Reminder: Art Biz Coach is Coming Tomorrow

 

The photos above show my "booth" just before the Fiesta Arts Fair at Southwest School of Art and Craft opened for business. I think I had the best spot in the entire fair -- shade, historical ambiance, music, margaritas within a shout, lots of traffic, memories (I was once actually married right here in this very courtyard) and friends happily tripping through opening Fiesta weekend.

Just a reminder -- while I take my breath, count my blessings and get it together for a full report on the Fiesta Arts Fair.
 Art Biz Coach Alyson Stanfield is stopping by tomorrow on her Blog Tour to promote her new and VERY helpful book: I'd Rather Be in the Studio.

 In case I don't get back to this space later this afternoon, I wanted to make sure you all knew about the tour, and tomorrow will check out her answer to my art business question: Should I have a separate (from my new Gallery website), dedicated website for my teaching and workshops? (And what do you think, loyal readers? Would a separate site make sense? Should I beef up the link on my blog site or develop a separate set of pages within the new Gallery site -- www.susiemonday.com)

Tomorrow, you will also find out how to win a free copy of Alyson's book, and find some links to some of my favorites of the many  blogs, podcasts and other resources that she offers through her on-line teaching and coaching.

Here's the view during the Fair, in a rare quietish moment! Thanks to all of you who stopped in the browse, to Jennifer who took some great professional photos for me, to all of you who purchased aart work rom me or from another artist -- the most direct way to support the arts -- feed an artist! We know you have many choices about how to spend your time, money and energy. Buying art, while certainly not a survival necessity, is, I think,  both a financial and spiritual investment in the future of the planet.
 

ReThreads: How to make your own altered jacket!

 

Jean Jackets pinned to an art quilt -- no other model around today! 

 

Here's the quickie HOW-TO for my method of artful recycling:

Purchase, swap or otherwise acquire a jean jacket or vest. I like the darker denim best, it seems to show off the frivolous fabrics well. Selecting for color and textural interest, a narrative tale of your own telling or any other criteria you like, select three to four coordinating embellishment fabrics. (Everything I use on these, except the fusible is reclaimed from thrift store and flea market finds) Some of what I use: embroidered and/or painted Indian sari cloth, Guatemalan skirt or shirt fabric, embroidery from Mexican dresses, commercial fabrics, etc., bark cloth, patchwork quilt top scraps, crocheted lace and commercial lace and trim, interesting vintage buttons, metal milagros.

Trace patterns of each part of the jacket that you wish to embellish, using tracing paper or even the release paper from fusible web (WonderUnder for example). I usually trace off the yokes, the panels above the pocket, sometimes the panels down the front, and the large back panel, cutting my patterns up to  but not over the double stitched seams. Iron fusible to the back of selected fabrics and cut out using the pattern as your guide. Iron to fuse, then machine quilt the pieces using free motion zig-zag stitch around the edges and straight stitch for embellishing textures, lines and emphasis. I usually use coordinating colored thread as my topstitch and denim colored thread on the bobbin.  

After the machine work is done, I usually spend a few hours adding hand stitching, buttons, sewing over the seams with embroidery floss or craft threads (most often while watching Project Runway or Top Chef). I add a ReThreads label, signing and dating my work, and its ready for the sales rack or runway.  

If you'd like a complete step by step design and construction 'HOW TO" course, consider signing up for my soon-to-come e-workshop including all instructions in detail -- supplies, design tips, construction tips and more. If you'll leave a comment or email me at susiemonday@gmail.com, I'll put you on the list for the course notification.

And meanwhile, here's a book that might help

ABOUT THIS JACKET:

I've been a bit stalled out on the Sirena series, although there is a mammoth pile of fabric on the design table, but with theFiesta Arts Fair coming up in just a bit over a month, April 19-20, and the Fiber Artists of San Antonio art-to-wear runway show on May 3, I've got plenty of smaller projects yipping for attention. Here's the first of this year's ReThreads, my occasional interlude into altered, recycled jean jackets and other thrift store finds. I only make a few of these each year -- but they are a great way to use all the amazing fabrics I've gathered and hoarded for just such frivolity and fashion. If you'd like to make your own, keep reading, the instructions for my method are at the bottom of this post.

Meanwhile if you're within reach, the Fiesta Arts Fair is one of my favorite Fiesta San Antonio extravaganzas. I'll be setting up the market stall in the second courtyard, near the food booths in the Convent Garden and on the way to the Children's Art Garden. This family-friendly arts and crafts market features some fabulous artists, artisans and craftsmen from around the country and I'm honored to have been selected for this year's group - the jury process is one that keeps the standards high and make the mix an interesting one of locals and national artists. There's also wall-to-wall entertainment and the usual Fiesta food-on-a-stick. 

 And, meanwhile, I'm making two or three other one-of-a-kind jackets for the FASA runway show -- only 60 tickets of 370 are left, so if you haven't bought yours yet, surf over to Fiber Artists of San Antonio where you can purchase one spot or a table full (12 NOT 10 AS THE WEBSITE SAYS),  $40 per ticket. The staged and choreographed show includes a seated luncheon, and, best of all, most of the fashionable art on the runway is available for sale in a post-show sales room. We also have a silent auction (I'm looking for some donations!) and a raffle of some incredible wearable work donated by members.

Update on 2008-03-19 23:05 by Susie Monday

Suzanne Cooke sent me her altar, dedicated to the Lunar Rabbit. I love it's three-deminsionality and the beautiful luminous moon. Sue said that the tassles appeared in her stash, they had been purchased at FASA's Cobweb Sale last year.

Show and Sell

 

 Overheard in the gallery: talk about Obama and Hillary pro and con, con and pro; spaceships in Stephenville; clothes trades and recycling; stories about Hipp's Bubble Room  (home of the Shypoke Egg, everlasting Christmas and the tiny train around the room that closed in 1980), and all the other things that artists and art-lovers like to talk about in such energetic settings.

 

Here we are (well, as soon as I get my photos downloaded from the phone and uploaded to the blog, here we are) at Joan Grona Gallery at Blue Star, showing our stuff, selling our wares. This little two-day artist fair was organized by my friend Gene Elder. While the attendance was sporadic, the company was delightful and we had fun, as artists do, oohing and ahhing over each other's latest products. Joan was a gracious host to all the frivolity, allowing her upscale serious gallery to take on the temporary air of a gypsy fair with everything from beads to found treasures, paper collage, plastic burgers, pitchers of beer (the aforementioned Hipp's Bubble Room installation), et al.

 

The show concludes tomorrow (Friday) after another 11 am - 6 pm session, so hurry on down if you are in the San Antonio area. And while you are at Blue Star, stop in to see the art cloth exhibit at StoneMetal Press gallery, too.

 

Playing in Plano

 This art quilt was juried into the DAFA sponsored Federation of Fiber Artists exhibit in Plano -- with about 58 other works, it will be on display through the month at the Plano Art Center. The link will take you to a gallery of all the work in the show.

The title is "Floating Above It," and the work is inspired by the song by Talking Heads song "And She Was"
The lyrics:

“And She Was”

“And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She's making sure she is not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbor's house
Now she's starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes

 “The world was moving and she was right there with it (and she was)
The world was moving she was floating above it (and she was) and she was

“And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard

“She was glad about it... no doubt about it
She isn't sure where she's gone
No time to think about what to tell them
No time to think about what she's done”
 

 

Hard at play with a bunch of Babylocks. Theralyn Hughes, Pat Schulz in front, Jack Brockett and Ruthie Powers can be spotted in the back.  

 

Just like in the quilt, the wind is whirling up the ridge after a couple of wonderfully warm and sunny days.  Alas, I've been stuck deep inside the studio shuffling papers, filing forms, putting my month in order after playdays with the Federation of Fiber Artists (the Texas coalition of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and now, Austin) fiber arts groups. The every-other-year conference, hosted by Dallas Association of Fiber Artists, was in Plano this past weekend. I took a couple of half-day workshops -- 3-d shibori techniques with Carol Lane Saber and needle felting with the Baby Lock embellisher with Sara Moe. What I learned: 1. instant set dyes work great for hotle room dye workshops, given the water, batching limitations and 2. I am not immune to the seductive appeal of the needle-felting embellisher.

But I resisted (for now) given that the winter's equipment budget went for a new laser printer and ink jet printer. I figure the Babylock will still be there when I get around to it. I certainly understand why its the toy of the moment for fiber artists. I had believed myself to be immune because I am not particularly interested in adding a lot of fuzzy texture and random frays and textural tornadoes or 3-dimensionality to my work. I like the flat plane of fabric and I prefer to develop a sense of visual  texture with patterned layers of imagery. BUT, when I found out I could actually create fabric out of little bits of other fabric, and that I could quite subtly add an element of pattern hither and yon, I was a goner. This is too much fun. Three hours barely gave us enough time to see Sara's examples and to put a few needles into action. The only downside I can see is that I will break way too many expensive needles figuring out what and how to use this machine, when I do  spring for one.

(Addendum: Deborah Boschert also posted some great photos and information about the Federation conference here.) 

On another front in Plano, we had the Federation exhibition at the Plano Art Center, a wonderful repurposed space with character, tall ceilings and a nice ambiance. Juror (and keynote speaker for the conference) Joan Schulze chose 6 awards of merit, among them Laura Jeanne Pitts, Leslie Jenison and Leslie Klein of FASA.  (Was there another San Antonian awarded an honor -- I can't remember!) Anyhow, I counted myself among good company.

Below: Leslie Klein, Leslie Klein and Martha Grant, Leslie Jenison, group shots of happy artists Rachel Edward, Yvette Little, Jean Peffers and my  art quilt amid a crowd.

 

MORE at the show: Pat Schulz's piece inspired by her travel in Guatemala, Pat, husband Gerald and Rachel; Laura Jeanne Pitt's stunning art cloth and Lisa Kerpoe's layered art cloth is peeking out behind the talkers.

 

StoneMetal Press Reception Tonight

 

Remember this soy-wax printed whole cloth little quilt?

The three pieces I featured recently on this blog will be on exhibit at StoneMetal Press in the San Antonio Blue Star Arts Complex for the next six weeks, through March 21. An artist's reception for "All in the FIbers" curated by Jane Bishop is tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and I'll be there with some of my artist friends who also have work in the show. Tomorrow, First Friday, will also feature an opening event as part of the usual First Friday phenomenon -- I'll miss that since I will be in Plano (near Dallas) for the annual Federation of Fiber Artists conference. Stonemetal Press is a gallery/printmaking center with an emphasis (as you might surmise from its name) on printing, and this exhibit features printmaking on fiber surfaces.

For  more information contact the gallery at

StoneMetal Press

Printmaking Center

First Floor, Bldg B

Blue Star Art Complex

1420 South Alamo
San Antonio, TX 78210
210-227-0312

Arizona Artcloth

Just a few pics -- general to show the set up more than the specific gorgeous art. I suggest you go to the Artcloth Network site to see good images of the art cloth from the members. The show did hang beautifully and the gallery looked splendid. From left to right, you'll see work by these artists ...

 

Carol Larson, Sue Jones (2), Lynn Harris, Darcy Love (2), Barbara Schneider, above. 

And also:

From another angle, adding Katherine Sylvan, and out front, my "Mended" piece.

 

"Mended" again, then one of Wrenn Slocum's pixilated pieces, and a corner of Susan Ettl's "The Devil's Highway"

Below, a better shot of Susan's piece. 

 

 

This is a shot of my installation of "Desert Fence."  Drat, trying to get the light right on these three pieces of cloth was a challenge unmet!

Altars

 

The Celebration Circle Altar show is up at the Bijou Theater in San Antonio, and judging from Gary Smith's wonderful photos, it's the best show ever. Click over to the photo sharing site to see how the participating artists have interpreted a simple wooden shape with not so simple concepts and spiritual lessons. It's a fundraiser for CC, but artists can choose to retain a percentage of the winning auction bid -- a great policy even though I choose to donate my piece (above) entirely. If you need to cantact the artist  (he obviously does great photos of art) here's the contact info:GaryO@satx.rr.com.

I'm still in Arizona enjoying the desert air, birds and my ACN  meeting -- more on that later when I can download the photos. 

Show in Cuero

 

 Small tablecloth with pomegranite print. 2006

 

Coming up next weekend and through October :

Courtyard Gallery, Cuero, Texas

September, 2007

Fiber Art and Fashion Show
Saturday, September 29, 2007
11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.  

Featuring eleven top fiber artists and designers from San Antonio,
along with fused glass artist Ele Chew-Wright and Mine Creations jewelry line.
The wearable art will be seen on local ‘celebrity’ models representing
Arts, Economic Development, Education, History, Hospitality, Medicine,
Politics, Retail, and Tourism
 Reservations are recommended – seating is limited
Please call 361-275-9111 or email
courtyardgallerytx@sbcglobal.net 
 
Print this page for a 10% day of show discount throughout the gallery 
FEATURED ARTISTS
Jane Bishop
In this high-tech world, Ms. Bishop revels in the process of designing and creating textiles by hand.  Her art encompasses the use of dyed cloth, stamp art, silk-screen, stencils and drawings onto natural fibers such as silk, linen, cotton, rayon, and hemp.  These designs are then used to adorn interesting furniture pieces, including creating a “new look” with vintage furniture.
 
Dorothy Crues
 Ms. Crues wields a mean set of needles – knitting needles, that is!  She traded a career as a mathematics teacher at the University of Texas San Antonio for teaching knitting.  Many of her pieces are sold in shops around the country.
 
Sandra Edsall
Sandy lived in many countries including Greece, Singapore, and Malaysia and was able to travel extensively, experiencing a whole new world of exotic textiles and colors.  Today, she is able to continue the creative process of designing and crafting exotic wearable art ensembles that catch the eye and retain the integrity of the original fabric and tradition.
 
Angela Ehrenfried
Since 1985, Ms. Ehrenfried has taken her childhood fascination with color, light, and texture and transformed that into designing and producing beautiful pieces.  This has led her in a new direction of re-conceptualizing wardrobes.
 
Kathy Furukawa
Ms. Furukawa has been exposed to a variety of fiber arts, including weaving, papermaking, and surface design.  Her travels to Iran, Russia, Japan, and Germany have expanded her interests in multi-cultural expressions of fiber art.  Her use of interesting materials adds innovation and whimsy to her unique items of wearable art.
 
Martha K. Grant
Making art through the medium of textiles synthesizes Martha’s many loves from her career in the visual arts.  It has allowed her to indulge her passion for color, calligraphy, spiritual symbols, text patterns, painting, collage, and sewing.  Her work has become a kind of prayer and has led to an eclectic search and an ever-deepening spiritual journey.
 
Karen Heddens
Ms. Heddens has worked as a couture clothing designer for over 25 years, designing exclusively for private clients, small boutiques, and galleries.  She concentrates on creating simple, elegant garments made of fine fabrics that feel wonderful on the body and enhance the beauty of the wearer.  Her designs are worn around the world by her loyal clientele.
 
Renita Kuhn
Renita’s career as a fiber artist and designer began in Sausalito in 1982. She offers professional design and limited productions of art to wear and art accessories.  She has been highly influenced by both Asian and African design concepts.
 
Jennifer J. Martin
Jennifer “J.J” Martin is a writer, fiber artist and photographer.  Her enjoyment of interior design drew her to explore the world of fiber art and “complex cloth.”  “Complex cloth” is how a design of depth and complexity is creating by layering surface design processes like dying, painting, bleaching and foiling over one another until a pleasant result is achieved.
 
Susie Monday
In addition to serving as President of the Fiber Arts of San Antonio, Susie Monday is an artist who works in fiber, creating colorful art quilts and original fabrics for use in interiors, garments and display.  She teaches at her own El Cielo Studio as well as conferences and venues across the United States.
 
Sherry Tolar
Retirement from the world of making whimsical ceramic jewelry for wholesale markets and catalogs didn’t last long.  Sherry is back!  Her bright, colorful, handmade ceramic beads accented with fiber, glass and semi-precious stones are all one of a kind.  Her “Wild Women and Friends” sculptures are also one of a kind - in addition to being especially fun and interesting!  They are made with terra cotta clay, embellished with colorful, hand-dyed and ethnic textiles.
 

Lush Celebration

 

Celebration Circle is my spiritual home -- not a church, but church like, we are a group of seekers and path-finders who come from a diverse group of religious and spiritual backgrounds. This little piece is for the group's annual altar silent auction at the Bijou Theater at Crossroads shopping center in San Antonio. It's on a frame provided by Celebration that is the shared format for all the artists who participate. We donate our work, with the option of keeping a portion of the bid price received by Celebration Circle. I consider this gift part of my tithe to the community. Since moving to the country, we don't make the hour trek into the city often on Sunday mornings, but in my heart I know that all my friends there would be at my side if I needed them and I honor my connection to the group and to all my friends who are part of it.

This piece uses a little sample drawing/painting I made in one of the classes I taught last year -- it is mixed media, including craft dimensional paints, Shiva oil sticks, oil pastel, stitching and machine quilting. The outside strips are pieced from a scarf that didn't quite work out -- beautiful silk charmeuse with textile paint screen printed with my pomegranates. The title is "Lush," and it is an altar/offering and celebration of  the lush abundance of the universe, as juicy as a ripe pear, as full of jewels as a ripe pomegranate. Gratitude sounds like such a mushy topic, but I find it the key to equilibrium and preserverence. (Dispite my last whining post.)

 The auction and reception will run Tuesday, Oct. 4  through the month, and you can bid during any of those days. The closing reception, plus a special screening of a film will be Sunday, N0vember 4. You can see examples of last year's altars on the CC website and when the show opens, this year's altars will be featured. (I'll be sending a reminder  and details of the event out on this blog, but couldn't resist showing "Lush" in this little preview, since I worked on it yesterday after the FASA meeting.)

Intermission

Multitasking is too kind a word, and, to be truthful, inaccurate. I have been skipping/skidding/surfing/sliding and surviving different world-ways-and-means since my last entry:

Nose-to-the-sewing-machine production to meet exhibit deadlines (Anyone in the Kerrville vicinity in April is invited to see my work at the 1550 Gallery). (Note- the quilt "altar" in the photo below is one of the Borderlands series that will be featured at the gallery.)

Visiting the familial home  in Waco (including a tornado watch with my 80-plus year old parents, my sister, Linda, my niece home from Zambia Peace Corp service, the neighbor boy with two really pissed off cats and me hanging out for a couple of hours in the interior hallway stuffed with pillows and a mattress)

Texas springtime gardening involving the neighbor's Bobcat and very large rocks

 

Mingling at the Southwest School of Art and Craft All-School exhibit opening, a command attendee gratefully accepting an award as " teacher of the year" 

So, Part 2  of success saga story will just have to wait until I get my breath. Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from the former contexts-in-conjunction. 

Sirena: Falling or Flying

Art Quilt, 84" by 60" 

 

P.S. No tornado materialized, though conditions looked really favorable and the sirens were a-wailing 

Art in Elgin

 

Here's a short heads-up. My art quilts arrived safely in Elgin for the TX Originals exhibit. If you are anywhere near Elgin (A bit outside of Austin, TX) on Saturday, March 24, I hope you will stop in to see the show. Texas Original artists will display ceramics, fiber art, jewelry, wood, sculpture, furniture, treenware, quilts and metal art.

The exhibit will be celebrated with live music, food and beverages at a reception at Kingfisher Fine Art and Music, 116 Depot Street, Elgin, Texas.  E Flat Porch Band will play until 6.pm. but the other festivities will be from 4 to 8.  The exhibit remains on display until Saturday, April 14.

For more information about the Texas Originals program, the artists and the event, click the link on the right hand sidebar.

FASA Annual Exhibit

Ego whining aside. The Fiber Artists of San Antonio Annual Exhibition is a strong show. Upon seeing the exhibit hung, I was pleased to be associated (as president this year) with the organization and its ambitions. Here are pictures of just a few of the 16 entries (of 79 submissions) that are in the exhibit. The show will be at the Southwest School of Art and Craft through December, and the installation showcases each piece wonderfully. The tendency in many of our fiber arts exhibits in the past has been to include too many pieces -- this show, thanks to the restraint and standards of juror Amie Adelman, gives each work space and air to breathe, so important in a group show without a common theme or medium.

I am uploading the photos now, without their proper titles, but I will return to this post later today with all the details -- for now, here are the names of the artists and what I know about the works.

 

Top to bottom

"Equine Curiousity," Amy Jones, mixed media sculptue, Warrior Artist Award

 

"Oh My Sole,"  Rachel Ridder Edwards, one of a series of embellished shoes, Best of Show

"Life Cycles," Laura Beehler, layered silk organza with leaves and seeds, Second Place

"I'll Fly Away," Caryl Gaubatz, jacket from silk earth dyed and rusted, stitched embellishments

"Protection Against Aging: Body as Passport," Mary Ann Johnson, tunic created from facial wipes and other recycled materials -- a piece inspired by thinking about our future world, iris identification

 

 

 

 

   

Juried

Spent Tuesday as a silent observer during the jurying of the San Antonio Fiber Artist’s annual exhibit – the third time I’ve been an observer for such a process. Do this a few times and it takes away all the questions one has about how personal is this process and how the acceptance or rejection of one’s work is subject to individual impulse and opinion – even with skilled professional jurors who bring all their experience and expertise to bear on the process.  And how the pool and variety of other work to be hung influences the choices. And how different people weigh different elements. (More than one work that had won an award in another exhibit, or was included in another, equally professionally juried show, didn’t get in this one.)

Still.
My work didn’t make the cut and that stings the ego.
The remedy for me was to make something simple, something not too challenging today. To get back on the horse as it were, but not the untamed bronc.

Also, I have to acknowledge that at least one of the pieces I submitted didn’t really work in one way or another – even if it wasn’t, for me, the way the juror said it didn’t work. (We were anonymous observers; the juror not familiar with our work, so we heard the comments, as well as got the reviewing sheets with written remarks.) Sometimes I get so far down the track on a piece that it just has to be done the way it gets done – and that was the case in the largest and most ambitious of the work that I entered.

Textures Reunion

For two of its 12 years of operation, I was a partner in Textures Gallery, a space that featured Texas, mostly local, artists and artisans who made fiber art, art for interiors and wearable art. Saturday, we celebrated the opening of a reunion exhibit at the gallery that now operates in our former space on McCullough in "downtown Olmos park." This is now the northside location of the gallery downtown in Market Square --

Galeria Ortiz

The former Textures partners (the gallery closed its doors last January 1) and some of those who were contributors were invited to exhibit art and fine craft for a holiday show this year. The exhibit, co-curated by Textures partner Jane Bishop, and gallery manager Diana Roberts (formerly of ReBarn, another now-closed art space and gallery) is open through the January 13, and yesterday's reception for the artists and our friends and collectors gave me a chance to see many friends. With all kinds of art and a variety of gift items -- much in the sense of Textures Gallery -- the show has the feel of a sweet return. Seeing old friends whose city paths are now so different from mine made the time fly. If you see any gifts you'd like to give, contact the gallery for more information.

In order below: Linda Rael's tassles and angel dolls, Caryl Gaubatz' pojagi vest, Jane Bishop's upholstery, Laura Pitts' exquisite pin cushions, another garment by master Caryl Gaubatz, one of Martha Grant's pieces in her "Silence" series, and one of my pomegranate table cloths.

 

 

 

 

 

Kerrville

The day has ended as one of those brilliantly blue-skied almost October afternoons, surprising and glorious after a humid morning that couldn't decide its season. Just after noon a small group of us took off from El Cielo following the scenic route to Kerrville (Hwy. 16 to Hwy 173 north) for the opening of the Texas Invitational Art Quilt exhibit.

The show was hung in a renovated and repurposed post office, with high ceilings, good lighting and warm hospitality.

 Mary Ann Littlejohn, Houston, and Martha Grant, Boerne, were two of the other artists whose work marched around the room.

 Martha's piece, the puzzle-shaped one is titled "No border, no picture on the lid of the box, no box..."

Mary Ann's square of pieced original fabrics is "Neon Etude." 

 
Martha and Mary Ann both visited the studio  before we drove to Kerrville.

Here's what we ate before the opening -- a fritatta made with eggs from a local farmstead.  First preheat the broiler. Mix the following well:
10 beaten eggs
8 pieces of finely chopped sundried tomatoes
6 oz.feta, crumbled
2 T. chopped red onion
1/3 cup sliced fresh basil
salt and pepper
Melt 1/2 stick butter in a large oven proof skillet, preferably non-stick
Add the egg mixture and cook over medium hot heat, pulling away the sides to let the liquidy eggs on top flow under. When almost completely set, add about 2-3 more T of cheese, any kind, put under a hot broiler to toast and puff the top.
Slide out onto a warm platter, cover until serving and serve either warm or room temp.

And here's one of my two pieces in the exhibit. (I've been posting teasers, you notice!). If you'd like to know more about the processes that turn a stack of fabric into one of my art quilts, see this blog journal for Sept. 9.

"Our Lady of San Pedro." 2006 

Tonantzin

.

"Tonantzin" is in.

 The juried exhibit SIDE BY SIDE will feature work of Texas fiber artists and open in Clear Lake, near Houston and Galveston, on September 26, with the show running through October 22. The exhibit is in conjunction with the Houston Fiber Artists Association annual show (thus the "Side by Side," ) and will be at The Arts Alliance Center at Clear Lake. One of my wall altars, "Abba Samuel, Orange" was also accepted. It's nice to get acceptance calls, isn't it? (Three of Laura Beehler's large art cloth pieces, from the same series as "Lambent Thoughts" will also be in the show.)

The juror, Amanda Clifford, is the exhibitions coordinator at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Prior to this, she was the Exhibitions Coordinator at the Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA and assistant Curator for the Everson Mustum of Art, Syracuse, NY. 

"Tonanztin"  is a 36" by 55" art quilt that stirs together symbols of Our Lady of Guadalupe and of the Aztec Corn goddess, the iconic stance of Our Lady, the corn and villages of  Tonantzin, the moon of both. The lady of compassion and the goddess of sustenance are surely soul sisters, if not one and the same.

Other titles that seem to be related to this goddess are:"The Goddess of Sustenance", "Honored Grandmother", "Snake": Aztec Goddess of the Earth. She brought the corn, Mother of the Corn and she was worshipped during the moveable feast called Xochilhuitl. An idol attributed to this deity is described as being made of wood and in the image of a young woman of about twelve yeas old, wearing red. A tiara of red paper was on her head and her neck was adorned with a necklace of corn and tied with a blue ribbon. Her hands held ears of corn and her arms were open.