Pay It Forward

 

Finally! I tracked down a PIF post to someone who had not yet received their first three comments (I hope, the artist hasn't moderated any coments, yet, so I may be out of luck again). This web meme is of unknown origin, but obviously was inspired by the movie of the same name.

 I jumped from Lisa Call's blog to Flying Colours, a blog by Ontario fiber artist  Juanita Sim -- and happily discoved a thought-provoking and interesting writer who includes some great links and posts in her entries (and those socks are killer).

Here's what Juanita says about her blog:

A major project for me at the moment is developing a creative habit for contemporary quilt-making as well as for related activities such as fabric dyeing and surface design. I'm a full-time mom to two active children and making time for creative work turns out to be a small challenge. This blog documents the journey.

In return I  will continue the Pay it Forward tradition as follows:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

When you leave your comment, please also do one of two things: leave your post address or e-mail it to me.

I will send small textile hand-made-by-me gifts to the first 3 people that leave a comment requesting to receive the gift and are willing to continue the Pay it Forward tradition on their blog.

Catch Up

Say no more. See pictures. End of year acceleration is in effect. All these are gratitudes of the past week.

Drumming at Guadalupe State Park -- Do you wonder why we love this time of year?

 

Ray was one of the other drummers by the river. 

 

A magical fiber art exhibit at the Southwest School of Art and Craft: This piece by Piper Shepard

November 15th 2007 - January 13th 2008

Over, Under, Around, and Through

Linda Hutchins (Oregon), Tracy Krumm (North Carolina) and Piper Shepard (Maryland)

A piece of art cloth, finished up during the final Independent Study afternoon lab at the Southwest School. This is a soy wax batik, that also includes some printing with a soy wax screen.

Below, Tina faces the blank page at the Art Quilt Journey workshop at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center last Friday. 

 

 

 Highway 16 between Bandera and Kerrville.  And you think Texas doesn't have fall color?

I'm sure something pithy and thoughtful will come soon to this cyberspace. But pictures seemed to say it all on a crisp day with a design table urging me on. Here's one of two small art quilt altars I completed today -- the other one is under wraps until it's owner sees it tomorrow. Then I'll post it, if she agrees. This is Christmas Virgin, 2007. 16" by 12" by 3.5". Just in time for Guadalupe's day, December 12.

 

43 Folders

 

Buttons by Moxie, image used with permission! 

 

Whither thou, organization? sheesh. I have spent way too much time looking for lost bits of paper this week. And the bad news is, I KNOW what I have to do, in the studio and out of the studio, to keep that kind of personal crazymaking at a minimum. I spent a good part of today putting little bits in file folders, filing receipts, paying bills and, in general, doing all the little nitty gritty tasks of good business organization. Being a working artist means that I have to do these things, because I haven't figured out how to make enough money working as an artist to afford to pay someone else to do them. Maybe that wouldn't work anyway. When you work for someone else, a lot happens with the "support staff." God bless them. My support staff is me, Sunday afternoons at least twice a month -- like today.

One of the best tools is 43 folders, not Merlin Mann's blog, though I like that, too, and that blog name comes from the tool. 43 folders is part of Getting Things Done, an organizational tome and system by David Allen that has a cult-like following on the web and in real life too, apparently. The most useful part of it for me, (yes, I try to follow the other precepts, too, like "next actions")  is the use of a form of tickler files --the 43 folders. (Here's a series of Mann's interviews with Allen, if you want to listen.)

In a desktop open file box I have these 43 file folders, neatly labeled: Numbers 1 though 31, Months January through December. Whenever something crosses my email or my desk or my mail box or my errand list or my attention that belongs to a date, I file it in the folder with the date due or  in the date when I need to do the task. For example, I have a monthly writing deadline that involves collecting information, then compiling it on the first (usually) Tuesday of the month. When I take the notes and do the research, I file them into the next month's folder (ie December). Come December 1, I put the notes into the due-date folder.  Or, I get a doctor's orders for tests -- I put them in the dated folder or the month folder. Or, I have a show entry form deadline. I print them out from the email notice, put them in the correct month's folder, and when the first of the month comes, I put the information into the folder of the day when I will complete the application and do the work.

Here's the Wikipedia entry:

"One device that Allen suggests is the tickler file for organizing your paperwork (also known as the '43 folders'). Twelve folders are used to represent each month and an additional 31 folders are used to represent each day. The folders are arranged to help remind you of activities to be done that day. Each day you open to the numbered folder representing today's date. You take all the items out of the folder and put the empty folder into the next month. This sort of management allows you to file hardcopy reminders to yourself. For instance, if you had a concert on the 12th of the month, you would store the tickets in the 12th folder, and when the 12th came around, they would be there waiting for you."

This system really helps me keep track of all the odds and ends, the things that need to come in and out of the house and into the car, the materials that need to go with me to workshops and meetings. Now, I just have to get religious about using it again.  When I get behind, it's because I get scattered, try to keep things only on the computer (I am not very good at the paperless world!) or stuff papers into piles instead of keeping up with them at least once a week.

PS. I just signed up for another (yet another) free organizational tool-- Sandy, my own personal assistant. She is pretty cool. I even set a daily reminder for her to tell me to check my 43 folders!
.

StumbleUpon -- Scribble Upon

 

While everyone else in the known world appeared to be on the streets shopping today, I poked around randomly -- and stumbled upon StumbleUpon, because someone apparently linked my blog on the site. I have not quite figured out how to link up on my site (that html code stuff makes me crazy) but I did register, downloaded the firefox toolbar widget and played around today. Here are a few of the inspirational (or at least entertaining) sites I was stumbled onto.

Wildcard --makes beautiful lines and mysterious music as you move your cursor

Penweb -- A quite strangely haunting digital animation

Art and Personality Test -- Take this test and see how your art preferences and your personality relate 

And finally, the best of the bunch. I can see generating incredibly interesting drawings to use as thermofax screens or silk screens with these drawings. I can't wait to get home and see how well I can get them to print. (Pam, you are going to like this one!) Click on the Scribbler settings to have even more fun with color, line width and other variables.

Scribbler -- a fabulous generative illustration tool. I wanted to make screen grabs and print some of these experiements. 

Scribbler is one of a number of intriguing interactive toys by zefrank.

Workshops in 2008

 

I've finalized my El Cielo schedule through August -- now all I need is to get the word out. These workshop-retreats are filling faster and faster, and that's good news for the studio and my larder, but I love doing them and hate to cancel, and hope that having the schedule published a bit earlier will let more people participate. So, all you loyal readers, help me spread the word by passing along a link to my schedule -- I'll post this all on the WORKSHOP PAGE within the next couple of days. I can accommodate out-of-town (meaning outside of San Antonio) participants on Friday nights even for the workshops that aren't two-nighters, that's one of the benefits of flying or driving in. Let me know if you have any questions, either on the comments here or in an email to susiemonday@sbcglobal.net. Here's the body copy, the borchure looks better, but I haven't had much luck attaching it here as a pdf. More learning to do!

Susie Monday leads workshops and artists’ retreats throughout the year at her studio near Pipe Creek, Texas, about an hour from downtown San Antonio. Designed to nurture the creativity of beginning artists as well as professionals, each participant comes away from a weekend with renewed energy, new  materials and techniques in surface design applicable to fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media work. 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, mu- sic 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 each  2-day event with $10 discount for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations are available from $15 -  $30 a night . Some workshops offer a Friday night potluck option. Limited enrollment - 7-8 participants.

 ARTIST’S JOURNEY/ARTIST’S JOURNAL

January 11-12-13, 2008
Friday evening, Saturday & SundayThe new year is time to reflect, to reevaluate, to set new actions and new rituals into motion, to make new habits. This retreat will enrich your creative path through the year’s start, and, with some persistence, into the next. Designed for the fiber artist, book artist and anyone interested in journaling as a tool for creative growth, reflection and inspiration. Whether or not you consider yourself an “Artist,”  these projects in mixed media collage, a personal card deck, and an altered book will intrigue. On the optional Friday evening, mixed media artist Suzanne Cooke will guide us through the process of making a Coptic bound handmade paper journal, just the tool to take you through the first month of notes and sketches. This binding was invented in early Christian Egypt and its particular advantage is that the book lies flat when opened,; perfect  for writing or decorating as a journal.

THE HEART OF ART

February 9-10, 2008
Saturday & Sunday
Romance your creative self with a focus on heart energy. Try your hand at mixed-media valentines to yourself, chocolate as edible art, and heart chakra mediations and movement to inspire an art cloth scapular  as heart armor/amor.

CALLING ALL ARCHETYPES

March 7-9, 2008
Friday evening to Sunday
Explore the inner team that keeps you going, makes a difference and sometimes holds you back from your best life. Create a unique fiber art quilt altar to one of the archetypes. learning fusing techniques. Suitable for all levels, great for those  beginning an art journey. Note: Friday night is an optional evening potluck and stayover for a small additional fee of $10.

SOMETHING SPECIAL: Workshop in Tuscany

March 16-22 in Lucca, Italy.
Susie and Carol Ikard (director of the Texas Fiber Arts Museum and writer/researcher) will lead a week of fiber art and creativity in the mountains of Tuscany. Explore the colors, textures, natural history and traditions -- including a cooking class, visits to Florence and more. Email susie at susiemonday@sbcglobal.net for brochure, price and info. OR you can go directly to the registration site at  http://www.abbondanzatoscana.com  

WORDS ON THE SURFACE

May 9-11, 2008
Friday evening to Sunday
Experiment with 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 your ideas and your personal vision into your work, you will deepen your own expression of your individual voice, finding words that are important to you. Using your story in a quite literal way can be part of personal expression and powerful art. This is a repeat of one of Susie’s popular workshop with some a few new exercises.

ALSO IN 2008:

WORDS FOR THE WHOLE  CLOTH

April 11-12, 2008
Friday evening  & Saturday
(no overnight stay)
Bring to the Friday evening workshop at Gemini Ink four or five photos of people, places, and experiences that are important to your life: images from childhood, a memorable vacation, vintage photos of ancestors, your quinceañera or bat mitzvah, anything that moves you. Led by Susie Monday, you’ll translate the photos into powerful moodscapes, capturing even intangibles that don’t show up in the pictures. Next morning, pack a sack lunch and join Monday at her El Cielo Studio near Bandera. There you’ll combine your photos and your writing with textile dyes, paints, photo transfers and other surface design techniques to create your own unique fiber art piece ready for hanging. Fee to Gemini Ink: $65/member; $75/non-member. NOTE: Saturday, April 12 fiber art workshop at El Cielo Studio is a separate fee payable to Susie, 10 am – 4 pm, is $70 & $15 supply kit.

SUMMER DATES:

CREATIVE JUMPSTART

June 21-22

FOOL MOON/FULL MOON

July 18-20

BURNING WOMAN WORKSHOP

August 9-10

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT SUSIE’S CLASSES & WORKSHOPS:

“There was a good balance between thinking, processing and working ... you are good at letting people work at their own pace.”  
“Excellent accommodations; exquisite food!”
“I like the spirituality aspect--it drew the group together as a family for two days.”
“Great class, 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.”
“Your workshops are 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!”

Susie Monday can teach at your studio, guild or art center. Any workshop listed here can be adapted to your audience. Other topics available as well. She also accepts commissions and can plan private retreats at her studio for you and your friends. For more information, call 210.643.2128 or email susiemonday@sbcglobal.net

Clean Slate.Clean Space

 

I needed to clean the studio and set it up for the next Burning Woman workshop -- this weekend -- and since I have a record 9 participants this time I wanted to maximize the visual and actual space. How restful it is to take away a few layers of clutter, archeology in reverse, with the sediments gradually becoming more sparse, more bony, more available.

 Did the same in the living room. Although we are committed to keeping some degree of simplicity in our living spaces -- after a former life in what often seemed like a 35-year collection of all-too-precious clutter, we moved here, a bigger house after all, with less to fill it. But it is amazing to see what sneaks in: little glass turtles, an embroidered hankie too pretty to put away We imbue all kinds of meaning to objects; there's bound to be ancient history to this. Surely some prehistoric cave woman looked at the corner and said, " I think I need a few more old bones over there. Just in case. After all, if we get hungry, even a bone will look pretty damn good."

I am the kind of person who needs constant checks on my compulsive desire to keep stuff. After all every old dress could be part of a quilt; every piece of junk mail might be the right piece for a collage; every strange box could be just what the next workshop calls for. What helps? Coming to terms with a belief in abundance. That  is: what is needed will turn up when it's needed. That space for what's needed is the space that there is. That there might never be a big enough set of shelves, bin of drawers, stack of boxes, so I better make peace with the ones I have. Am I perfect at this attitude? No way. But I have found that these nearly-every-month events keep me on the straight and narrow.

If I want to make a living doing what I love, I gotta have room to fit the people into the space as well. So what I do is keep the flow going. I try to furnish as many materials as I can for the workshops I teach, believing this keeps me in the exchange of energy. When I let stuff go, I tend to find that when it's time, the stuff appears -- someone has a fire sale of dye or paint (as happened this week -- I bought at least $500 of materials for less than half that, enough for all my dye needs for ages); someone gives me something -- like the Bernina that Donna essentially gifted me for the cost of its recent tune-up; like the wood scraps my neighbor has waiting.

This sense of abundance has been nurtured by a wonderful book The Soul of Money, by philanthropist Lynn Twist. Here's her website and some info from her letter on the site's intro page:

In a world where huge proportions of financial resources are moving toward consumption, destruction, depletion, and violence, the Soul of Money Institute's mission is to inspire, educate and empower people to realign the acquisition and allocation of their financial resources with their most deeply held values -- to move from an economy based on fear, consumption, and scarcity, to an economy of love, sustainability, and generosity.

As the national debt of the United States grows and citizens experience greater financial challenges, there is a clear need for more and more people to invest in socially responsible businesses and critical social issues, and to find ways of using money in service of their highest commitments and the common good.

We invite you to be one of these people. We encourage you to take a deep look at how money influences your life, and to shift your use of money away from fear and greed to begin using it as a conduit for commitment, heart, and the affirmation of life. Through reallocating the use of your financial resources, you can connect with the taproot of your own prosperity.

The Soul of Money is a wise and inspiring exploration of the connection between money and leading a fulfilling life.

"This compelling and fundamentally liberating book shows us that examining our attitudes toward money-- how we earn it, spend it, invest it, and give it away--can offer surprising insight into our lives, our values and the essence of prosperity. Through moving stories and practical principles, Lynne demonstrates how we can replace feelings of scarcity and guilt with experiences of sufficiency and freedom. Lynne shares from her own life and work, a journey illuminated by remarkable encounters with the richest and poorest people on earth, from the famous (Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama) to the anonymous but unforgettable heroes of everyday life." (from the website -- and I agree!)

 

INDIE Arts

Take a look at the promotional materials for INDIE Arts October 1 release. That's the next issue of this year old dvd-format arts magazine, and one that I think needs to find a space on every artist's video shelf -- and not just 'cause I'm a featured interviewee in this next issue. (One of two artists being interviewed about creativity, and the other is Nick Bantock, author and mixed media artist of Griffin and Sabine fame. ie hot company, my dears.)

No, really, this dvd series does the trick when I need a dose of real artists doing real work and facing the same studio gremlins that get my goat, surf my moat, steal my thunder, run me amok, undo my confidence and make me wonder why I don't have a nice corporate job with benefits and retirement. You get the picture.

I like to watch INDIE Arts as I do routine studio roundup -- it's yet another helpful strategy for getting me into the studio and onto work (and actually beats out reruns of Project Runway on the useful media scale). IN addition to the features with artists, the video magazine also includes good sources from art support folks -- coaches, (like this issue's Jennifer Louden), gallery owners, suppliers, etc. Many of the artists featured during this past year have been fiber and mixed media artists, too. In this publication "we" aren't a second tier group.

Here's what the publisher says about INDIE Arts:

 

In the spirit of the independent film genre, Indie Arts Productions creates a visual adventure in every issue and you are invited to join us.

This “magazine” is a cross between TV shows, home movies, slide shows, documentaries and DVD movies. The DVD advantage is that you can sit back, relax and watch it on your TV or DVD drive on your computer.

IndieArtsDVD.com will add another dimension by providing the information you need to preview current and upcoming issues, submit artwork, subscribe, read interesting related articles and connect with the featured artists and other networking possibilities. The website will be an evolving forum and you are invited to make yourself at home here.

INDIE ARTS: the adventure begins!

Odds and Ends, Real and Ethereal

As an artist living on a tiny road on the top of a hill  I need to get out one way or another, or my mind and my work becomes a tiny bit insular. At the desktop, the answer and the devilish details sit keyboard-close. Technology, for those of us over 50, provides an almost impossible challenge. I still am not exactly sure how one text-messages (or if I even want to do so.) Information is overwhelming; ideas are rampant; inspiration threatens to overwhelm. As artists we struggle to balance content and technique (especially , I suspect, in the rich anything-goes atmosphere and ever-more-innovative marketeers of fiber art/craft materials and supplies). As a human I thrive on input and finding and sorting all this new stuff, both real and ethereal.

This is all to say:

Beyond the sewing table, the rust bucket and the blogs I read everyday, some intriguing sites have found their way to my inbox recently. Some mindbending  -- OK, FM (f***ing Magic, as one of my friends terms them) sites, sounds and spaces to explore.

UNIVERSE by Jonathan Harris at http://universe.daylife.com/

This site is a newsreader with a different spin. Choose any topic and see what is happening in thousands of global news media (the "content site" www.daylife.com is amazing as well) that are circling that topic. He writes in the "Statement" section of the site:

"If we were to make new constellations today, what would they be? If we were to paint new pictures in the sky, what would they depict? These questions form the inspiration for Universe, which explores the notions of modern mythology and contemporary constellations. It is easy to think that the world today is devoid of mythology. We obsess over celebrities, music, movies, fashion and trends, changing madly from one moment to the next, causing our heroes and idols to come and go so quickly that no consistent mythology can take root. Especially for those who don't practice religion, it can seem there is nothing bigger in which to believe, that there is no shared experience that unites the human world, no common stories to guide us. Because of this, we are said to feel a great emptiness.

Harris's visual sense and metaphor of mythologies and constellations is pretty cool. To find out more about him and the site, go to one of my other favorites sources of thought provoking information, entertainment and design -- the TED talks.

TED Ideas Worth Spreading - http://www.ted.com/index.php/

These are free downloads of talks given at the annual California tech-world awards that honor, give a platform to and expand the synergy of some of the world's most amazing thinkers. Event invites are highly sought and the price is astounding, but they've made available many of the best talks, performances and ideas through this site -- all for free. You can search by speaker, title or theme. Some of the ones I reccommend:

Hans Rosling -- health statistics in a whole new light

David Bolinski -- on truth and beauty in the cell

These are just a couple of the hundreds available. You can join TED and save favorites, create a profile, etc. if you wish, but the site can be used without a membership as well.

On a more practical level, here's some tips for desktop management, parallel tracks to my somewhat-in-action GTD (Getting Things Done) organizational theory becoming reality:

5 Steps to a Kinkless Desktop  -- http://kinkless.com/article/kinkless_desktop 

When I'm not in the Studio

 

 

 

True confession. I have excuses for my woeful absence from art-making since my return home. Economic for one. Funny how a trip empties the coffers. As a advocate of "when the doorbell rings and the bank account is empty, better answer" school of employment, I've been wearing my consultant hat and my art eduator workboots. I have managed to craft a life that is creatively challenging, it just happens in different directions sometimes.

This spring and summer I've been working on a library outreach family program in association with a major showing of the works of Fernando Botero. -- the first U.S. venue for his exhibit that traveled Europe the last few years. The exhibits are spectacular, and ring with resonance in this majority Latino city. Botero, whose work I had dismissed as facile from my scant exposure to his ubiquitous bathing women posters, has become an artist of interest to me. His work has this dark, ominous quality that both defies and defines his baroque volumetric vision of the world. Also, Botero has taken on some heavy topics in his work -- most recently Abu Ghraib and torture.  (These drawings aren't part of the show, but a lecture about them was part of the programming.) Many of his archetypal portraits are subtle but telling examinations of power and its effect on a nation; others present quite chilling images of violence and distruction. And his studio practice and productivity  is inspiring. (OK, no matter what else is going on, I am trying to do some work at least eight of the week's overstuffed hours.)

If you are anywhere close to San Antonio between now and mid August, I strongly recommend a visit to the exhbits at the Southwest School of Art and Craft and San Antonio Museum of Art. See www.boterosa.org for more information.

As part of the citywide celebration of the exhibits and Botero, we've been producing family day workshops at each of the city's 20 branch libraries, three per Saturday, and usually one of those is mine. My colleague and longtime partner-in-work Zet Baer (also a fiber artist) and I planned the program, recruited staff and volunteers and are also lead teachers some of the weekends. 

 

We've had great activities for kids and parents. One of my favorites: Kids see prints of Botero's portraits; make a Boteroesque hat to wear, have their face painted to look like one of his portraits. We have a sheet of mylar that reflects their image as if in a Botero painting (like a fun house mirror) and then they paint a self-portrait. Or even another painting of their own in Botero's signature style. This is a wonderful exercise in looking closely, learning through copying and paying attention to style as signature.

 

Fine Cuisine for the Right-Brained

This had better be quick. In case I hadn't realized it yet, our departure to Italy is one week from tonight. You may be the organized focused sort who has it all together before a three-week journey but, I, on the other hand, do not.

OK, my suitcase is packed. (That, I know, is crazy. But Rick Steve, my new travel guru (along with Anthony Bourdain) says pack it all and carry it around for a day to see if you REALLY want to haul all that stuff. All of the less pleasantly anticipatory tasks are not (complete). And to compound the craziness, we launch the Botero Family Days for the public library system this week, and I am fine-tuning the art projects, buying supplies and organizing for that afternoon event at Landa Library. (For those of you in San Antonio, stop by from 1:00-4:00 for Colombian music and culture, collage, painting and sculpting inspired by Fernando Botero's work.)

So what did I do yesterday? Took a five hour drive through the countryside to Marble Falls. It was business-related. One hundred pounds of foundry clay awaited me at Dan Pogue's sculptor's studio -- at a better price than having it shipped from Dick Blick, especially if I did the schlepping. Of course, this involved a few sidesteps: a stop for pork ribs at Ronnie's Pit Barbeque in Johnson City, avoiding a round trip route by taking a side trek though Lady Bird Johnson country and a short little step in at Wild Seed Farms, and then a two-lane highway alternative to the interstate between Fredericksburg and Boerne. All this with a few roadside photo stops. In otherwords, an errand morphed into a pre-vacation vacation, just in time for sanity.

 

 

Meanwhile, in the email inbox, June Underwood's Ragged Cloth Cafe post about right-brained acendency for the future. Finally. Seems like I've had to endure round peggedness thoughout the square holes for not jsut the Industrial Age, but the Information Age as well.

I won't repeat her post, you can follow the link, but in short, the book by Daniel Pink just moved to the top of my wisl list. In short, though, what the world needs now (and will be looking for) are those of us with right-brain skills and experience. We in the well-enough-off American and other First World abundence may actually have enough stuff. Our hunger is for experiences packed with emotion, creativity, story. Just those things we artists happen to be good at delivering.

 

So, rather than see my escape yesterday as a flaky artist's escape from the calendar countdown, I prefer to see it as a refreshing palate-cleansing course in this particular life's banquet. The green was calling, the flowers were strewn along the roadside ever so much like magic carpet, a swirling, breezy tapestry of golds, reds, orange and blue. The gallardia, Englemann's daisies and blue mealy sage were splendid and so were the pork ribs. I am sure my right hemisphere is feelling nourished and saited with spring. What's on your plate today?

 

Cool Badge, New Cards, More Toys

Oops. I just found another excuse to spend time uploading photos onto my Flickr page -- this cool little badge now heading up the "about this blog" text. You can make your own, too, just click on the link under the badge.

And I also just learned that Moo.com is now making very cool greeting/thanking/catching up/snailmail cards on its site. If you missed my moo card posts, those are tiny little smaller-than-usual calling/business/whatever cards that can each have its very own photo on the back. Upload 100 photos and you can have 100 different tiny pictures. I upload those through my Flickr account too, though now, Moo offers a direct upload feature.

 

Thinking Blog

Congratulations, you won a

!

This message was waiting for me a couple of days ago.  thelmasmith tagged me with this honor (started by designer  Ilker Yoldas who, despite the avatar of the beautiful woman in his banner, is indeed a man, "shy," he says). And, just as these games are meant to do, I've had fun this weekend chasing the links back through some wonderfully thoughtful and thought-provoking blogs. I really don't spend that much time reading blogs (ha), and rarely have time to surf around to read new ones -- that activity lives in the category of guilty pleasures, somewhat akin to reading really trashy romance novels or supermarket scandal sheets. So, greatful for a legitimate ticket-to-read, there I went surfing about the ether.

Then I realized that I needed to find five  who HADN"T been tagged so that I could pass along the honor. And all the eerie doubts that go with that. Some of the most thoughtful bloggers I read have already been tagged, (Serena Fenton's Layers of Meaning, ) some don't actually fit the definition of blog (June Underwood's collective Ragged Cloth Cafe, for example), And some that I read regularly I don't read so much for "thinking" as for "doing" and keeping up and staying in touch, and while thoughtful, they don't seem to really fit the bill of goods.  And, finally, some bloggers seem so, I don't know, "famous." Like I'd be embarrassed to tag them (Gaping Voidis just one of those I follow). Like maybe they were already tagged, surely, but declined to mention it?  Like, maybe I am in the equivalent of the crash of some multilevel marketing scheme and everyone else has already earned his or her pilot wings (do you remember that AIRPLANE thing?) This is the kind of emotional challenge that makes my inner 4th grader crazy, and perhaps I should be one of those that decline said honor. But, in truth, I am quite pleased, and besides, most of these people I read I will probably never actually have to meet in person, and if I do, I can always give a different name, right?

Now, you all know exactly how nuts I can get.

So it goes.

Here's my list for better or worse: 

Inspiration and New Work by Lisa Call

John Maeda's The Laws of Simplicity 

For purely visual thinking: In the Mood for Arte 

For yet another world view full of food: Brownie Points

And last, but not least: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratory 

Rebirth and Renewal

     

Before and After.

Easter weekend at El Ceilo came with a layer of ice -- sleet piled up on all the new spring growth, swirled around the deck, turned the cedars once more into a sparkling magical forest. Since our last freeze date around here is supposed to be March 15 or so, it was a big shock to the system. But, now that the weather has gentled again, it appears that only the basil may have suffered freeze damage. The ground must have been warm enough to protect most everything else.

This kind of ground-up protection seems to operate at a soul level, too. Some of my protective, powerful inner archetypes -- even rather bratty ones like Miss Priss, or the rather terrifying Dragon Lady Crone -- provide that kind of earth-tied protection when the icy winds blow and unexpected sleet pours onto tender growth.

      

Bobbe Nolan ironing, Donna LaMonico in process, Cher Solis and Mary Ellen Hardy finding fabrics. 

 

During the weekend's Calling All Archetypes workshop/retreat, we pondered, shared, and meditated, took work into new directions, made rebirth a theme and recovery the starting place for art quilts. Some of the archetypes who appeared were rather frightening, others made welcome appearances from earlier lives. Working from resources and exercises from Women Who Run with The Wolves, The Vein of Gold, and Sacred Contracts, each of the participants left with a project in tow -- and material for more. Although the weather was hardly the springtime exuberance that I had anticipated (no walks, no outdoor picnics), the fireplace was cosy and a couple of us even made it out to the hottub, until the sleet started raining down on our heads. The trip into Bandera for the Courthouse lawn Sunrise Service was canceled but I think we all had a sense of spirit, of celebration of Christ's rebirth, as we allowed ourselves time to reflect on our own journeys as women and artists.

Technically speaking, I showed newcomers to printing how to make a thermofax, and also demonstrated printing with water soluble crayons using gel medium, a technique that allows for wonderful spontaneity of drawing, and adds its own interesting twist as the colors dissolve and blend as one prints repeats. This little Easter image shows how the colors morph and blend, with each print changing as you work your way across the fabric.

        

Art and Quilts and Art Quilts, Part 2

 

This is my life on wheels: stuffed full of papery piñatas, careening along, headed who knows where.
What is success for an artist? Or more precisely, what does success look like for me?

If I am not willing to make some definitions, to set some, dreaded word, goals, will I get "there?"  If I don't have a clue where  there is, is it enough to "follow my bliss?"

For a few years, charting a new path in the domestic dimension of my life has determined most of the path I have been trekking: selling a home, buying a new one, moving and balancing a new kind of daily life, different than my city life of King William. The rest of the time was defined by other almost-automatic steps, once the new house and studio were in place: starting my workshop/retreats here at El Cielo, closing Textures gallery. And the rest of my time has been taken up with the things that are on automatic repeat status: the teaching stints at Southwest School where I am an established adjunct, King Ranch Art Camp for a week in the summer, being an active member (now President) of FASA.

Then, last fall, two consulting projects came along that seemed a good fit for my life (and my rapidly diminishing savings account): Dora and Diego's Garden Adventure and the Botero Family Days at the branch libraries. My friend and partner in art ed stuff Zet Baer was available and off we went. And then a crazy plan to spend three weeks in Italy!

Now, mid April, nearly, all the chickens are heading home to roost. For the next four months my calendar is chock full of activity - weekends blasted, travel bleary, wild woman on fire. So, success. And money, at least a bit, coming in. And time squeezed in here and there in the studio. Even art in a few local and regional exhibits (but note, these opportunities to show my work came to me -- I didn't apply or send out a proposal or write any letters, I just said yes).

I figure I can either continue the mode of planning/notplanning that has gotten me through these last two years, or  imagine some active, precise images of what I'd like my life to look like in five years. I'll be 59 in about three weeks, 60 seems an almost impossible age to be, but I am counting on it!

Deep breath. It's scary to write outloud about goals, don't you know. "Someone" is going to think me big-headed. "Someone" is going to think I have a lot of nerve. "Someone" is thinking you gotta be kidding. And "others" are going to wonder why I would ever tell everyone reading this blog about my plans. And "they" are going to think I am some kind of idiot.  (Did you hear the Drudge report on NPR about "the someones" in Katie Couric's interview with the Edwards?) So, despite all that from the arena, here goes, 5-year targets:

Art/Quilts -- I will make more art and sell my art. I will see my work in a couple of national exhibits a year, including some of the prestigious juried shows. I will have a solo show in a good gallery somewhere. I will see my work published in national magazines and journals. I will earn $25,000 a year selling art. (NOW that's a leap, my inner critic is yelling.)

Teaching -- I will have eight successful sold-out workshop/retreats a year here at El Cielo. I will continue teaching at Southwest School of Art and Craft, but with fewer on-going classes. I will teach at three prestigious national schools, conferences or events each year -- places like Arrowmont, Split Rock, QSDS.

So what gets in my way? Fear. Saying yes to things that don't add up. Being disorganized with time and money and paperwork.

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 

Continuous, Continual

How do you work in a series? Or do you? Why or why not? And what makes it a series?

I see some individual works of art -- in many different media -- that intrigue and interest me, make me want a continuing conversation with that artist. But then, I look further, and I can't get a hold of what is going on. I can't find the path and I want more than one stepping stone for the journey. I strongly believe that commiting to one (or a few) clear paths is an important decision toward having one's work taken seriously out there in the broader art world.

And yet I know the challenge of working and reworking a theme or image or technique with the fear that someone will say, "Hasn't she done that already?"  or even worse, being bored with it myself or doubting my loyalty to a theme or direction that is played out.

My solution recently (say the last couple of years) has been to work in several series simultaneously -- each of which has its own direction, but has some distinction, some major differing factor, from other work. So far it works for me, though I'm not sure how it works for "marketing."   Some of what I do is about the medium itself: I still want to do some art cloth for art cloth's sake -- yardage that isn't about being cut up and used for anything, fabric that exists as form enough. Right now I am continuing to make my wooden frame shaped altares, each house shaped, but I still dip back and forth on subject matter. I have one series of smaller pieces that include photographic images of the Hill Country (the Borderlands series) and I still continue to explore the image of feminine sacred icons. And now, my mermaids are really taking flight (and falls).

 But what about you? How do you work in a series?

Linking up

I'm following the advice of Alyson Stanfield's Art Biz newsletter and linking up to a number of "blog crawlers" so that this site has more visibility. Why do I care? I am an artist, and I am a self-employed business woman. I like the creative side of this work, and I even like learning more about the business side of things. The web is such an ever-evolving sphere out/in/over there. In the world without storefronts (or maybe it's a storefront on every laptop) it's fascinating to me to find the maps that make it work.

Technorati Profile

INDIE Arts

El Cielo Studio this morning was "on-location" when producer and mixed media artist Karen Landey arrived to interview me for the July issue of iNDiE Arts, the DVD magazine that features live interviews, studio visits, on-line galleries and other on-location video of artists and their work. The project, now heading toward issue number 4, is  a wonderful way to share information and to find out more about the work, techniques and approaches of other visual artists. I'll be sure to let EVERYONE know when my interview is published, but meanwhile, I encourage everyone to look into this interesting DVD product. Back issues are available, and I plan to order the two I haven't seen soon -- and to subscribe to the future issues.

Log into an intro  and some short previews of interview from iNDie Arts on YouTube here.

Or check out the iNDie Arts web site here. 

 

Good Blog/Bad Blog

I'm just 6 months old as a blogger. Nothing to boast about, in this area of technology, I've been a late adopter I think. And the technosphere keeps blasting past me (is blogging even still considered an edge?).

 

Me and my morning blogging companions, Cheech and Lucky (big blur). 

 

 However, I  have made it past the danger zone of short starts, and after the initial stage of panic that I would have nothing to write about, I find the discipline and order of keeping track of my studio ideas and activity, even in a two-or-three-in-a-lucky-week mode, has much to reccommend it. If nothing else,  this writing keeps me on the lookout for ideas outside "my field." We artists can so easily find ourself locked into the the art ghetto, even the art quilt ghetto. Time on our hands is wisely focused on our craft, our colleagues, our cliches, the next deadline. It's quite easy to forget that an enormous world is happening out there.

Keeping a blog has been a key for me to the outside bigger world of business and enterprise, fine art and fashion, technology and trend. It keeps me honest, when my little world is exploding with ego. Keeps me level headed when the next crisis pops up in the fiber arts world of San Antonio and surrounds. Keeps me stretching with ideas that challenge my own self-importance. And, as someone who once wrote for a big city paper, gives me the writer's satisfaction of self-publishing sans city desk deadlines.

I may never have a readership of 2,000 or 20,000, as do some of the blogs I follow, but every month the number of readers grows and the comments I receive feed my inner scribe. Sobeit.

 Here's what one was posted today at my newest finds --Merlin Mann's site about personal productivity, 43folders.
(He was sharing his contribution to Brian Bailey's new book, The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs. )

The most exciting and difficult time for a new blogger is the barn-raising period after the new blog is launched and the daily dash for new and interesting content begins. As perhaps thousands of ostensible bloggers discover — sometimes as early as their site’s inaugural week — this can be surprisingly hard work. It’s hard not simply for the obvious reasons — that regularly-scheduled writing (or photography or even just linking) takes time, preparation, and care. You may also have days where you just have nothing to say and are tempted to meta-whine about how you have nothing to say. You may find yourself padding pages with the results of online personality tests or the latest funny-once meme du jour. Resist this with extreme prejudice.

Remember that your blog is only incidentally a publishing system or a public website. At its heart, your blog represents the evolving expression of your most passionately held ideas. It’s a conversation you’re holding up with the world and with yourself — a place where you can watch your own thoughts take different shapes and occasionally surprise you with where they end up…
That last fact is something I learn and re-learn every single week, and it’s still the most surprising and illuminating dividend of thinking and writing in public.

Thus said, and so well, if you are thinking about writing a blog, I say, GO FOR IT. This internet thing is changing the world, and at 59 (nearly) I am determined to stay on the slopes for a while longer, even if the lifts operate on ether and the black diamond trails are reserved for 20-somethings. (OK, I never was a skier, but you get what I mean.)
 

Messy is the New Neat?

Do you think I could learn from this?

Time Magazine reporter Jeremy Caplan makes a case for letting up a bit on the neat freak thing. If only I knew how to make peace ---

"Devotees of filing often interrupt their thought flow to stuff papers in folders, while pack rats just toss papers to the side for later. Procrastination like that can actually pay off. 'Putting off undertaking almost any form of neatening or organizing will probably have some advantage," write Abrahamson and Freedman (authors of a new study), "because it's much more efficient to organize a large set of things at one shot than it is to try to organize them in pieces as they come along.' "

Neat and me go way back as opponents. An eternal seesaw operates in my psyche: I gotta have all that stuff visible, in piles, touchable, doable, incredibly touchable vs. I love order, categories, things in boxes and the perfect file folder, colorcoded and alphabetized in a manner only I would imagine. Thus, not having time, energy, plastic styrene boxes enough, the clutter creeps on in a battle against the perfectionistic inner elf.  You can imagine where that leaves me most of the time. Matter of fact, I think most of my friends, students and partners-in-crime will positively howl at the idea that I even harbor the inkling of an inner neat-freak.

I am open to any and all suggestions from you, my dear readers, about how to deal with this on-going conflict. I especially wrestle with the issue of keeping up with deadlines, paydates, due dates etc, no matter how many calendars I make. Without tangible in-my-space reminders of what needs doing (ie if I stick things in an appropriate file folder and drawer) it just seems to disappear from brain. And then if its out in clear sight, layers of work-in-progress clutter soon overtake whatever order it once held in place. The photos below illustrate my usual state of tabletops (and this after a full morning of pushing papers around). NOTE the OPEN file drawers, the heaped to overflowing plastic bins, the attempts at organization gone astray.

Somehow, I don't think this is what Jeremy has in mind: