has sustained me?
First I shook my fist at “the gods!” and felt sorry for myself, sucked my thumb a while. And then I began to fight! I had to PERSIST, because this change and the explanations for it were unacceptable! I had to reach out for help. I had to form a varied team of people to support me body, mind and spirit. And I had to commit to my own health and healing.
I am looking upon my healing as a creative, brave endeavor. Through music, movement, meditation and, lots of physical therapy, I am recovering and recreating my sense of bodily integrity.
I am preparing for 3 major solo shows. Thankfully, last year was uber productive and the work is made. My assistant and I are organizing exactly which pieces will go in the 3 different galleries. I am organizing people to haul things around, renting trucks, planning publicity…all things I can do.
And I drink wine.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
In my dreams? I am 5’7” and 42 years old. The reality is less than 5 feet with fewer years left to work than have passed by. I am way more than halfway toward the completion of my career. So, where do I hope to be in 3 years? Fulfilling architectural orders. Being represented in more collections and museums and represented by a gallery, or two, who will work as hard for me as I do.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
I try to be hopeful, ambitious and still realistic. I try not to hold onto the dream in a way that defines my worth or the worth of my art. Friends have said, “Oh! That is such a lofty dream! You will wind up being unhappy and disappointed,” because they cannot see the success in the journey. They only see the success as winning the brass ring and self-worth as beholden to that attainment. I hold the goal lightly and revel in the journey!
My self-kindness is built on continually cultivating a good support system of friends and professionals: other artists, medical people, physical therapists, spiritual guides. I exercise daily. I meditate, journal or dance as needed. I thrive on routine and stick to it. I look for the joy and interconnectedness in all things. And, one day a week, a wallow in rest and relaxation: cooking, reading, sleeping. A sabbath day away from the studio.
What are you fascinated with right now?
Bright, lively, complex colorways that shimmer from color interaction as well as the changing angles of sightlines. The thread I work with scatters light, shifting the visible spectrum for the viewer.
I am also fascinated with the themes of wayfinding in these exceptionally chaotic times. While materials always lead me...they also always express what is on my mind. I have been focusing in on climate healing, creating beautiful sculptures that refer to the world as we want it to be and wayfinding devices to help us create that world.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Persist! Follow your gut! Be courageous and kind, to yourself and others! Try not to sweat the little things. Understand that the work you do is important to the world, even when the public does not seem to notice. Always show your work so it can do its work in the world. That may be as simple as sharing it with a friend or as dramatic as showing it in a museum. I believe that art is an essential part of being human.
I realize that sounds awfully pat and cliché-ridden…But these are ideas I keep returning to for myself and for the artists I have mentored over the years. Remember, clichés become clichés because there is at least an element of truth in them.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
In April of this year I sustained a debilitating hip injury that prevented me from working. I am 5 months out from the injury and only just beginning to be able to work part time. What has sustained me?
First I shook my fist at “the gods!” and felt sorry for myself, sucked my thumb a while. And then I began to fight! I had to PERSIST, because this change and the explanations for it were unacceptable! I had to reach out for help. I had to form a varied team of people to support me body, mind and spirit. And I had to commit to my own health and healing.
I am looking upon my healing as a creative, brave endeavor. Through music, movement, meditation and, lots of physical therapy, I am recovering and recreating my sense of bodily integrity.
I am preparing for 3 major solo shows. Thankfully, last year was uber productive and the work is made. My assistant and I are organizing exactly which pieces will go in the 3 different galleries. I am organizing people to haul things around, renting trucks, planning publicity…all things I can do.
And I drink wine.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
In my dreams? I am 5’7” and 42 years old. The reality is less than 5 feet with fewer years left to work than have passed by. I am way more than halfway toward the completion of my career. So, where do I hope to be in 3 years? Fulfilling architectural orders. Being represented in more collections and museums and represented by a gallery, or two, who will work as hard for me as I do.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
I try to be hopeful, ambitious and still realistic. I try not to hold onto the dream in a way that defines my worth or the worth of my art. Friends have said, “Oh! That is such a lofty dream! You will wind up being unhappy and disappointed,” because they cannot see the success in the journey. They only see the success as winning the brass ring and self-worth as beholden to that attainment. I hold the goal lightly and revel in the journey!
My self-kindness is built on continually cultivating a good support system of friends and professionals: other artists, medical people, physical therapists, spiritual guides. I exercise daily. I meditate, journal or dance as needed. I thrive on routine and stick to it. I look for the joy and interconnectedness in all things. And, one day a week, a wallow in rest and relaxation: cooking, reading, sleeping. A sabbath day away from the studio.
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