Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karl Hensel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Karl, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I love glass. I hold a dual degree in graphic design and (glass) craft. My mother is an accomplished watercolorist, Dad was a research physicist – I absorbed it all and love where art and science meet – applied arts and design, I love working with both realms.
Early on, while continuing to make glass art I could see I needed steady income too. I was hired as the first Director of the contemporary glass artists’ program at WheatonArts in southern New Jersey, (then called CGCA) overseeing grants and high profile Auctions and exhibits, an amazing opportunity. After a few years, I travelled, moved west and revisited an early love of theater by developing a career designing sets and props and then producing Special Events.
This happened simply by saying yes to fun projects! Scenic mural photo backdrops for HS proms? Sure! A 5,000 sq ft giant Bayou Tapestry for the S.F. Opera season opener painted in 1 week? Why not! A ballroom size Under the Sea painted dance floor for a Fortune 100 party in Hawaii? I just said yes to event work and let glass rest for a bit.
It was a fantastic ride. Work volume escalated over 10 years until I move to Hawaii in ‘03, specialized in incentive travel, and produced every aspect of Special Events, from room and concept design to tabletops, entertainment, floral, lighting, etc. I loved the excitement of this high-pressure realm. Over the next 2 decades our company grew to producing well over 100 events per year. This work removed any fear of working large. We regularly designed and painted 40’ stage sets and 200 ft. event spaces.
But back to the glass! I was getting hungry to somehow do artwork with glass again. Acquiring a tabletop torch, I taught myself this aspect of glass making, determined to play with the fire! The passion for this medium was rekindled and just in time. A diagnosis of blood cancer woke me up to life limitations. I needed a meditative approach to maintain sanity with such news and explored making glass components of cell shapes and organic forms, weaving them methodically into large wall hanging soldered networks.
These works were highly labor intensive, unusual, healing for my psyche, and the passion of it was visible to others immediately, including other survivors. The ‘B-Cell Transit’ and other cell themed ‘Neural Networks’ glass wall sculptures were picked up by galleries and have become a desirable series. This concept direction has proven fruitful and has spun off to many other forms.
The time had come for stepping away from the Special Event world. Covid happened and I heard my exit music, as events dried up for a bit. I threw myself vigorously into glassmaking and haven’t looked back. Glass is so captivating, precious, fragile, and it captures light like magic. It is also structurally strong. I engineer specialty wall mounts to suspend glass off the walls and capture light qualities. I now create large wall-mounted glass artworks with fused color glass, copper and gold leaf, dichroic glass, metallics adding a dazzling effect to the color light projections that can be achieved. Images are elaborate networks of woven glass panels currently up to 7’ wide.
For continued inspiration I’m completely wowed by cellular networks, flexible brain science, the beauty and implicit terror of rogue cells, the possibilities of rebounding neural pathways – all of this is stunning awareness. The new study of protein folding created with AlphaFold and DeepMind is informing new artwork. Such miraculous shapes and visions of these bio structures!
I have gallery representation on Maui at Viewpoints Gallery in Makawao, show at the Four Seasons Maui and offer direct sale. A natural next step is looking for a qualified mainland gallery.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
I attended Tyler School of Art, Temple University’s Art college where I fell in love with ceramics, glass and studied painting and graphic design.
I once read that scientists and musicians often have breakthroughs early in their life, while many visual artists achieve their best work after a lifetime of accumulated experience. This has given me permission and has always felt right – my current work is the best yet!
I spent much time engaging psychology and personal growth processes. This was perhaps the single biggest positive influence of my life; on clarity, intent, trust, integrity, loving relationships and self regard. It provided the impetus to say yes to more new adventure, safety to face past trauma and fears, it was a game changer for me. I want to add – you must push personal limits and go deep for this to be fruitful.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
The re-entry into artmaking was low stakes by design. I had the full time well paying gig in Special Events and used all of that income stream to pave the way for working with glass. I purchased glass equipment and machinery, expanded a work area, bought larger kilns and installed a solar system to pay for electric use, energy being expensive in Hawaii. Prior Art experiences were stressful chasing sales, it was joyful to buy time to explore my true interests with other income to buffer the costs. As my enthusiasm, skill level and artistic intent came into sharper focus, so did early sales, the best prices I had ever achieved.
I did 2 glassmaking intensives at Pilchuck school to learn specific skills – a great investment after first exploring on my own.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Rebounding from lost love can knock the socks off you. Yet the period of inner work that followed invited new vistas – possibilities flourished. It started hard and turned into one of the greatest periods of accomplishment in my life.
Similarly, multiple big medical diagnoses could have derailed my new artistic intensions. I used the art to get through the challenge, and became more committed in the process. I prioritized being insured, another stress reducer.
A moment of clarity was deciding whatever useful vision I could contribute to the world was going to be from my artistic and glass visions and not creating more party designs! Glass is now is my sole focus – I can get in the flow, spend long hours and end up with more energy!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.karlhensel.com
- Instagram: #lavakarl
- Facebook: Karl Hensel
Image Credits
All photos by Karl Hensel