More Ties that Bind

Escape Velocity, 2009.

19" by 26.5" by 2.5' Textile on wooden frame

$400

Here's a preview of some of my new work that will be shown at FiberArt Space though June 15, with the artists' reception tonight starting at 5:30. The 8" by 8" by 1.5" pieces are a new format for me, inspired by a desire to make some smaller work that relate to larger pieces. These little satellites are $85 -- I hope they'll find good homes! If you are interested in any of the pieces in this preview (just a few of the 24 pieces I have on display), please contact the gallery.

Fiber Artspace
1414 S. Alamo St. # 103
San Antonio, TX 78210

210-633-6959

Located in the Blue Star Art Complex
In the Armon Art Suite of Galleries

They will be happy to arrange shipping. If you want to see more, email me and I'll try to have an album link up on my website by early next week.

Above top: Letting Go 2, Letting Go 1, each 8" by 8" by 1.5"

Above, lower: Dream Tree with Spines, 8" by 8" by 1.5"

(I think) Please describe these if you wish to purchase one of these, I realize now I didn't put the numbers on the photo titles!

Dream house with Spines, 2009 SOLD

8" by 8" by 1.5"

$85

Pomegranate, 2009 SOLD

8"by 8" by 1.5"

$85

This last piece has an unusual history and technique in its making: I love pomegranates and often feature them in my work. They have both real and symbolic beauty and are, to me, a symbol of the fertility of creativity. This was a photoshopped image of a pomegranate that I photographed in Monte Vista, an area near my old university (Trinity University in San Antonio) when I walked there last fall. The tree was a full bushy shrub with many fruit and it was just luscious. When I worked on the photo, I enhanced and saturated the colors to make the image move from real to magical. I printed the image on several materials, including this plastic packing material -- (perhaps its Tyvak, but I am not sure as it was a recycled bit found on the run). Then, last fall when teaching at the International Quilt Festival in Houston (where I'll be teaching and lecturing this fall, too) I had used all the fabric I brought for demonstrating a polychrome method of screenprinting with water-soluble crayons -- This scrap of an image fell out of the box of supplies (I'd actually taken it for a different demo) and the rest is history -- that's the swirly designs. 'Course, in making this piece, I added more fabric, screenprinted the squiggles and the wheel symbol and did some machine and hand stitching to finish the embellished image, floating there in its magical mystical presence!

If you'd like to know the checkered past for any of these other pieces, or any of the art on my website or blog elsewhere, please leave a question in the comments. Everything has a story.

P.S. Here's a complete list of my work that's in the exhibit. Any questions, send me an email with the contact box in the sidebar,.

a) Title: Escape Velocity
Size: 19” by 26.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $400

b) Title:Escape Velocity, 2
Size: 12” by 12” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $115

c) Title:Dream Tree with Spines
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

d) Title: Dream House with Spines
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

e) Title:Escape
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

f Title: Dream House with Spines, 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

g) Title: ”I’m Out of Here”
Size: 19” by 26.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $400

h) Title:Escape
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

i) Title:Dream House with Spines, 3
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

j) Title: Pomegranate: Fertile Earth
Size: 19” by 26.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $350

k) Title: Earth Niche, 1
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

l) Title:Earth Niche, 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

m) Title: Pomegranate 1
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

n) Title: Pomegranate 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

o) Title:Fig Leaf
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

p) Title: Rose Grotto
Size: 12” by 16” by 3.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$200

q) Title: El Cielo Dream, 2
Size: 19” by 17.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $350

r) Title: El Cielo Dream, 3
Size: 12” by 12” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$110

s) Title:Letting Go, 1
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

t) Title: Letting Go, 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

u) Title:Letting Go, 3
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

v) Title:Letting Go, 4
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

W) Title:Michael of a Thousand Eyes
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile , art quilt
Retail Price $750

Art Workshops at El Cielo, Summer 2009

I just realized I've not posted the new and revised dates for workshops this summer. Text on the Surface is all but full, as is The Shape of the Matter, but a couple more people could squeeze in if you're not too picky about where you sleep. If you're interested email me in the message block on the sidebar.

Workshops in fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media 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 work- shop 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 from the website comments on the sidebar.

TEXT ON THE SURFACE

May 22 - 24

In this workshop participants experiment with a number of different ways to use written language, letters and text on surface of fabric, for application in the making of art cloth, art quilts and art-to-wear. By putting ideas and personal vision/story into work, artists deepen their own expression of individual voice, using words that are important, using STORY in

a quite literal way,all can be part of that personal way of expression. Some familiar and some new techniques: sunprinting with foam letters, thermofax collage & printing, phototransfer print- ing with copier/printer, soy wax batik with text, mixed media collage. Participants will also see a wide variety of examples of the use of text in fiber and other con- temporary work, broadening their conceptual under- standing of using words in art. Optional Friday night pot luck, no additional fee.

NEW AT EL CIELO: THE SHAPE OF THE MATTER

June 17-19

How does an art quilt idea grow from a shape? Learn two-dimensional design skills though an investigation of paper-cut silhouettes, Japanese Notan ex- ercises, black ink drawings, stencil and silkscreen de- sign. Explore personal imagery, symbols and mean- ing as touchstones for de- signing for the decorative arts in fabric applicable to quilting, art cloth, garment design and embellishment, as well as learning techniques for simplifying and abstracting images to produce original designs on paper and fabric. Take home a journal quilt ready for stitching. Optional Friday night pot luck, no additional fee.


NEW AT EL CIELO THE KITCHEN ALTAR

July 17-19 and repeats August 21-23

This year’s “Burning Woman Workshop”!
Participants design and make a small art quilt “altar” for kitchen or dining room using 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, an- gel or other meaningful de- sign as the centerpiece for the altar. These altars can be serious or sentimental, comic or universal – it’s up to the individual artist. (This workshop has an additional $12 fee per person for the altar boxes that the quilts are stretched upon.)


GIRLFRIENDS’ WEEKEND

Dates to be determined

Plan a weekend with your artist and should-be artist friends. Susie will design a custom weekend workshop with fiber, mixed media and creativity exercises with your interests and skill levels in mind. Possibilities: soy wax batik, art journals and hand-made books, art dolls and totems. This is the ultimate play date, with great food, the Texas Hill Country, a Saturday night rodeo or music outing (options, not in stone) and fun with “stuff.” Ttherapeutic massage services available from licensed masseuse. Minimum 4 friends, maximum, up to 8 depending on accommodation with shared rooms. The topics and techniques covered are up to you -- and any of the previous El Cielo Workshops can be adapted to your desires.

www.susiemonday.com

Exhibit at Northwest Vista College

My solo show went up mid-January Northwest Vista College -- and finally the dates are set for a reception for my friends and family members, as well as a couple of "appearances" as a resident artist for the college. The exhibit, I'm honored to say, is the first in a new multipurpose room in the newest to open building on campus: Cypress Hall, where the bookstore, admin and cafeteria share space on the ground floor overlooking the lake at the heart of the campus.

The room is lovely; exhibits share space with beautiful views, and unlike most art galleries, it is truely a multipurpose room, hosting several faculty and student events each week. I've already received quite a number of kind comments about the show from faculty member friends of Linda's (she teaches Communications at NWV).

An artist talk and "guided tour" of my work, my working process and showing a slide show of processes, inspirations and my studio will be presented on February 11, with a lunch reception and the talk from 11:30 am -- 1:30 pm (the talk will be 12:15 - 1:15  more or less, and it is open to the public.) Then on March 5, March 18 I'm hosting a short reception in the room for friends and the general public, from 4 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. -- and I hope you can come! I plan to send out a few email invites and maybe some postcards, but if you're reading this, you are invited. I'd love to meet you and have you see some of my work in person.

On March 25, at 3:30, I'll be on a panel for Women's History Month, discussing with other artists the place and changing role of women as entrepreneurs in the arts, as artists, as well as comparing our personal histories as artist/business women. Again, the panel presentation, part I believe of a full day of events at the college, is open to the public.

All of these activities will be held in the multipurpose room off the cafeteria in Cypress Hall -- follow the signs to the closest parking lot when you get to the college. Parking can be a bit iffy, so if you attend, you might want to carpool and let the hardiest walker  in the group drop the rest of the attendees off at the entrance!