Susan Sensemann (born 1949) is an American artist, educator and arts administrator, most known for her detailed, largely abstract patterned paintings and

photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...

s reflecting

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, baroque, spiritual and feminist sensibilities.Wolf Krantz, Claire and Susan Sensemann. "Word for Word: Claire Wolf Krantz/Susan Sensemann," ''mouthtomouth'', Fall 2003, p. 19–25.Yood, James. "Susan Sensemann," in ''Spirited Visions'' by Patty Carroll and James Yood, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991.Rundquist, Leisa A. "Impersonations," in ''Susan Sensemann: Impersonations'', Chicago: Susan Sensemann, 2000.Mauro, Lucia. "Walking the line between beauty and the beast," ''Pioneer Press'', November 19, 1997, B4. She has exhibited her work at venues including the Art Institute of Chicago, A.I.R., The Living Art Museum (Reykjavík),

Indianapolis Art Center The Indianapolis Art Center is an art center located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Center, founded in 1934 by the Works Project Administration during the Great Depression as the Indianapolis Art League, is located along the White ...

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed presid ...

, and

Art Institute of Boston Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

, on four continents.Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. ''Mutuality: Itatani/Krantz/Sensemann'', ''Mutuality'', Chicago: Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, 2012. Her work has been widely reviewed and resides in numerous private, university and corporate collections.Vendelin, Carmen. "Susan Sensemann," ''New Art Examiner'', March 1998, p. 52.Artner, Alan
"Sensemann puts the unseen on canvas,"
''Chicago Tribune'', Section 7, August 2, 1985, 48. Retrieved September 12, 2018.Fry, Donn. "'Imagery/Abstraction' at Herron," ''Indianapolis Star'', March 1, 1981, Sect. 8, p. 10.Durrell, Jane. "Painting: Not Dead Yet," ''Cincinnati City Beat'', February 22–28, 1996, p. 25.Parr, Debra. "Susan Sensemann: Abstract Paintings," ''St. Louis Post Dispatch'', December 8, 1994. Sensemann is known as a versatile and prolific creator, whose ideas have led her to explore diverse painting materials, media (drawing, photography, collage, performance), subject matter (architectural, botanical, biological and organic forms, self-portraiture), and styles from abstraction to realism.Seaman, Donna
"A Collaborative Art,"
''Chicago Tribune''. February 28, 1999. Retrieved September 21, 2018.Segard, Michel. "The Other Tradition grows up: Chicago Abstractionists rise above a bitter legacy," ''New Art Examiner'', March 1984, p. 8–9.Finocchio, Dominic. "Susan Sensemann," ''Art St. Louis'', Winter/Spring 1995, p. 15.Howard, Jane. "Bold Strokes: Susan Sensemann, Chicago," (A woman for Lear's), ''Lear's Magazine'', January 1993. Critics note her work's densely packed compositions, shallow fields of oscillating space, complex tactile surfaces, and sensuous color and linearity.Yood, James. "Susan Sensemann," ''New Art Examiner'', May 1985, p. 77.Fulton, Jean. "Susan Sensemann," ''New Art Examiner'', September 1987, p. 43. James Yood wrote that Sensemann's abstract paintings were "fraught with meaning, charged with value, and seething with import" in their spiritual seeking. Art historian Leisa Rundquist described her photomontage self-portraits as "strangely sensual, yet disturbing" images drawn from "the depths of the unconscious." In addition to her art career, Sensemann was an art professor and administrator for over three decades, most notably at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the grassroots women's cooperative Artemisia Gallery. She has also been a frequent curator and lecturer, and in recent years, begun writing fiction and teaching courses in mindfulness meditation.Chicago Quarterly Review
"CQR #22 is here,"
''Chicago Quarterly Review,'' August 12, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2018.Chicago Quarterly Review
"Announcing the release of CQR #26,"
''Chicago Quarterly Review,'' February 7, 2018. Retrieved September 19, 2018. Sensemann has been based in Chicago since 1979.

Life and career

Sensemann was born in Glen Cove, New York in 1949. Her early interest in art was sparked by trips with her mother to New York City art museums and a supportive art teacher who introduced her to Cubism in sixth grade. She studied printmaking at Syracuse University (BFA, 1971), but gravitated to painting after spending junior year at the

Tyler School of Art The Tyler School of Art and Architecture is based at Temple University, a large, urban, public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tyler currently enrolls about 1,350 undergraduate students and about 200 graduate students in a wid ...

, Rome. She enrolled in the graduate program at Tyler at Temple University (MFA, painting, 1973), studying with painter

Richard Callner Richard Callner (May 18, 1927 – August 31, 2007) was a 20th-century American painter. His early work was related to the Chicago Monster School of the 1950s. Later, he was known for his intricately patterned interiors and landscapes. His career ...

, whose mythological paintings and glazing techniques influenced her early work. In 1973, Sensemann took a teaching position at the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...

. While there, she met her future husband, sculptor Barry Hehemann. They married in 1979 and moved into a live/work loft in Chicago's industrial Bucktown neighborhood (they divorced in 2004). In 1981, Sensemann joined the faculty at the School of Art and Design,

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...

(UIC), where she would remain until 2010. After she and Hehemann had two children, Lucas (b. 1981) and Marah (b. 1985), Sensemann balanced the demands of motherhood, academia and art, continuing to show internationally and throughout the United States, including solo exhibitions at the Roy Boyd, Artemisia (both Chicago), Fay Gold (Atlanta) and Locus (St. Louis) galleries and the Evanston Art Center, among many. She also served as co-president and board member of Artemisia Gallery (1994–2001), where she co-created international artist exchange and mentoring programs, curated shows, and exhibited and lectured internationally on women's issues in art.Nordhaus-Bike, Anne M. "The state of Chicago's galleries," ''Gazette Chicago'', 1997.

Work and reception

Sensemann describes her approach to art as "expansive, holistic, multi-focused, and non-hierarchical," and cites the influence of feminist artists such as

Hannah Höch Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collage in which the p ...

Eva Hesse Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...

and

Harmony Hammond Harmony Hammond (born February 8, 1944 in Hometown, Illinois) is an American artist, activist, curator, and writer. She was a prominent figure in the founding of the feminist art movement in 1970's New York. Early life and education Harmony ...

, as well as Italian Renaissance painters like Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and Bellini.Phillips, Katie. "Susan Sensemann at Roy Boyd," ''Images & Issues'', July/August 1984, p. 48. These influences manifest in her work's emphasis on visual and tactile sensuality and themes of indeterminacy, transformation, and what she calls "restless becoming."

Architectural Abstraction

In the 1970s, Sensemann focused on small egg-tempera and oil paintings of feminist archetypes such as Salome and Magdalene and "fantastic landscapes"Susan Sensemann website
''Macondo #8''
"Macondo Series," Paintings, ca. 1978. Retrieved September 17, 2018. of dense, brightly colored botanical imagery that flirted with both realism and abstraction. Her move to Chicago in 1979 inspired a shift to abstract, architectonic work that nonetheless suggested actual spaces. Often titled after mythological goddesses, the new paintings explored the spirit and psychological implications of austere interiors that symbolized the domain of women.Artner, Alan
"Artist's fresh look revitalizes familiar scenes,"
''Chicago Tribune'', Section 5, June 8, 1987, 9. Retrieved September 12, 2018. Sensemann enlivened the spaces with ghost-like whorls or spirals that hinted at kinetic energy, "spiritual emanations" or traces from unseen or absent actors and encounters.Cassidy, Victor, "Visions of Eight," ''Chicago Reader''. April 5, 1985, p. 36. She initially based the works on architectural forms she photographed on trips to Italy ("Tusculana" series)Susan Sensemann website
''Tusculana'' series
Paintings, 1980–1. Retrieved September 17, 2018. or Japanese art and

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is though ...

forms, before turning to structures from pre-Renaissance paintings by

Duccio Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ) was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Ducc ...

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/ Proto-Renaissance period. G ...

and

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...

in the " Annunciation" works (1983–4).Susan Sensemann website
''Annunciation'' series
Paintings, 1983–4. Retrieved September 17, 2018.Schleifer, Kristen Brooke. "Susan Sensemann," ''New Art Examiner'', June 1992, p. 50–1. Painted in reds, cranberries, tangerines and aquas, works such as '' Eguchi'' (1983) employed geometric organizations of architectural planes, light and shadow that created ambiguous space, yet anchored complex, scoured

impasto ''Impasto'' is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provide ...

surfaces described as "painstakingly textured, almost sculptural relief."McCracken, David. "Gallery Scene," ''Chicago Tribune'', June 12, 1992, p. 75. Critic James Yood suggested Sensemann's "churning brushwork, intense colors, stippled surfaces, and abstract symbology" signified a pursuit of higher knowledge through the methods of modern art. Sensemann moved toward sparer geometric forms in later series such as "Shekina" (1989–90), whose title derives from a Hebrew word associated with feminine divine attributes.Degener, Patricia. "Abstract Paintings Deal With Abstract Subject," ''St. Louis Post Dispatch'', June 14, 1988. Alan Artner described them as the culmination of a "process of reduction that long has signaled an artistic quest for spiritual purity."Artner, Alan. "Susan Sensemann," ''Chicago Tribune'', Section 5, February 2, 1989, 11.

"Gulf War" works

The looming U.S.

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

focused Sensemann in a more discordant, political direction in her "State" series (1990), which used geometric shapes to reference gun sights and targets, and thick paint application to create flux through shifts of light and vantage point.Uphoff, Lynn. "Museum show features Illinois artists," ''Journal Star Peoria'', January 9, 1992.Moehl, Karl. "Dan Nardi, Susan Sensemann, Barry Tinsley," ''New Art Examiner'', May 1992, p. 36. In the "Gulf War" series (1991),Susan Sensemann website
"Gulf War" series
Paintings, 2000–1. Retrieved September 17, 2018. she translated masterworks of conflict and violence by Caravaggio,

Delacroix Delacroix is a French surname that derives from ''de la Croix'' ("of the Cross"). It may refer to: People * Caroline Delacroix (1883–1945), French-Romanian mistress of Leopold II of Belgium * Charles-François Delacroix (1741–1805), ...

, Gericault and Rembrandt into charged, jostling compositions of unrestrained abstract color, light and texture. Within these darker, chaotic works she placed unexpected "intrusions," such as the word "raft" or outlined votive candles, signaling the possibility of hope or resolution. Critic Kristin Schleifer described these expressionist paintings as a logical progression in Sensemann's work that evoked the forces of nature with a greater vitality than ever before.

Collage work

In 1993, Sensemann made an overt break with the strife of the "Gulf War" works and abstraction. She began creating decorative, collaged oil paintings on upholstery fabric that recalled the overflowing compositions and patterns of her fantastic landscapes.Susan Sensemann websit
''Fabric'' series
Paintings, ca. 1993. Retrieved September 17, 2018. The paintings also indicated a shift to the more direct critical language of feminist collage. In a subsequent series of 600 collages,Susan Sensemann website
"Myths and Methods,"
Collages. Retrieved September 17, 2018. she embraced strategies of juxtaposition, fragmentation and rupture, reflecting the alternative influence of Hannah Höch, Meret Oppenheim,

Martha Rosler Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler's work is centered on everyday ...

and writer Susan Griffin. In works such as ''Objectivity as Means of Terminating Panics'' (1995), Sensemann made startling use of cut-up "

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

" images from 19th-century bibles, mid-20th-century childbirth, health and parenting manuals, encyclopedias, art reproductions and ''National Geographic'' images. Probing them with a politically incorrect sensibility, she compiled taxonomies of highly gendered images that offered fresh readings and satiric, sometimes disturbing commentary on roleplay, stereotypes, misinformation and "masculine" art.McCracken, David. "3 Artists Take Collage on a Joyride of Perspectives," ''Chicago Tribune'', April 16, 1993.Mount Vernon Democrat. "New Harmony Gallery to feature collages from Chicago artist," ''Mount Vernon Democrat'', August 24, 1994, p. 5.

Photomontages

Sensemann reworked these strategies in new works that combined Gothic sensibilities, feminist self-portraiture, and themes of voyeurism, vulnerability and exhibitionism influenced by the work of

Sophie Calle Sophie Calle (born 9 October 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement known as Oulipo. ...

and

Ana Mendieta Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in Havana, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961. Earl ...

.Susan Sensemann websit
Photography
1997–2000. Retrieved September 17, 2018. Carefully superimposing photographs she took of organic substances over intimate close-ups of her face, she merged with flora, seaweed or cacti in "De-Monstrations" works such as ''Hide'' (1998), producing grotesque and seductive alterations to her flesh that suggested decay, ravage or regeneration, endured with a facial expression of impassivity.Margolin, Victor. "Selective Affinities," in ''Susan Sensemann: Impersonations'', Chicago: Susan Sensemann, 2000.Weinstein, Michael. "Susan Sensemann," ''New City'', October 15, 1998.Daniel, Jeff. "Urban scene gets vibrant rendering," ''St. Louis Post Dispatch'', June 19, 1998. These works, created through non-digital means and ultimately numbering more than 700, recalled cultural constructions of symbiosis between women and nature and were interpreted as meditations on the transience and the ephemerality of life, the passage of time and its effects, and notions of beauty, eroticism and glamour.Gorman, Albertus. "Shared Natures: The Art of Susan Sensemann and Sheryl Haler," Louisville Visual Arts Association: Exhibition essay, 1998. In the "Impersonations" works, whose titles reference masquerade and the role of surface in mapping identity, she explored her "unbridled urge to merge with unfamiliar and unknown,"Sensemann, Susan. "Mutuality: Itatani/Krantz/Sensemann," ''Mutuality: Itatani/Krantz/Sensemann'', Chicago: Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, 2012. fusing with marble busts, statuary, Roman murals and decorative objects to take on a range of characters:

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, temptress, princess, king, gnome, monster. Critics described the photomontages as rich, sensuous, disturbing and primal in their ability to conjure deep psychic responses.Weinstein, Michael. "Susan Sensemann, De-Monstrations," ''New City'', November 6, 1997. Their unexpected transformations evoked the dichotomies of attraction/desire and repulsion/fear found in Gothic works like

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

's ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

'', which explore the violation of boundaries and natural laws.Halberstam, Judith
''Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters''
Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press Books, 1995. Retrieved September 21, 2018. Theorist

Victor Margolin Victor Margolin (1941–2019) was an American design historian, researcher and educator. He was a Professor of design history at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he taught from 1982 until 2006. Margolin published widely and was the foundi ...

called them "acts of disclosure rather than concealment," revealing a negotiation between inner fluidity and bodily limitation. The images often probed transgressive realms of the imagination at the edge of identity, as in ''Slice'' (2001), which effects an alternating, reciprocal exchange of feminine and masculine between Sensemann and a fierce

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

countenance on an Italian serving plate.Steinpreis, Joel. "Intellectualism, Spiritualism, and Physicality: A Glutton's Feast," ''Susan Sensemann'', exhibition essay, Ripon College, 1998.

"Dots" and "Nets" series

Sensemann returned to more abstract art in the 2000s, with several bodies of large-scale, baroque works in which accumulations of small marks, dots, dashes or blips collide and overlap to create dizzying fields of complex patterns. Suggesting micro- or macroscopic investigations of disparate biological and social structures—cells, tears, stars, populations—the holistic surfaces maintain a fluctuating balance of definition and diffusion, qualities glimpsed in Sensemann's earlier "Sheer" and "Lace" series (1995–8) and fantastic landscapes, which also featured shallow spaces and concentrated patterning. In her "Goo" series (2003), she created works influenced by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

textiles, with expressionist calligraphic patterns or spontaneous flows of color suggesting primordial ooze.Susan Sensemann website
"Goo" series
Paintings, ca. 2003. Retrieved September 17, 2018. The "Night Sky" series (2005–7)Susan Sensemann websit
"Night Sky" series
Paintings, 2005–7. Retrieved September 17, 2018. featured more neutral, monochrome palettes and forms referencing constellations, sea life and human biology. An offshoot of that work was a show of large—up to 35 feet—realistic, but patterned drawings of natural and organic forms that some considered among Sensemann's most brave and intriguing work.Klein, Paul

Retrieved September 19, 2018. The "Dots" series (2007–11), which includes paintings such as ''Solitary Pleasures'' (2016), extended her explorations of pattern to more colorful, oscillating forms reminiscent of flora, cells, or hives.Susan Sensemann website
"Dots" series
Paintings, 2007–10. Retrieved September 17, 2018. With the "Indra's Net" (2016–8) works, she focused on skewed grid patterns of intricate net and lace-like arrangements, that ranged from organic to almost geometric and expressed a Buddhist visualization of interconnectedness and a feminist critique of 1960s, hard-edged abstraction.Susan Sensemann websit
"Indra's Net" series
Paintings. Retrieved September 17, 2018.

Career as educator

Sensemann began teaching in 1973 at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned tenure at age 30, leaving as an Associate Professor in 1981 for the School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago. As Professor at UIC, she taught studio classes, created a course on writing for artists, and led a class in Rome. Some of her students include conceptual artist Tom Friedman (artist), Tom Friedman, writer Mira Bartok, mixed-media artist Arturo Herrera, and sculptor Jorge Pardo (artist), Jorge Pardo. Sensemann served in several capacities at the School, including appointments as Director of Graduate Studies (1986–90), Acting Director (1989–91), and Director of Undergraduate Studies (2000–05). In 2010, she retired as Professor Emerita. Sensemann's educational experience also includes teaching international workshops at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and lecturing on painting, feminist work, contemporary women in the arts, and her own work at institutions in China, Italy, Germany, South Korea and the U.S. She has been selected as a visiting artist at more than twenty schools including the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Jilin Normal University (China), Texas Woman's University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Susan Sensemann websit
Biography
Retrieved September 17, 2018.

Curating and writing

Sensemann has been an active curator, at venues including the Evanston Art Center, Gallery 400, and Artemisia Gallery.Camper, Fred
"Unlocking the Grid,"
''Chicago Reader''. November 17, 1995, p. 31–2. Retrieved September 19, 2018.Camper, Fred
"Frames of Reference,"
''Chicago Reader''. January 18, 1996. Retrieved September 19, 2018.Hawkins, Margaret. "Libidinal," ''Chicago Sun Times'', May 18, 2000.Sensemann, Susan. ''Susan Sensemann: Impersonations'', Chicago: Susan Sensemann, 2000. Described as "curatorially adventurous," her shows have explored signature themes such as pleasure, eroticism and excess ("Libidinal," "Heat," "Obsession," "Touch," "More is More"), the body ("Physiotasmagorical," "Brain/Body"), and feminism. The shows "Skew: The Unruly Grid" (1995) and "Pleasure (Beyond Guilt)" (1996) investigated and critiqued masculinist traditions of the grid in art and the production of art for the (traditionally male) voyeuristic gaze, respectively. Sensemann has written catalogue essays to accompany her curated exhibitions, as well as pieces on artists such as Hannah Höch, Miyoko Ito (an influence on Sensemann's abstract work of the 1980s), and Claire Wolf Krantz, for publications such as'' Design Issues'' and ''Art Papers''.Sensemann, Susan. ''Cut with the kitchen knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch'' by Maud Lavin, Book review, ''Design Issues'', V. 1, No. 1, Spring 1994, p. 71–3.Sensemann, Susan. I
''Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary''
Rima Lunina Schultz and Adele Hast (Eds.), Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001, p. 430–2. Retrieved September 27, 2018. She has also written poetry and fiction, and given performances of her work at galleries and clubs.Sensemann, Susan
''Dancing in the Dark''
Performance video, Fitzgerald's Nightclub, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2018. Her "Consorting with Nathaniel Hawthorne" series (2002–4)Susan Sensemann website
Poetry
2002–4. Retrieved September 17, 2018. paired photomontages of her face and silk funerary arrangements, such as ''Burst...'' (2003), with poems on love and loss that she wrote through a self-devised game plucking words from Hawthorne's short stories. In recent years, she has turned to fiction writing, including two short stories, "Encountering History" (2016) and "Blasting" (2018), both published in ''Chicago Quarterly Review''.Sensemann, Susan. "Encountering History," ''Chicago Quarterly Review,'' Vol. 22, 2016.Sensemann, Susan. "Blasting," ''Chicago Quarterly Review,'' Vol. 26, 2018.

Collections and recognition

Sensemann's works are held in private, university and corporate collections, including the Illinois State Museum, Purdue University, Northeast Normal University (China), University of Delaware, Southern Illinois University, Millikin University, Ripon College and Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, among many. She has been awarded grants from MUCIA, British Arts Council, Illinois Arts Council and Chicago Artists International for projects in South Korea, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Prague and Finland, respectively.Artner, Alan
"Art Notes,"
''Chicago Tribune'', March 30, 1995. Retrieved September 12, 2018.

References

External links

Official website

Susan Sensemann papers, Archives of American Art, Loyola University Chicago, Women & Leadership Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sensemann, Susan 21st-century American painters Artists from Chicago 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists American women painters American feminists Feminist artists Syracuse University alumni Culture of Chicago 1949 births Living people Educators from Illinois American women educators