3441 Cedar Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
phone/fax 612 722-2324

 

susan@susanhenseldesign.com
www.susanhenseldesign.com

 

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Sue's Musings and News

March 2004

TRANSITIONS


Winter is always a time of change for me. Usually January or February find me turning left in mid-stream and following a new artistic theme. This winter the transitions are both more subtle and more dramatic.

On the more subtle side, I am studying different ways of storytelling, seeking new performative contexts and new concepts of meaning in space. It's a slow process, rather like a compost pile. Trash and treasure are layered and moistened and left to quietly change.

I forsee a shift to community activism and increased collaboration as I prepare for the biggest transition in 25 years: I am moving to Minneapolis as soon as the house in Michigan sells.
I have bought an old commercial building, with beautiful floors, shop windows and the original woodwork from 1916. The goal is to create a new workspace for me and a gallery/exhibition space devoted to the narrative in the arts.

But, meanwhile, I quietly sit, read. and type occasionally as I recover from long overdue carpal tunnel surgery and hope for a speedy sale of the Michigan house.

Reader's Art 4: midwest artists make books

Reader's Art 4opens at The Lansing Art Gallery, 425 S. Grand Ave., Lansing, MI 48933 on April 4, 2004, and runs through April 23. Call the gallery at 517 374-6400 for more information.

The Lansing Art Gallery was begun 38 years ago by a handful of dedicated local artists and art patrons. The Gallery became the first permanent art gallery in Lansing and is Lansing's oldest nonprofit gallery.

The Lansing Art Gallery is located inside the Center for the Arts, a downtown Lansing facility it shares with Boarshead Profesional Theater and the Arts Council of Greater Lansing. Programs of the Gallery are funded by individual memberships, contributions, grants, and the sale of artwork. I am grateful that their board of directors once again made room in the schedule for the continuation of A Reader's Art as an annual show. The opening reception is Sunday, April 4, 1-4pm. This is my last obligation before I move. We kept the show very small this year to ease all our transitions. But next year, I plan to have Reader's Art 5 in Minneapolis, so keep your eye on the listings.

The participants in Reader's Art this year are: Karen Hamner, Susan Hensel, Emily Martin, Mary Windram, Eve Reid, Sally Rose, Lynn Avadenka, Pati Scobey, Renee Heidtman, and Julia Miller.

Dynamic Storytelling: a retrospective

January 2004, the Lansing Art Gallery set the stage for a retrospective of my work. Books, sculptures and installations from the last fifteen years were exhibited. New works and works in progress were shown along with the limited edition artists books that are represented in collections across the country.

It was an exhausting show to mount. So many sounds and mechanicals to manage. So much ladder climbing. In the end, the sound led people around the room, through a series of related pieces. New works premiered here were Cosmology of Constraint(the book), Cosmology of Constraint(the sculpture) and La Griteria . Progress on the Desire Project was also exhibited. It was a busy, emotional reception...an opportunity to say "goodbye" to the nurturing Lansing art community.

Feb 03 article

March 03 article

May 03 article