Artist Journey/Artist Journal

What is it we want in our creative lives? Why bother with art? Working as an artist, whether as a full-time vocation, a parttime avocation or an occassional when-I-can-fit-it-in whimsy takes some measure of commitment. It's far easier in this era of consumerism, digital distraction and financial pressure to sit on the sofa or under the covers with one or more devices pouring words, images, sounds, stories and distraction into our brains. Easier, that is, than using our hands and minds to make words, images, stories and sounds of our own. I don't make judgements about the tools used or the media -- paper and pen, digital camera and keyboard, cloth and dye, paint and canvas, tabletop and kitchen stove -- any will do. 

But I do think we all need to keep our creative selves alive and thriving. That some part of us withers and dies without exercise. And that takes a plan. That's why its become a tradition around El Cielo Studio to offer a workshop each January to allow me (and those who come for the facilitated experience) time to reflect, plan and set goals. Make calendars. Imagine what's needed to make it easier to get to the studio. 

I confess, my January calendar-making reminder forms don't often make it through the entire year (but I know one workshop participant who has been a faithful adherent to the format she set last year), but I do know that even a few months of on-target, on-track creative work gets me off to the start I need for the year. GIves me momentum and reminds me to keep at it. Whatever it is.

In preparation for the January 20-21 workshop (see the last post for the full calendar), I thought I'd share one of the exercises that has proven helpful and insightful for the process.

Where I am right now - Make a circular pie chart of your life as you are living it now:

1. Start with a circle on a large piece of paper.

2. Divide the circle into equal wedges for WORK, PLAY, ADVENTURE, CREATIVITY, BODY, MIND SPIRIT. (OR any other set of categories you prefer. (Or make two different circles if that makes more sense to you)

3. Draw, write, collage fast images from magazines, add colors, lines, patterns to each wedge. 

4. Put a dot, star or sticker in each wedge describing how satisfied or how much time and attention you spend in that sector of your life -- the closer to the center, the less satisfied or less time/attention; the closer to the circle edge, the more satisfied, the more time and attention you spend. You might even want to do these as two different dots or stars, if time and attention is not aligned with satisfaction (oftenr the case). Then connect your dots with a bold line. What shape are your dot-driven circles? How wobbly is your life? 

5. On a separate paper, or on the areas of the paper outside the circle, list 5 things you could do in the  coming year to even out your wobbly circles. 

I don't think our lives are always in balance in the short term. I don't even think they should be -- sometimes work or family or adventure takes over. But in the long term, we want satisfaction in each of these areas. And it takes work -- mostly attention --  to keep the wheel round, the circle spinning.

 


 

Monoprints on Fabric

 

Just a few photos today, from the recent Southwest School of Art weekend workshop. We'll be reprising a few of these techniques with some natural items (leaves, sticks and stones) added this weekend at the El Cielo workshop. I just had a last minute drop out, so if you are interested, email me.

 

The first and third pieces were done with layers of textile paint applied from plastic plates of various kinds, textured with rollers and fingers and brushes. The second was with rainbow printing techniques directly on a screen. (You'll find more on this blog under rainbow printing in the search field.) Here's the link to Rainbow Printing.

 

Spring and Summer Workshops at El Cielo Studios

Here is a link to a downloadable pdf brochure with the dates and topics for new workshops at El Cielo Studios.

files.me.com/susiemonday/rvq162

  It's my pleasure to share my home and studio and a nurturing environment for your creative journey -- and the  workshop is less than what you'd spend for a bed-and-breakfast weekend alone! I hope to see you sometime this spring or summer for a weekend of inspiring and creative work and play here in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.

Nurture your creativity as you come away from a weekend with renewed energy, new  materials and techniques in surface design applicable to fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media work. Susie Monday leads artists’ retreats and workshops throughout the year at her studio near Pipe Creek, Texas, about an hour from downtown San Antonio. 

El Cielo Studio workshops are designed with the needs of the participants in mind;  free time is scheduled throughout the weekend for reading, reflection and personal work in the studio. You are welcome to bring projects in process for Susie’s critique and for peer feedback in an environment of trust and respect. You’ll share meals, poetry and stories, music and advice for living an artist’s life. Enjoy the 25-mile vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads. A spa and pool, and large screen media room are also available to participants. The fee for each workshop retreat is $175 for a 2-day event with discount for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations (double and single rooms with baths and shared bath rooms) and meals are available from $15 - $30 per workshop. Most supplies included. Call 210-643-2128 or econtact me through the email form on the sidebar of this blog.

Sign up early (at least 30 days in advance with a $25 deposit) for a $15 ndiscount on the $175 fee. Workshops generally start with an optional Friday night potluck and fun activity or two, then continue through 3-4 pm on Sunday afternoon. Most supplies included.

MARKMAKING, MAKING YOUR MARK

May 13-15

Markmaking can be what distinguishes one person's work on paper or fabric from another's - their personal style. Using color, line, shape, rhythm and textures, students will explore traditional and new media as well as techniques for personal markmaking. Techniques to be covered include deconstructed screenprinting, stamping, using paint sticks and monoprinting with gelatin plates. No matter what your experience level, you'll gain confidence in working with layered media and find your strongest media for the marks that make your work unmistakably your own. 

UFO WORKSHOP

June 3-5

UFO, “unfinished fiber object.” Bring along work that needs finishing, needs one more layer, needs some concentrated time and attention (or work that’s stuck for need of constructive critique). Enjoy the resources of the studio and the advice and support of peers. We’ll customize the techniques to the tasks at hand.

PLAY, ART AND ATTENTION

July 29-31

Making time to play with odd-ball materials; learning to focus upon artful tasks at hand -- sounds like opposite sides of the coin? At this exploratory and full-of-play weekend, we’ll explore the relationship between the time, play, art and focus. Where does time management intersect with open-hearted fun? Expect bubbles, playdough, sparklers, jello, yoga and seeing the world from new angles and attitudes. 

BURNING WOMAN WORKSHOP

August 19-21

Embrace your inner goddess of summertime. Design and make a small art quilt “altar” for kitchen or dining room with tools and materials that depend on heat, sunlight and passionate delight: sun-printing, vegetable prints, fusing, hand and machine stitching and “found” fabrics from attic, thrift store or kitchen closet. We will recycle napkins, tea towels and other like objects and design a thermofax featuring a meaningful symbol, favorite fruit, icon, saint, culinary heroine, angel or other meaningful design as the centerpiece for the altar. (This workshop has an additional $12 fee per person for the altar boxes that the quilts are stretched upon.)

OTHER CLASSES 

This spring and summer I also will be teaching occasionally at the Southwest School of Art: June 18-19 - From Photo to Fiber (using various techniques to design art quilts from photographs), August 1-5, mornings, New World Kids: for parents wishing to nurture creativity in their children.

I am also teaching a course for teachers: Fiber Arts for the Classroom at Southwest School of Art on July 23-24 (The wrong date is in the SSA catalog, I had to change the date after it was printed.)

 OTHER POSSIBILITIES:

Flying or driving in from afar for one of these weekends? Or just want some solo supported work time in the studio? Add one or two days of instruction in the studio for learning techniques that you are interested in. Each custom designed workshop and night’s lodging and meals costs $225 per person. Limit, 2 artists per session Many of Susie’s workshops go on the road! Please write for available dates and fees.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY: 

“A workshop at Susie’s is always money well spent.  I learned techniques I have read about but never tried ... I also now feel confident that I can make art quilts!”

“This workshop was a fabulous, uplifting, nurturing environment to create in. The journaling was particularly helpful, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.”

“This weekend was totally awesome! I am humbled by Susie’s talents, her teaching abilities and her hospitality. I will come back as often as possible.”

 


Artist in Residence: Jack Brockett

Jack Brockett, artist and storyteller extrodinaire visited El Cielo Studio for a couple of days while his wife Anne was in San Antonio to plan the 2013 Surface Design Association conference. (OK, get those dues paid San Antonians!) (And check out the new SDA website that Anne has worked on this past 6 months as interim director -- she's on for another year, too, so expect great energy and member-friendly services from SDA.)

Jack, as many of us know, is a one-of-a-kind vortex of energy, ideas and an eye for excellence --and it was a delight to have him visit (thanks to Mary Ruth Smith who suggested it). Jack just finished with a workshop at Round Top, his first teaching gig of 5 years after a health crisis. The fiber show at Copper Shade Tree features some of his work, and that of other fiber artists  in the annual juried exhibit.

Jack shared the work that he had with him for examples at the workshop -- spectacular pojagi seamed jackets, art quilts emboridered with dragon flies, and a new series started with red ants. I got a private pojagi seam lesson, the steps of which I hope I remember -- I'm headed out to try it a -- I need the required machine foot #10 for the 1/8" tiny seams -- but for now, I'll do a wider version and see how it looks.

 Jack's stories regailed us at table; we feasted. If you have an Texas storyteller in your clan, you'll know what that means -- howlingly good tales filled with cows, Neiman Marcus hats, old bats and hoop skirts. Jack sewed seams for a new piece, and toured the neighbor's house; Pat Schulz and Sue Cooke came out yesterday morning for an art date with destiny. I've been cleaning the the studio and finding things I didn't know I had. It's been lovely and inspiring. We all need artists-in-residence, tribal gatherings, support for our visions and food for the soul. Thanks, Jack, for all that and more!

Sitting and staring

Today, I'm reminded of the baseboall great Satchel Page's oft quoted," Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I  just sits." An unexpected delay of a work-related appointment has given me the gift of a hitherto unplanned afternoon. Yes, the studio needs a good sort. The garden is (perhaps riskily) calling for seeds. I have really been planning to go through and file all the piles of receipts and GET MYSELF ORGANIZED for the new year (hardly new anymore, you might note). 

But I find myself sitting and looking out into damp, gray between-winter-and-spring air and light and I just sit.

Sometimes its good to sit.

The creative life is full of adventure (even if it only shows up on the inside of your eyeballs.) When one is a self-employed artist, there is the ever present tension between amking art and making a living and it takes a lot of juggling to keep it together sometimes. I, like many of us, simply like action, I live at full-speed-ahead.

And then I sit.

You (I) need both. You (I) must let minutes wash over us when we can. Remind ourselves that time is finite; in 100 years (unless Singularity DOES come to pass, or the Mayan calendar ends us all in a bang) everyone you know and everyone you don't know who is walking around here on earth will be gone. And so, no matter how important it all seems, it is just a drop in the bucket when you look at the big picture. So let the drops fall where they may for a few hours. Sit. think. or just sit.

One thing I am thinking about is some of the thought about romance that I am reading in Barbara Lazear Ascher's wonderful book Isn't it Romantic; Finding the magic in everyday life. Here's a quote to ponder as you sit today:

"The romantic has to believe the bread crumbs were left as a trail, that the dots will make a whole....Faith doesn't require answers but a trust that if we dare reach out a hand another one, unforeseen will receive it. That we will be made whole. The ulitmate romance. Exactly as Michelangelo painted it in the center of the Sistine Chapel ceiling."

And Yes. I am puttering around in the studio today and making some progress on the annual clean, sort and toss that I force myself to do in order to avoid a manditory appearance on some reality show or another devoted to hoarding. But I am doing so very, very softly. Like the air and the gray heavy skies. Like the seeds underground waiting for the next increment of warmth. Reminding myself to think a bit about the spiraling fossil of an ammonite once alive, then dead, buried turned to stone, washed up again on a different shore.

(P.S. Speaking of nature, the next El Cielo studio retreat/workshop is almost full-to-the-brim. If you are thinking about attending  send me an email through the contact form on the sidebar. $160 if you pay before March 1. Potluck on Friday night through Sunday afternoon, most supplies included.)

View from home and El Cielo Studio.

 

NATURE-INSPIRED SURFACE DESIGN

March 25-27

Find color, shape, form and inspired design for new surface design tools at this spring-is-sprung weekend in the blooming Texas Hill Country. We’ll do sun prints, leaf-inspired thermofaxes and screenprinting with dye, flour paste resist and more.

Love your Inner Artist

How often we forget to feed the hand(s) (and heart) of the inner one who keeps us creating. Our inner artist is the one we hear when we haven't made it to the studio often enough. The one who comes knocking when we forget to slow down and put our hands into our favorite materials. The voice inside our head that starts whining when the well is dry.

Creativity is an activity that happens with intent, with some "new eyes' experiences, with a little bit of adventurous exploring, with some soul food that nourishes the spirit and imagination.

One way to feed your inner artist is with artist dates, as Julia Cameron styles these fill-up times in her book The Artists Way. At least once a week we need to do something intentional, often on-our-own, to bring joy and inspiration to our inner artists. INTENTIONAL is a key word. I'm sometimes tempted to look back on the week and say that sure I had an artist date, remember that movie I went to, or the 30 minutes at the used book store? Well, better than none, but best of all is making an intentional, anticipated date with your inner artist in advance, and then sticking to it. Iam going to see my friend Liz today in Kerrville for some artist inspiration and advice, and on the way I plan to stop in at one of my favorite thrift stores -- the Animal Defense shop in Boerne. Now that's an artist date. And I planned it in advance. And I will give myself a modest allowance of "blow" money so I can even do some shopping or tea sipping.

What's on your artist date calendar this week? I'd love to hear what and how you feed your inner artist and keep her (him) happy. 

AND if you are looking for a weekend-long artist date, I hope you will consider signing up for one of my next two El Cielo workshops. 

(HEART) YOUR INNER ARTIST

February 11-13

How do you nurture your creative self in a world that doesn’t always honor artists and artful work? This pre-Valentine’s Day workshop will provide that support while you learn more about your individual design strengths with creativity exercises, learn simple yoga and breath work, and make an artist’s altar for your studio. 

NATURE-INSPIRED SURFACE DESIGN March 25-27

 Find color, shape, form and inspired design for new surface design tools at this spring-is-sprung weekend in the blooming Texas Hill Country. We’ll do sun prints, leaf-inspired thermofaxes and screenprinting with dye, flour paste resist and more.

Sign up early (at least 30 days in advance with a $25 deposit) for a $15 discount on the $175 fee. (Accommodations from free to $30 for both nights) Email me susiemonday@gmail.com for details. First come/first serve -- single bedrooms are in demand! Note that some of the recent workshops have been filling early. Workshops generally start with an optional Friday night potluck and fun activity or two, then continue through 3-4 pm on Sunday afternoon. Most supplies included.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES:

Flying or driving in from afar for one of these weekends? Or just want some solo supported work time in the studio? Add one or two days of instruction in the studio for learning techniques that you are interested in -- dyeing, screen-printing, ink-jet transfer, soy batik and more. Each custom designed workshop and night’s lodging and meals costs $225 per person. Limit, 2 artists per session.

OR Are you interested in a workshop for your guild or other group? Many of Susie’s workshops go on the road! Please write for available dates and fees.

 

Need a Jump Start? Or a Kick to Closure?

El Cielo Studio is waiting for you!

It's time for another edition of the El Cielo Studio UFO workshop. December 4-5 (yYep, I know it's December). If you have a piece of work or two that has been haunting you over the past months, weeks or year, bring it to this workshop retreat for a little energy to completion -- with the expert advice of some sister/fellow artists. Often, its just focused time and a new eye that helps a piece find completion and success -- or we might all just decide to cut, slash and start again!

Sometimes it just takes focus, and that's what this UFO (Unfinished Fiber Object) retreat is meant to provide. We'll start with a round robin of look-and-see-and-suggest (totally controlled by you, the artist) and then work during the next two days with all the resources of the studio available. For example, you'll be able to design and make thermofax screens, overdye or over-print, add some stitching with the machines or by hand, get help with frames or finishing details, even a little writing time to write and edit an artist statement if you wish. Learn a technique with a individual session with Susie, or practice something new with aid and abettment by the experts on hand.

In between individual work sessions, I'll lead some creativity exercises aimed and energizing the process, and we will, of course, enjoy great food, good company and each other's tales of success and strategies for living the artists' life. (P.S. I've had a request for "on-line" remote participation for a similar workshop -- I'm working on that for next year!)

One possibility, if time allows and the group wishes, is a Sunday afternoon outing to see a private family museum in-process, with some amazing collections of folk art, drawings and paintings and more. And, the hot tub is back in action, the hills are alive with color and breeze and hawks flying through on their winter migrations. Bring your binoculars and  walking shoes if you'd like a little hike down the hillside, too.

Here are the next few workshops that are coming up:

UFO WORKSHOP December 3-5 UFO, “unfinished fiber object.” Bring along work that needs finishing (perhaps a gift or two, or work that’s stuck for need of constructive critique). Enjoy the resources of the studio and the advice and support of peers. We’ll customize the techniques to the tasks at hand.

ARTIST'S JOURNEY/ ARTIST'S JOURNAL, January 14-16 This workshop has become an annual tradition. Join me for a weekend of reflection, goal setting, and information about how the habit or journaling can benefit you as an artist -- and make a unique journal cover and artist calendar for a new year of creative work and inspiration. Building good habits for your own work. (SPACE IS ALMOST FILLED FOR THIS ONE)

(HEART) YOUR INNER ARTIST February 11-13

How do you nurture your creative self in a world that doesn’t always honor artists and artful work? This pre-Valentine’s Day workshop will provide that sup- port while you learn more about your individual design strengths with creativity exercises, learn simple yoga and breath work, and make an artist’s altar for your studio. 

El Cielo Studio workshops are designed with the needs of the participants in mind; free time is sched- uled throughout the week- end for reading, reflection and personal work in the studio. You are welcome to bring projects in process for Susie’s critique and for peer feedback in an environment of trust and respect. You’ll share meals, poetry and stories, music and advice for living an artist’s life. Enjoy the 25-mile vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads. A spa and pool, and large screen media room are also avail- able to participants. The fee for each workshop retreat is $175 for a 2-day event with discount for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations (double and single rooms with private and shared baths) and meals are available from $15 - $30 per workshop. Most supplies included. Call 210-643-2128 or email susiemonday@gmail.com


Dias de los Muertos

After the batik workshop this weekend at Southwest School of Art, I took a mental and culinary vacation yesterday and created a feast for Dias de los Muertos -- I know, some people might think cooking for 10 hours scarcely a vacation day, but it is for me. I guess I would call it the zen of cookery. If you are focused on the chopping, toasting, roasting, grinding, mixing, stirring, spreading, steaming, and tasting there is not much room for any worries, doubts or self-incriminations. Sounds like vacation to me (maybe even better since I can get a little bit "dmn, I should be doing xyz" when I am sitting on a beach towel).

And when one is foolish enough to decide to make Oaxacan Mole and tamals, then it is 10 hours of chopping, toasting, roasting, grinding, mixing, stirring, spreading, steaming, and tasting. Then the neighbors and family came and we devoured it all in the candle light of the Altár and our dear and departed guests in the photos there felt totally present, too. 

These are the gifts of the season for me -- the making and sharing of food -- certainly as much an artform as anything I create with fabric and stitch. The fall colors on the table, with big bowls and platters taken down from the shelf. bright swatches of table linens -- we layered our porch table with Mexican fabrics and dressed all the chairs in huipiles from Mexico and Guatemala, then marched a set of folk art animales down the center, lit with votives.

The weather cooperated, with a wonderful mild evening perfect for the porch -- winter arriving (temporarily for us) a few hours later as a gusty wind and rain blew in from the north.

Retreats and Workshops

Just a little poke in ribs. Don't you think you need a treat! These are the next three workshops coming up at El Cielo Studio. And if I say so myself, they deliver a lot of inspiration, ideas, energy AND rest and restoration to all our artist selves for not-so-much dinero.

I hope you can join us. Discounts for early enrollment!


FIELD GUIDE TO COLOR November 12-14 Explore your personal palette while learning the "rules" of color harmony with hands-on exercises. This approach to color design is both intuitive and “scientific,” you’ll learn to trust your instincts with dye, paint and paper experiments while improving your success with color on cloth. We'll tackle a variety of dyeing techniques including low water painting processes and microwave "shibori" techniques. You'll take home work on fabric and paper that can guide a whole new series of work and imagery based on a specific color palette. if you have work that just doesn't work because of color issues, bring it along and we'll do triage! Whether your preference is for earthy tones, crayon-box brights, or soft pastels, you'll learn more about what does and doesn't work and how to bring more energy and excitement to your color choices.

UFO WORKSHOP December 3-5 UFO, “unfinished fiber object.” Bring along work that needs finishing (perhaps a gift or two, or work that’s stuck for need of constructive critique). Enjoy the resources of the studio  -- thermofax machine at-cost, soy wax, dye, screen-printing tools and more -- and the advice and support of peers. We’ll customize the techniques to the tasks at hand. Almost any idea you want to explore can be tackled with support and concentrated time at this workshop. Send me your idea, and I'll tell you if we can support it with tools, materials and advice!

ARTIST'S JOURNEY/ ARTIST'S JOURNAL, January 14-16 This workshop has become an annual tradition. Join me for a weekend of reflection, goal setting, and information about how the habit or journaling can benefit you as an artist -- and make a unique journal cover and artist calendar for a new year of creative work and inspiration. We'll be working with drawing (for non-drawers, too), collage, photography, copy machine printing, web resources and tools and more.  Building good habits for your own work. This workshop fills quickly each year, so if you want to be one of the participants, don't wait to reserve your space. Friday evening will include guided meditation after the pot luck supper. 

Sign up early (at least 30 days in advance with a $25 deposit) for a $15 discount on the $175 fee. Email me susiemonday@gmail.com for details. First come/first serve -- single bedrooms are in demand (accommodations and food for the entire weekend  $15 to $30)! Note that some of the recent workshops have been filling early. Workshops generally start with an optional Friday night potluck and fun activ- ity or two, then continue through 3-4 pm on Sunday afternoon. Most supplies included.

Loving It Big City

 

A Labor Day outing to Houston has proved to be  qn unusual and wonderous blend of image, taste, sound and fizz. We've been dog and cat sitters at a friend's house in the Montrose, so the everything in the inner loop -- musuems, music and more --  has been easy and accessible. The home of our friends makes a luxury hotel room look like a seedy second choice. Pool, kitchen, art and fabulous architecture have given us a home away from home without exception.

Amazing ancient textiles, mummies and incredible coffins shaped like boats were centerpieces in the Silk Road exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. The brocades and tapestry weavings were delicate and preserved by the dessert climate where they had been entombed -- colors still discernable after nearly 2000 years. The older tombs and mummies were hauntingly beautiful, speaking to us across nearly 4000 years of the lives and times of these families of traders and trade route merchants.

More to come later -- this post is interupted by yet another call to travel -- up to the Woodlands for dinner tonight.

 

A Brief Intermission, a Big Breath

Don't you know? In betweens -- the breaths between two commitments -- are difficult to keep calm, and so important it is to do so.

I've just made it home from Dallas (after a brief stop in Waco to the see my parents) and am now packing supplies to take to the CREATE Mixed Media Workshop in Chicagoland. Breathe. Of course, a million tasks around the house seem to be screaming, a million "gee I should have done that earlier and had it ready for this big teaching weekend" thoughts are filling the head space. And all that is true, and all of it is rather irrelevant, too.

I am a working artist. I work and teach so that I CAN work and teach. I support my bad habits of eating, sleeping under a safe (and beautifully situated) roof and (seems like mostly) paying my health insurance premiums. So be it. And thanks to the universe for giving me employment, passionate attachment to my work, and support from friends, family and blog readers!

Right now, I am inbetween. The moment is what it is. What I can do, I will, including this short blog that is mostly a message to myself. (But one I suspect will echo though a few other people's psychic and physical spaces.) I also will breathe and look out at the hills, hot and dusty as they may be, with a tiny moment or two of realization that I am just a little dust mote in the whole of it. What I do is my part of the big creative swirl that is creation.

 

 

How to Make an Art Quilt, Again

One of the most-read posts I've made on this blog has to do with my process of making an art quilt. Interesting enough, the piece I was working on (a large Virgin/pomegranate figure) got stuck in the middle, even as I was writing about the process.

Did I tell you about that? Nope, don't think so.

I finally finished the piece after about 5 months of mulling and muttering, just in time for it to go into an invitational exhibit at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center. Then, as is a sneakly (surprises me, every time) and productive little pattern of mine, I quickly made two other related pieces, spin offs from the theme that emerged as I was mulling and muttering (and as you  will see, slashing off about one half of the original quilt).

These are all inspired by the story of Persephone, her acceptance of her role as Queen of the Underworld, her visit over the River Styx and her mother Demeter's weeping over the loss of her daughter.

The colors are off in these photos, silly me, I shot the pics with the pieces on the new brilliantly chartruese walls in my hallway, which taught the camera some weird color tint, and I couldn't quite adjust them back. So, that's a good reason to go to Kerrville to see the originals, right?

Then, as I prodded along on my also stalled-out-for-months online course, TEXT ON THE SURFACE, I finally made it the next to last chapter and did another stab at describing my process of design and production.

Here it is. Hope you enjoy this flurry of self-examination on my part, and that it inspires you to consciously think about and write about your own process of work and how you got there. If you post something on a blog or website, please leave a link in the comments, so we can share each other's insights and an appreciation of the diversity of our creativity. So here it is, straight from the auxillery info in the course:

How I make an art quilt (and why I got that way):


Let’s start with the history - I come to quilting from an art background, as a painter. I never have learned proper quilting skills I fear, though I am getting better with piecing and bindings and the like!
Even in my undergraduate studies as a studio art major, I was drawn to stitch  -- my senior project and exhibit was actually an installation or large stained canvases and stitched and sewn stuffed sculptures that were made from paper bags (need I mention that I was in art school in the late ‘60s).
I formally entered the world of textile/fiber art with I started studying with Jane Dunnewold and with the guest artists she brought to the Southwest Craft Center (now Southwest School of Art and Craft). I started dyeing and printing fabric and then had to have something to do with it. Not being a garment mater (due to bad early history in Home Ec in the 8th grade) I thought I would try making wall hangings -- and I had done a lot of collaborative fabric stitched pieces with kids during my career in arts and education. I took a weekend workshop from Sue Benner and discovered for the first time the world of WonderUnder, and that I did’t have to be good at sewing to make a quilt. And that I didn’t have to bind the edges.


So that set me free and I developed my approach over the past 12 years. When I turned 50 I decided that if I was ever to be a “real” artist and do my work, I had to stop working full time for other companies, nonprofits, etc, and just leap on faith that I could support myself somehow as an artist. So far, it’s worked.


So, on to the work:
I start always with an inkling of an idea or story or theme, then I play with colors and textures. piling up fabrics that catch my eye and please my color sensibilities. Most of the fabrics I use are recycled from something else, then dyed, stamped, stenciled, screen printed, etc. I use a good deal of ethnic embroidery, embellishments and pieces of hand-woven fabric from indigenous people around the world. Almost all of these treasures I find at thrift stores.


The majority of my dyed and printed yardage also starts with recycled fabrics -- table linens, dresses and skirts, botls and scraps tucked away at flea markets, old cotton sheets and even mattress covers and old quilts for the batting layer. I like it that the fabrics I use have history, stories I don’t even know about. I do buy some new shantung silks from Indian sari stores, usually overdyeing the original color with a wash or glaze of something else. I also purchase bolts and bolts of fusible webbing, new batting and, sometimes, felt for lining small quilts.


My art quilts are totally non-traditional. I fuse every layer, then free motion quilt them, catching the edges of all the fused pieces. In order to make the quilt as flat and unwrinked as possible, I often”build” the quilt on the batting, designing as i go and fusing as I go, cutting the shapes (sometimes from patterns drawn on the fusible web paper) while still adhered to the release paper or backing paper. I don’t generally have an allover design on paper, but sometimes I work from smaller studies, adapting the design to the new scale.

My stitching is usually very loose, though I like to use it as a kind of drawing tool, adding veins to leaves, lines to hands, sun rays, flower details, wind currents and waves. I put the feeddogs down and use an machine foot with a round opening and put the setting on darn, with everything else on “0”. Probably  my favorite stitch  pattern is a looped back on itself spiral. I really think of the quilting as a kind of scribbling over the surface of the quilt, adding the design element of line and texture. I sometimes take large pieces into the local quilt shop and rent their longarm machine (I’m lucky to have such a resource that is very reasonably priced -- $10 an hour) and do a lot of quilting to get the piece connected with one color of thread -- usually a varigated one -- then I get the quilt home to my Bernina and add more detailed quilting.


When the whole piece is quilted, I take another look, then go in with hand stitching, embellishments occasionally, and over printing with screen-printed patterns or details for more texture -- or to add a little energy to any boring parts of the quilt. I don’t like to have areas that are too quiet.

I use the same techniques on fabric paper/cloth paper as I do with fabric and I like to combine unusual fabrics, papers, photos on fabric, etc. This use of a wide variety of materials is probably one of the signatures of my style. My smaller pieces are often wrapped and stapled around wooden internal frames, built of white wood, nailed and glued. I then blind stitch a backing fabric over the back of the piece, which finishes it more like a proper quilt. I started doing so at the recommendation of Arturo Sandoval who critiqued some of my work when here in San Antonio for a workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. He convinced me that while painters don’t need to finish the back of their canvases, we who are working out of the quilting tradition should do so, because it is just part and parcel of the tradition.


My neighbor Rick Murray is my construction expert. He makes the internal wooden frames that I stretch my smaller pieces around. When I use the frames, I don’t put a fabric back on the pieced quilt. just the batting layer, since it is often a piece of recycled mattress pad from the thrift store!


Like Benner, I finish the edges of my larger, none-frame-mounted pieces with layers and layers of zigzag stitiching around the cut edge of the finished piece. I don’t trim and cut a piece until it is quilted and when I work for a particular size to enter in an exhibit I make the quilt a couple of inches larger in every direction, then cut it to size at the end. I stitch the edges with varied colors of threads and change the width and stitch count often as I stitch around the edge. This is the boring, or shall I say, meditative part of my process!

Something New. Something Old.

A CREATIVE STUDY:  PETROGLYPHS, POTTERY & PREHISTORY
JUNE 4-6 


(optional Fri. night potluck)


Many artists have found inspiration in prehistoric and archetypal imagery from caves, cliffs and ancient ceramics. This is the first of a series of “creative study” workshops that will illuminate how you as an artist can take inspiration from the images and imagination of the past, while transforming the images into something uniquely your own. This workshop models a time-proven creative study process (based on that developed at Learning About Learning Educational Foundation and the Paul Baker Theatre)  that can be adapted to many inspirational sources.

We’ll go from collection through synthesis to creating, and explore textile and mixed media techniques that relate to the aesthetic and philosophical qualities and intent of the earliest art-makers. Use handmade brushes as tools, make pigmented paints with ashes, earth, rust and minerals. Learn to use two different techniques for transfering photos and sketches to fabric using a home printer/copier-- directly printing on fabric you  prepare with Bubble Jet Set and doing a transfer print with polyester film and gel medium.

We'll also have a chance to drum, share poetry and stories, and share a meal under the moon and stars. And, of course,  enjoy the beautiful early summer weather in the Texas Hill Country. We've added a sleeping porch to the house, so if you wish, you can even sleep (sort of) under the stars, though the airconditioned comfort of the bedrooms are also available. Only one $30 private room remains, otherwise, for $15 you can sleep in the studio, or for free on the porch or air mattress. Remember to bring swim suits and towels for the pool and hot tub! The workshop fee is $160 whether you stay two nights or one!

Art and Leadership: Bamberger's Selah

 

Photo from Bamberger Ranch website.

Art and leadership. Leadership through art. Artful leadership. Of my out-of-the-studio hats, I'm wearing one of them the next three days, teaching with a group of colleagues. The students are Central American highschoolers who are attending a two week leadership symposium, the first week in Washington, D.C; the second week here in Texas. We are spending the next three days together at Selah, the ranch/ecology and environmental center founded by David Bamburger.

David and his work was featured on NPR a couple of days ago, you can hear more about the ranch here. And check out the website, here.

As to our activities, I'll be working with my colleagues from Alamo College's International Program -- Julia Jarrell, Daniel Gonzalez and others (including the "hosts" for the meals, logistics and amenities, the ILS program participants who are 20 young professionals and community organizers from South America). We will spend some of our time touring the ranch (hopefully the rain will stop!) and part of the time in creative arts activities.  San Antonio highshool students will host the Central Americans in their homes over the weekend and take them to their highschools on Monday. Next Tuesday we'll go to Say Si, a wonderful arts education and pre-professional training center for young artists, and continue working to create a multimedia presentation for the hosts, community leaders and peers. The Leadership participants will be exploring the roles, voices and actions that their world needs in the future. Here's a excerpt from our activity outline:

ROUND ROBIN of three activities with group divided into three teams, ILS participants sign up to work with one activity, being trained to help and then taking over some of the leadership with subsequent groups. Each activity takes about 50 minutes  including sharing at the end of each. Facilitators and staff will take photos as the activities are done and at the end, take pictures of each of the Leadership student participants with their products, as time allows.  I will also have a flip video camera and try to take some short action videos clips, too.. All our staff who have cameras need to bring them.

A. Leaders of the Future Badges

Badge making in pairs. Students and participants interview each other about their concerns, hopes and dreams for their future and the the future of the planet. What kind of important roles and careers and viewpoints and values are needed (environmentalist, activist, balancer, peacemaker, visionary, inventor, etc) The partners learn a bit about each other in the present, too. Then make colorful badges with magazine pictures and words (ENGLISH LABELS ON LABELS.doc attached. Please reproduce about 10 copies per page on colored paper if possible. Translate or do similar labels in Spanish and make copies of those too. Cut apart ahead of time if someone has time to do so, other wise we can do at the ranch)

B. Voices from the Future Masks

Students will think about who could be the “spokespersons” of the future – animals, plants, natural phenomena (like the earth or the ocean or reefs) and people. They will design and make strong graphic masks with paper bags, black construction paper, newspaper and white paper cutouts. If time, students will in small groups do some improvisation of what these voices from the future will say. Possibly make cartoon bubbles that go with the masks.

C. Recipes, Remedies and Cures

Starting with some brainstorming, create skits and write about the problems they see that must be solved to have a peaceful, sustainable, healthy future. Students will write, individually, then adding in groups, about the recipes, remedies and cures for these current ails. They will be in the form of recipes, etc. (ex. Recipe for Safe Cities: add  3 parts healthy sustainable infrastructure to 2 parts excellent schools, mix well with imagination, invention and technology. Do not forget to add concern, equality and love for one’s neighbors. Mix well, Let season. Do not put in too large a pan. Smaller batches may be more successful.) Begin work to make these into small group skits that could be part of presentations.

Dinner

Star Party if weather permits

Continue nature program with Bamberger staff and ILS

 

Surface Design Technique: Polyester Film Transfers

Polyester film transfer on cotton, "Century Plant

I am doing some transfers of photos using polyester film (it's a wet media product made for graphic artists) with my ink-jet printer and then adding gel medium or fabric medium to melt and blend the photographic images-- which also makes them permanent (if a bit stiff). This spiral piece also has a thermofax screen print ontop (the charcoal dotty stuff).

 

 

This is a logical progression from some of the screened water-soluble medium work that I also have been doing lately.

And what is it with the nature imagery. I hope I am not turning into the quilt art equivalent of a boring bluebonnet painter....


Let me know what you think. Should I quilt these as whole cloth quilts?

Open Studio On-Line

 

Just the photos for now. I just lost my entire post. Check back later if you want to actually know more about my studio. I am at a conference and hoping to learn more about photoshop today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do I love about my studio?

Space, space, space.

Space to teach (see the flyer to download on the sidebar).

My old art cabinet (the drawers) that I have hauled around for 40 years.

Collections and space to explore.

The view outside the studio!

Cleaned up and ready for a workshop, above.

El Cielo Artist Retreats and Workshops

 

Finally, the Fall-Winter planning is done -- it's taken me a long time to get my thoughts straight and then to plan an all-new series of workshops. I've been running repeats of some favorites during the past season, so it seemed time to develop a new group of inventive weekends.

The problem with that is, that for all the new toys and tricks and materials that we artists (especially we quilt art/fiber art/mixed media artists) are bombarded with, there are really only so many with substance and style and staying power. So, I have decided to concentrate on what I do best, focusing on creative process and on helping others to find their "sweet spots," their strong suites. Yes, there will still be fun and new and different techniques to explore during these weekends, but the majority of them will have more to do with digging deeper, loosening up, starting from scratch and pulling rabbits out of our (proverbial) hats --if any of this makes sense, then you are a better mind than I!

Nevertheless, here's the fall-winter rundown, with a link here to the brochure up in la-la land -- you can download it (in theory) by just hitting the button, or by pasting the address into your browser bar. If you don't get it and want a pdf copy to print, notify me by email --use the form on the sidebar if you don't have my email address handy. I'll email you an attachment that is sure to work!

Nurture your creativity as you come away from a weekend with renewed energy, new  materials and techniques in surface design applicable to fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media work. Susie Monday leads artists’ retreats and workshops throughout the year at her studio near Pipe Creek, Texas, about an hour from downtown San Antonio. El Cielo Studio workshops are designed with the needs of the participants in mind;  free time is scheduled throughout the weekend for reading, reflection and personal work in the studio. You are welcome to bring projects in process for Susie’s critique and for peer feedback in an environment of trust and respect. You’ll share meals, poetry and stories, music and advice for living an artist’s life. Enjoy the 25-mile vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads. A spa and pool, and large screen media room are also available to participants. The fee for each workshop retreat is $160 for a 2-day event with discounts for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations are available from $15 -  $30 per workshop. Most workshops offer a Friday night potluck option. Limited enrollment. Most supplies included. Call 210-643-2128 or email susiemonday@gmail.com
Susie has taught creative process and art techniques to adults and children for more than 30 years. Her art is in numerous private and public collections around the world.

NEW AT EL CIELO
FROM SCRIBBLE TO SYMBOL; PERSONAL MARK-MAKING
SEPTEMBER 25-27
(optional Friday night potluck & critique session)
In this workshop, start with simple sketches and doodles and end the weekend with an arsenal of new surface design tricks and tools.   Explore doodles and scribbles as sources of  uniques and personal imagery that will give your art quilts, wearable art, or mixed media work personal depth and layers of meaning. take a favorite symbol -- for example a heart, star, spiral, circle -- and by taking it (and yourself) through a series of creative generative exercises, you’ll make something new and different to incorporate into your design, composition and surface design. Tools and techniques explored include paper lamination on fabric, large scale “mark-making” rollers and monoprinting.

OCTOBER
Find Susie at the Houston International Quilt Festival, See www.quilts.com
NEW: A CREATIVE STUDY:  PETROGLYPHS, POTTERY & PREHISTORY
NOVEMBER 6-8 (optional Friday night potluck and critique session)
Many artists have found inspiration in prehistoric and archetypal imagery from caves, cliffs and ancient ceramics. This is the first of a series of “creative study” workshops that will illuminate how you as an artist can take inspiration from the images and imagination of the past, while transforming the images into something uniquely your own. This workshop models a time-proven creative study process (based on that developed at Learning About Learning Educational Foundation and the Paul Baker Theatre)  that can be adapted to many inspirational sources. We’ll go from collection through synthesis to creating, and explore textile and mixed media techniques that relate to the aesthetic and philosophical qualities and intent of the earliest art-makers. Explore some simple natural dyes; use handmade brushes as tools, make pigmented paints with ashes, earth, rust and minerals.

NEW: MEMOIR, MEMORY and MEMORIAL
DECEMBER 4-6
(optional Friday night potluck and critique session) Continue the season of Dias de los Muertos by creating a memorial altar to a person, to a personally potent memory (or past life of your own), even to a summer vacation! Learn to transfer photos onto a number of interesting surfaces including plastic, metal and fiber; add words, names and text with resist crayons; microwave dye custom fabrics, and embellish your textile and mixed media altar with all manner of beads, trinkets and meaning-full treasures. (Additional $10 fee for wooden altar frame.)

ARTIST JOURNEY/ARTIST JOURNAL
JANUARY 8-10
(optional Fri. night potluck & critique session)
This annual workshop has become a tradition at El Cielo Studio. Spend the weekend in creative activities (All new this year!) that help you set the stage for a 2010 filled with productivity, imagination, focus and artistic goals. Using some new exercises gleaned from sources around the globe, we’ll banish procrastination, make an annual love letter, and find ways to remind us of what really matters in our artistic lives. Meanwhile, you’ll work with mixed media and surface design techniques to start your artist’s journal for the year.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT SUSIE’S CLASSES & WORKSHOPS:
“It was just what I needed right now. I have been in a creative slump, questioning what I do and how I do it. The exercises we did this weekend were freeing on the one hand, but will also help me focus.”

“This workshop was a fabulous, uplifting, nurturing environment to create in. The journaling was particularly helpful, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.”

“This weekend was totally awesome! I am humbled by Susie’s talents, her teaching abilities and her hospitality. I will come back as often as possible.”


susiemonday@gmail.com
www.susiemonday.com

210-643-2128
3532 Timbercreek Road
Pipe Creek, TX 78063
Read Susie’s blog at http://susiemonday.squarespace.com
You’ll find a downloadable pdf version of this flyer on a front page link on Susie ‘s blog.

Good Morning World

I'm not Jewish, but I am observant (in the big sense). I loved reading this in the New York Times online today, and plan to make the observance tomorrow part of my personal spiritual practice this year:

Those April 8’s, like the April 8 that arrives next week, marked the holiday of Birchat HaChammah, named for the blessing of the sun that is recited after daybreak by observant Jews.

According to the celestial calculations of a Talmudic sage named Shmuel, at the outset of spring every 28 years, the sun moves into the same place in the sky at the same time and on the same day of the week as it did when God made it. This charged moment provides the occasion for reciting a one-line blessing of God, “who makes the work of creation.”

The astronomical metrics of Shmuel are by now considered inexact, but close enough so that the religious tradition persists, so that Jews like Rabbi Bleich believe that the sun next Wednesday occupies the same location in the firmament as it did when it was formed on the fourth day of Creation, which would have been Wednesday, March 26, of the Hebrew year 1, otherwise known as 3760 B.C.

Since I'm 60, who knows if I'll manage to be around for the next 28th year celebration? I don't know the actual blessing, (and my Hebrew literacy is non-existent) so maybe I will have to write my own. I hope any observers who read this will take my adoption as a reverent and respectful act, even if I don't have the words. Hey, thanks to Wikipedia, I found them, and translated, too

"ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם עושה מעשה בראשית"
"Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the Universe who makes the works of Creation."

About that blessing, the article goes on:

The same brief prayer — consisting of the basic syntactical root for most blessings and three culminating, specific Hebrew words — is also used to express awe and wonder at physical grandeur (the Grand Canyon) and creative acts visible as they happen (lightning, meteor showers).

That makes it even better doesn't it! What a wonderful idea to honor the creative acts we see and notice.

And doesn't the idea remind you of the "good morning world"  line from Kurt Vonnegut (gotta find that now!)

Vintage Inspiration & Accidental Collections

Vintage tablecloths are, I guess, one of my accidental collections. I first started buying them with the idea of overdyeing or cutting and piecing, and found myself hoarding them instead, unwilling to cut up any but the most tattered and stained.

And now, surely it shouldn't come as a surprise, I have learned  (from a sweet blog called A Charmed Life) that vintage tablecloths are quite collectable and that you can even find catalogs and lists and galleries with names, dates and manufacturers! Oh dear, another web-based fritter awaits me, as I try to track down the provenance of these lovelies. I must have about 50 now, and I still find them at quite affordable prices at thrift stores, flea markets and the like.

What's the attraction?" Some of it is purely visual -- the funky designs and colors, the outrageous tropicals and holiday prints. And some, admittedly, is because I was there then -- in the 50s and 60 when every bridge table had its lovely cloth for parties and tea and holiday open houses.

And, yes, sometimes a cloth finds its way into my work, often on one of my small studio or home wall altars.

Accidental collections are those assortments of things you never really decided to collect, but one day you look around and your home or studio or desktop or garden is full of them. Accidental collections have a kind of natural growth that usually has more to do with liking something than it does with investing in it. And whether you think your accidental collection has anything to do directly with your art or not, it probably has something to do with your strong suits and inclinations in the sensory world.

What are your accidental collections? How do they inspire you?

(Remember, if you comment, you will be entered into my raffle for a free copy of New World Kids, The Parents' Guide to Creative Thinnking)