Temple, TX – [9/8/23] – Prepare to embark on a sensory journey like no other as Temple’s Cultural Activities Center (CAC) welcomes "The Missing Alphabet," a captivating and thought-provoking exhibit by artist Susie Monday, accompanied by an array of talented guest artists. From November 11th to December 13th, 2023, visitors will have an opportunity to explore this multi-sensory exhibit that transcends traditional art boundaries and provides ways for adults and children to understand their own creativity.
"The Missing Alphabet" invites you to delve into the fascinating world of the Sensory Alphabet, where your senses and perceptions play a pivotal role in shaping what you notice and create. This innovative exhibit showcases a breathtaking collection of art cloth banners, both large and small art quilts, and carefully curated pieces from ten additional quilt artists: Deb Cashatt, Sue Sherman, Laurie Brainerd, Kit Vincent, Carolyn Skei, Sherri McCauley, Heather Pregger, Marianne Williamson, Diane Nuñez, and Susan Michael. Each work of art illustrates elements of the sensory alphabet: line, shape, color, texture, movement, rhythm, light, space, and rhythm.
Ongoing realization: much of what I can and will do these days is online: talking with friends and family, shopping, finding out stuff, seeing new things, teaching and showing my art. I do have the joy and deep blessings of living in a wonderful nature-filled spot (although 100 degree plus heat is limiting the hours I am actually out in it). We planted a fabulous garden that is bearing tomatoes like no other year. We see a few friends and neighbors from a distance and head out for in person shopping trips when necessary (with masks, with caution, with lots of washing up). I don't lack for food or resources and I'm self-employed in a one-woman studio (with my own in-house video producer). I know I am among the fortunate.
Art prepped for exhibit in Temple
The bounty!
I find that I am easily doing without many things that seemed essential BP: stopping in at my favorite thrift store for new things to wear,* getting my hair cut and occasionally my toenails painted, driving into San Antonio a few times a week to have someone else cook and clean (that's an hour each way minimum from our house).
Stretching out in the virtual world can be both adventurously satisfying and sometimes a big time sink. I'm not sure how I can click on Instagram or FB and an hour passes in the blink of a tweet.
On the plus side, I'm making more art, having more conversations with relatives and friends who are afar, settling undistracted into healthy and happy routines with Linda, Penny (the dachshund) and ZZ (the cat). Even putting new online courses into place and working on my art biz systems. All things I didn't do "before."
Some of the online scrolling has led to some not-so-guilty virtual pleasures. Here are a few of my discoveries in no particular order. I'd love to hear some of yours.
Recomendo, a weekly newsletter sourced from Tweets and full of new rabbit holes to explore. Here's a couple of ideas from this week's contributors:
Travel without moving I just spent the last ten minutes on Window Swap staring out a window in Villalago, Italy, where I could see the mountains and hear birds chirping and church bells ringing. Anyone is welcome to submit video (and audio) of their window view, and with the click of a button you can bounce around all over the world. — CD
Best virtual museum - Google hosts one of the best virtual museums in the world. They’ve scanned many thousands of the world’s masterpieces at super high resolution. So from my home I can visit their “Arts and Culture” site and by scrolling get very very close to the art — much closer than I could in a physical museum. I’ve seen many of the originals in their home museums, and I feel I was seeing them for the first time here. — KK
Virtual choirs.
Here's a collection from Camden Voices, this one"True Colors." There are more to hear and see on YouTube. When you need a little uplift.
All Human Beings Max Richter's" All Human Beings" -- link to official music video by Yulia Mahrhere. And for more on what inspired this piece from Brainpickings, another favorite subscription.
Sherri Lipman McCauley and I have an exhibit opening at the Cultural Activities Center in Temple, Texas on July 18. Abstract textile art by Sherri Lipman McCauley and me, and several collectively made quilts by the Austin Art Group will be on display in the beautiful galleries there through August 24.
While we won't have a traditional opening, Linda Cuellar has made a great short video about the exhibit and our process so even if you cant make it to Temple, you can get a little glimpse.
Presently, the galleries are open 8:30 - 3:00 Monday through Friday. Cultural Activities Center
3011 N. 3rd St.
Temple, TX 76501
254.773.9926 Phone
254.773.9929 Fax
admin@cacARTS.org
Round Rock Arts and Culture will be releasing the COVID and YOU exhibition through nightly social media posts, starting this Tuesday at 8pm. This way, viewers can spend time with each artist/performer/writer's work in a personal and focused manner. I will have a piece in the exhibit but not sure what date.
See the exhibit nightly starting July 14 at
[www.facebook.com/events/220895925666952]
Sherri and I are making two challenge pieces, one in color and one in black-and-white, that illustrate our distinct and differing approaches to abstract work for the Transformations exhibit, here's one of mine hot off the sewing machine.
My large CoVid art piece. 7 Days, 6 Weeks, has been accepted for publication in Sandra Sider’s 2021 book Quarantine Quilts: Creativity in-the-Midst-of Chaos. If the International Quilt Festival happens, it might be included in a special exhibit, but Quilts, Inc is still waiting to see how much room (and if it will happen at all). Apparently if Quilt Inc. cancels the festival, they will lose a half a million dollar deposit, so they are waiting to see what the Houston mayor and council do about the convention center standards.
On the retail side of things, I have some new work up on the RedBubble site -- abstract and Big Bend inspired pillows and other print-on-demand clothing, notebooks, cards and posters. See my shop here! You can even order masks made with my fabric designs. *Since no thrift store shopping I ordered a couple of shirts with my printed designs.
Are you interested in using your iPad to make textile or mixed media art? Ready to move beyond FB and books to really using this creative tool with all the best apps? I’ve spent hours and hundreds of dollars testing apps, writing tutorials for the best of them, updating each session of lessons and finding the best ways to teach digital design online. You can be part of the discussion and the next wave of art quilting, textile collage and digital design, starting with the basics and proceeding through printing and production.
The next basic online course ART ON THE iPAD starts July 21, 2020 with 6 extensive weekly posts on Tuesdays, plus a catch-up pause at week 4. Each weekly post includes 5 to 8 separate activity lessons, with videos, tutorials, examples, discussion posts and resources. Course tuition is $250. Registration open now. Coupon for $25 off here.
Learn to add text to fabric with a variety of fun and useful tools that take you into the world of art quilts. Lessons will start with hands-on collage and move into stamping, painting, soy wax batik, hand-lettering tools, digital apps for both tablets and desktop computers, print at home solutions and working with print on demand. You’ll learn to use type in creative ways, from readable to abstracted, from narrative storytelling on cloth to abstract uses of letterforms. Course includes text and video tutorials.
The class will start April 8 and run through May 6, with each new set of lessons (usually 4 or 5) dropping into your email box on Wednesdays. The course, as with all my online classes, will be on the web indefinitely for you to access, upload discussions and ask questions. I'm also available by phone to my students and intentionally keep my registrations limited. [Sign up here.] Get the coupon code here.(http://www.facebook.com/events/220895925666952) Use the coupon code for $25 off.
A poem from Lynn Unger
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love—
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
—Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
Lynn Ungar, “Pandemic.” You can read more of Lynn's poetry and learn about her work at http://www.lynnungar.com.
Just the photos for now. I just lost my entire post. Check back later if you want to actually know more about my studio. I am at a conference and hoping to learn more about photoshop today.
What do I love about my studio?
Space, space, space.
Space to teach (see the flyer to download on the sidebar).
My old art cabinet (the drawers) that I have hauled around for 40 years.
Collections and space to explore.
The view outside the studio!
Cleaned up and ready for a workshop, above.
Detail, Eve Leaves, 2009
In your work.
One of the principle differences I see between "beginners" and seasoned artists is the willingness to go far enough with an idea, a material, a vision, a technique. It's a fact of cognitive psychology that we humans have a interesting condition for learning. We need to have a certain degree of familiarity, safety. And we have to have something that pushes us into new territory, a little risky feeling, an edge of the unknown, a bit of discomfort -- it's called cognitive dissonance.
Sample, watercolor crayon print
This past week I took a journey into cognitive dissonance. I spent the better part of the week exploring and pushing myself in a familiar arena, using watercolor crayons with gel medium to produce multicolor images -- one of the techniques I've been using since I began working in this field. I had two reasons for the task: I am teaching a one-day workshop at the International Quilt Festival in Houston on Thursday, October 15, "Rainbow Prints with Watercolor Crayons." I wanted to be up to speed with some new media and have some fresh samples and examples to share. (There's still room for a few more participants in this workshop, you can find out how to register by going to website, www.quilts.com.)
Secondly, I am attending a meeting right after Festival of the Art Cloth Network, a small national organization of about 25 artists who spend dedicated time and energy investigating and creating art cloth, or, as Jane Dunnewold, calls it "complex cloth." Sixteen years ago I began a serious pursuit of my life as a working artist in classes with Jane (and her faculty) at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. My entry into art quilts, where I spend much of my energy now, came after I began making and learning about complex cloth, and I continue in that world with art cloth pieces, and in the surface design that I use for fabrics that become part of my quilts. But over the past few years, I have found myself less myself in my art cloth than I am in my art quilts. I have felt that though my work can be strong, it doesn't have the depth of expression or the true individuality that I think I have found in my art quilts. Much of the art cloth I make ends up being cut up to use in my art quilts, not a bad end for it, but kind of a denial of the art cloth "movement," which promotes the creation of beautiful, artful and meaningful cloth as a end process, not just something to be used for something else. So, I thought that if I took a technique and an image I love, worked with it towards art cloth, I would actually have some fabric I ws interested in to take to the conference for our show-and-tell!
If you are still with me, forgive the long introduction -- but sometimes its good to pinpoint exactly where one is in the process. So the week of work, it worked!
Not only do I have some new interesting media that proved to be easier to use (especially in the IQF setting without cleanup sinks!), some adaptations that make the technique even more interesting and varied, but I also had a breakthrough for my art cloth work. I have discovered a new direction to follow for my art cloth that seems to have a relationship to my art quilt work, in that it is more narrative and more "imagetic" than what I have been doing. You've seen the warmups in samples as you've read this diatribe and here are the first two lengths of art cloth (I confess, I might want to try making a whole cloth quilt with one or the other someday -- also something I've never tried). These are, I warn, Works In Progress. Neither is completely successful as a final art object, but I learned an enormous ammount simply pushing myself into a new realm of work. One question that arises: when does a piece of art cloth become a painting on cloth. Or does that matter? What do you think?
"Eve Leaves," Art Cloth, 2009, mixed media, watercolor crayons, screen-printed
"Hummingbird and Century Plant" 2009, Art Cloth, mixed media , watercolor crayons, screenprinting
I've also completed a handout about the technique of using watercolor crayons and polymer medium that I'll use at the Festival. It goes through the basic process and tools for this technique and you are welcome to download it here. (Link is yet to be figured out. coming soon!) Email me for an attachment pdf to be mailed to you.
Sometime around midnight, somewhere in the Baltic SeaPerhaps the most stunning and interesting photographs from my recent travels in Scandinavia were those with strong LIGHT content -- not only because photography is all about light, but because the quality of those 20 plus hour days of daylight were so potently active as to our psychic relationship to the space and time. Daytime has a much more expansive meaning when the sun "goes down" at about 11:30 pm and rises at 3 am, and truely, it never is really dark. The white nights of Russia, Finland, Sweden certainly color the activity and spirit of the places. Even though we were ship-bound in the evenings and nights due to our sailing schedule, it was easy to see that the lives of all the ports went on way into the wee hours. There were truely more hours in the day to do things and in general, people seemed intent upon enjoyment of all the pleasures of daylight. Guess it shapes your summer when you know 18 hours plus of dark is coming all too soon!
Linda in a Light exhbit at the Design Museum in Copenhagen
Conservatory at the Sculpture Museum, Glyptotek, in Copenhagen. 
Along the River Neva, St. Petersburg White Nights
More from the ship
I've been playing around with notan expanded squares for years, ever since Jane Dunnewold of Art Cloth Studios showed our class the Japanese exercise. Her explaination is on the tutorial section of the Art Cloth Studios website, so you can go there and get the instructions straight from my source.
As Jane writes, so eloquently (as she always does),
Both symmetrical (the same all around) and asymmetrical (different on each side) designs can be achieved through the use of the expanded square concept. In order for the exercise to be completed successfully, there must be a feeling of balance in the design created. A symmetrical design can still be heavy, ponderous, or boring. If the design is working, it will be interesting and will feel balanced on all four sides. Test this idea by turning your paper as you study a completed design. Does it measure up when rotated and studied? Is it interesting from all directions?
There are many other notan exercises, all of them derived from what is considered a kind of visual meditation sometimes by its practitioners.This example is even simpler in execution. Simply cut a square apart in any way you wish, with the object being to reassemble it with white space in between, making again a pleasing and intriguing balance of white and black, light and dark.
I also like to play with the shapes in multiples, enlarging and reducing them on the copier, then reassembling into a rhythmic shape composition.
These exercises are a neverending source of inspiration for stamps, whole cloth quilts, applique, stencils, screen-printing and other graphic applications to fiber arts. I'd love to see your examples! Like snowflakes, there never seem to be two alike! Here's another site with examples too, from Princeton Online.
And here's a wonderful extension of the discipline into maskmaking by a class at San Jose.
By the way, there is room for one more shape-minded person in June's The Shape of the Matter workshop at El Cielo Studio. We'll be doing notan and lot's of other shape exercises in design, using shape as the structural bones for an art quilt, and more. If you're interested, send me a message via the contact box on the sidebar. Dates are June 26 - 28. For further info, see the workshop page.
And, if you're not overwhelmed with opportunities yet, you can find more shape exercises in our new book -- yes, it's for parents, but each set of activities includes a page for the grownup investigators, too.
Here's the exercises in the Shape section -- plus a whole slew of others that didn't make it into the book. I'd love to hear your ideas, too.
Shape investigations to do on your own:
Explore your home as though it were a museum. What kinds of shapes have you collected, consciously or unconsciously? Make an arrangement of disparate objects that share a shapely characteristic on a bookshelf or windowsill. What would the catalog of these shapes say about you?
As you drive through your neighborhood notice the shapes of buildings, homes, stores and other structures. Do the shapes that you see serve as clues to architectural eras, the history of the street? If yours is a new neighborhood, what historical styles have the builders called upon for inspiration? Shapes of windows, doors, rooflines and facades are your best clues.
Cut or tear shapes from colored paper and collage them to solid colored cards for interesting personal note paper.
Enroll in a ceramics class at a local art center or continuing education department of a local college or university. Or for self-guided exploration buy a 50-pound box of ceramic sculpture clay from a local supplier.
Watch a dance or mime performance (live or recorded) with an eye for shape, how the performers use their bodies and each other to create shapes in space. Some troupes and artists to look for: Mummenschanz (on the web at www.mummenschanz.com), Martha Graham -- who else?
Take a walk along a creek bed or river and visually collect the shapes you see in stones and water.
Dip into Georges Perec’s 1978 Life A User’s Manual, a non-linear novel that uses writing constraints – rules that the writer has imposed on the content and structure of the book – much in the way a visual artist uses shape in the composition of a painting.
Write a haiku each morning for a week about the weather outside your window. (How do constraints of syllable count shape your thoughts?)
Think about how your clothing affects your silhouette as you dress for work or play. Make an effort to wear something that changes your shape and pay attention to its effect.
Collect a specific shape (circles or cones, for example) or specifically shaped objects (manholes, terracotta vases, interesting doors) by photographing throughout a day, a week, a month. Post your collection on a photography website, such as Flickr, to share it with others.
Carve simple shapes using a craft knife into the side of an art gum or white artist’s eraser. Make shape patterns and grids using black stamp pad ink on white paper. Enlarge and reduce and repeat shape patterns using a copier. Can these inspire a quilt or other art project?
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
Friday through Sunday the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas (lots of weavers, spinners, felters and other intense fiber types) met at the Airport Hilton. I was on the faculty -- the non-weaver of the bunch -- with two workshops, The Artist's Journal and A Field Guide to Color. Both were well received and I had fun hanging out on the fringes of another group of texture folks, most of whom have more patience and precision in their little fingers than I have in my entire body. None the less, my workshops went over well and I had some great feedback and suggestions, too, in case I ever run into another teaching op for such a group. Thanks Trish Ashton for the excellent organization for instructors!
Here are a few more pics from the color workshop bunch. I'm sorry I don't remember everyone's names, another of my attention deficit issues, but perhaps they'll leave comments and identify the happy faces. The colors speak for themselves. We did a bunch of hands-on projects, one of the favorite, and a surprisingly simple way to exercise one's color sense and sensibilities is to try to match swatches of color cut from magazine photos. This is good to try after a few basic mixing experiements: taking a hue and adding various ammounts of black, white and grey to make shades, tints and tones; and mixing complements to see the effect of the hues opposite one another on the color wheel. I use student grade acrylics for these paint mixing exercises: a good cadmium red, cadmium yellow, some mid tone intense blue, black and white. It really does surprise everyone at how quickly they catch on to the mix -- this is, I think, the equivalent of a musician doing scales. Just a way to get nimble and quick, to spot the ingredients for mixing coors, even with dyes, which while not exactly like paints, do mix according to their own rules and regulations.
After we did more color scheme/harmony exercises, each person dyed a couple of silk scarf ties with a color scheme of her choice -- that's the lead photo, today. Leave it to weavers to figure out a myriad of different tie patterns with simple rubber bands!
P.S. I have my spring and summer schedule for workshops figured out at last. I will post tomorrow I hope, but if you want a copy of the brochure emailed, please send me a message via the sidebar message block to the right. Thanks, Susie.
A disclosure – this list of questions to ponder was adapted from one written by my psychologist friend and colleague Dr. Cynthia Herbert about observing children -- part of our NEW WORLD KIDS book. We adults need to make and reflect on the same observations about ourselves in order to find our paths as artists, to locate our visual poetry and sweet spots. Of course, what we're saying in the book is that as great a thing it is for adults to discover their passions and paths at age 30, 40, 50 or older, wouldn't it be great if we helped kids find, respect, analyze and deepen their strong suits at age 14, or even 4? It can happen!
Feel free to copy and paste this list or go to my public file to find a downloadable pdf file here.
One-on-one.
One-of-a-kind.
Each of us is absolutely unrepeatable.
How do you look at yourself with new eyes, outside of the daily get-dones and to-dos? It helps to have a certain distance, an anthropologist’s viewpoint even. Step beyond judgment (this is good stuff; this is bad) into a position of value-free observation. It often helps to use comparative information--sometimes it’s easiest to see your own unique combo plate, when its sitting on the table next to someone else’s menu choices.
Here’s a checklist to help you observe, collect and compare. Start with observation. Ask a friend or colleague to use a camera to catch your typical actions and behaviors, or just reflect and write. Or try setting up some self-portraits that capture the real you. Answer the questions from your present life AND from memories of what you were like as a child. Are there parts of the “real you” that have faded from sight? Been dampened by circumstance or age?
How do I sound? What’s my voice like? Do I hear clumping or tiptoeing or trotting through space? Do I have soft or strong sound qualities? Am I talking fast or mulling things over before I speaks? Am I a story always in the telling, or a dramatic announcer of all things important?
How do I move? Am I a whirlwind at the center of any activity or a slow observer who has to watch before jumping in? Do I have wings on his feet and a kinesthetic grasp of each and every movement through space? Or not? Do I have a facility with hand-eye coordination, or am I a person whose favorite exercise is mental gymnastics? Do I fidget and wiggle my way through the day, daintily twirl at every opportunity, or cut through space with conviction, ignoring obstacles and rules at every turn?
What is my rhythm? If I clapped a rhythmic score, would it be regular and evenly paced? Or erratic and unpredictable? Would I be a march or a tango? A jive or a three-ring circus? Am I fast, slow, somewhere in between? Surprising or forthright?
How do I use my face and eyes? Am I an open book? Or a mysterious stranger who seldom lets my emotions show? Is drama the operative word? Or is methodical my method? What happens when I meet a stranger? Am I out there or on the sidelines keeping score?
How do I present a public face? Is it different from the private life behind my front door? How do others respond to me?
What kind of roles and functions do I take on? Alpha dog? Follower? Listener? Starring role? Backstage director? Conformist? Devil’s Advocate?
What makes me laugh? What makes me funny? Where’s my funny bone?
What brings me joy? What is sure to bring a smile to my face?
What questions do I ask over and over and over again? Am I a “What?” or a “Why?” a “How do I?” or a “What if I?”
What makes my different than anyone else’s? One-of-a-kind?
Another way to collect information about yourself is to note preferences – the things you collect, choose, concentrate your efforts on. Here’s a second checklist of observations and inventories to make.
What catches my eye? Movement? Color? Light and shadow? Strong patterns? Interesting shapes? Or is it all about touch? Or movement? Or telling the story?
What holds my attention? What things do I do for longer than other people seem to do them? Music? Putting things together? Routine chores or tasks with repeating actions? Puzzles and brainteasers? Walking or running or other movements? 
What do I surround myself with? The choices of clothing, of possessions for my home, for regular activities? Is it other people? Color? Music? Animals? Things to build with? Stuff that moves?
What qualities do my favorite free-time activities have? Are they all big or small movement activities? Do they have procedures or linear rules? Do I see strong sensuous qualities, tactile elements or sound and motion? How about emotional or analytic components?
What do I collect, naturally? What gets picked up on the street, from a dollar store? Rocks and shells? Magazines, bugs, or little glittery bits of foil and glass? If I could make a collection of anything, would it be hats or robots, ribbons or sports equipment? Do I find and save magazine pictures, maps or cartoons? Character dolls or jokes? Stacks of fabric and threads or antique lace?
What kinds of things -- especially in a new place or space – am I most likely to comment about or remember? The people or the colors? The sound or the story? The size or the materials? The construction and engineering or the aesthetics and theatrical sense?
What do I pick up? Save? Store? Look up on the internet or follow up from a TV or radio show?
What are the qualities of the materials I like best? Track these favorites through the sensory alphabet! (Line, color, shape, movement, space, texture, light, sound, rhythm)
COLOR: Are these materials colorful or monochromatic? What kinds of colors? Bright or subtle? Dark or bright? Contrasting or soothing? You may HAVE to have that new box of watercolors or oil pastels, while another person just needs a big black permanent marker or a Chinese calligraphy brush and ink.
TEXTURE: How do the materials you like feel to the touch? Are they smooth or nubby, plastic or hard, malleable or rigid, natural or manmade? Is that collection of glass jars on your window a textural necessity or a set of shapes to arrange with little hidden dramas in your mind?
SHAPE: Do these materials – clothes, games, collectables, art media, favorite objects -- have definite shapes? Or are they ambiguous or amorphous? Are they simple in contour or intricate? Do they have structural parts or components? Is a morning in one museum gallery or a day in the sand at the beach the ultimate entertainment?
MOVEMENT: Do my favorite materials move? Or have movement implicit in them? Is there a rhythm to them or to their use? Is the movement smooth, fast or floating? Humorous, serious or unstable? Do I simply have to move no matter what or where?
SOUND: Do these favorites make sounds? Either by design or by my use? What kind of sound quality – musical or percussive, wind or string, whistling or thudding? Is there a definite rhythm to the sound produced? Do I make sounds with things that no one else would ever think to turn into an instrument?
RHYTHM: Are these materials stacked, stackable or patterned? Put in order or grouped? Repeated or reorganized over and over? Put away in categories or lumped together any old way? Is there a rhythm to her play, a beginning, middle and end? Does patterned work or games with words or rhymes have a particular charm?
LINE: Do these favorite materials have a linear quality? Are they curved or angular? Strongly directional, repetitive or meandering? Is there always a storyline going on, a movie in the mind?
LIGHT: Is this material one that has qualities of light, dark, opacity, transperancy? Do I like to play with light and shadow?
SPACE: What spatial qualities do the materials have? Are these favorite materials two-dimensional or three-dimensional (ie, given a choice do I choose clay or paper-and-pen?) What’s the scale I like best to work with – a desktop or a playing field, tiny miniatures or large brushes and a 6-ft tall roll of paper? A wall-sized quilt or multiples of mini artist trading cards?
OTHER ASPECTS:
What spaces and places do I prefer for my free time? Am I always on the porch or in my bedroom or other private space? Alone in the backyard or in the kitchen with everyone else? Do I need a run in the park to stay healthy and sane? Is time alone essential? Or is time spent with a group mandatory and energizing? Am I always planning parties or trying to avoid them?
When we interact, is it playful or serious? Directive? Organized? Improvisational?
When we work together on a task, do I stay on track or need to come and go? Do I need a process or a product? Do I have to know why, or why not? Where’s the payoff?
When we play, do I want to be the boss of you? Or want to watch and follow? Am I open to coaching or resistant to change? Do I worry about getting it “right”? Am I making up new rules as we go along? Or sticking to a strategy?
Jane Dunnewold, who as anyone who reads me regularly knows is a mentor, friend and shining beacon in my life, has published a new blog as the venue for an art cloth challenge she issued last year. From a pool of "applicants" she chose a group of us to develop a piece of art cloth from a two-yard challenge piece that she sent-- all identically dyed with mixing blue with a series of small bound-resist circles down the middle of the length.The site is at: Art Cloth Challenge 2008 <http://artclothchallenge.blogspot.com/>
Now the results are in and up on-line at site. Scroll down near the end to find out more about the piece I made, after you've taken time to read the others! Warning: this is a return-to site. There's so much to learn about approach, process, the creative journey, the paths that different artists take from the same impulse and materials. I'm still reading and enjoying!
This weekend's "Field Guide to Color" put us elbow deep in hues and harmonies. Five of us went to the edge with hands-on explorations, more than a little bit of theory, and enough dyeing to keep the inner kindergartener happy indeed.
I'll get a few more pictures to post later from my new studio assistant Laurel Gibson (yeah, Laurel), since I have a major problem taking photos while I am teaching. However, the lovely swatches above should give you an idea of our color box projects.
Meanwhile, here's a sample of one exercise that is really helpful in training the eye to look at color:
1. Tear out a magazine photo or illustration and cut out a 2" square of one hue (color).
2. Try to mix that color using only primary colors (cadmium red, cadmium yellow and a nice medium blue -- throug in a fuschia red for colors that cabn't easily be mixed with a warm red) and white and black. See how close you can come to duplicating the shade, tone or tint. (shade=hue +black, tone=hue+gray or hue+complement, tint=hue plus white.
That's it. But you'll dind it a remarkable challenge and you'll also be surprised I think at how quickly your ability to mix these colors improves. You can also do the same thing with swatches of fabric or paint chips from the home improvement store.
We let them dry, then cut them out and added our paint chips to a handy file box of colors each participant put together -- in addiditon to the beginnings of a dye diary/dictionary. I forget how handy that is until teaching a workshop like this one reminds me of its use.
My next "Field Guide to Color" will be presented as a one-day workshop as part of the Contemporary Handweaver's of Texas conference in San Antonio on Saturday, March 28. My small art quilt, "Pomegranate Cross" will be part of the faculty exhibit for the conference, on display at the Southwest School of Art and Craft March 18-March 28 in the Russell Hill Rogers Lecture Hall at the Navarro Campus. The workshop is open to conference attendees, so if you are interested, please check their website for enrollment information.
For more color fun and games, try a peek at one or more of these color site links:
Color the White House purple or ??? (Shades of Sandra Cisnero's purple house controversy?)
This one is a designer's almost daily links to fab color and design sites around the weboverse.
Here's where to find a color blog that has lots of interactive games and posts. Look at the ones on saturation, hue and brightness.
One of severyl sites that generate color schemes from your photos.
The paint company has a cool site that lets you look at ways to find good color schemes for rooms -- and art.
Good info and online series of lessons.
And finally, on this long, but I hope helpful post, an excerpt from New World Kids; The Parents' Guide to Creative Thinking -- here's a few ideas about color from our book. If you comment on this or any of my posts or my guest posts on other sites at any time this month from Feb. 15 to Feb 28, your name goes into the raffle to win a free copy of the book.
Color
Human vision is distinguished by the color-detecting
ability of our eyes, and so for us color is often the
element of discernment — and the visual language of
emotion. Green with envy, seeing red, walking around
under a black cloud, emotion transforms itself into
colorful characters, colorful language, poetic passion.
Paint on canvas creates sunny weather or an emotional
storm; and music paints a picture solomn or spritely.
Where is your color sense alive? In cooking or
chemistry, stargazing or paint mixing, finding
rainbows, delighting in a feather’s iridescence or
in an outlandishly fashionable fashion sense?
So, where is your color sense alive?
This post was originally published on Michele Foster's www.quiltinggallery.com. Check out the post and comments there, as well as great guest spots from some wonderful quilters.
Angels, saints, sinners, strange beasts. fire eye-browed women and prickly landscapes step out of the air and into my work. I can’t help it. These odd characters and scenes aren’t predetermined, they just happen. I don’t use patterns, rarely make sketches, refuse to pin, never measure (except at the very end), sometimes I don’t even worry about the back of my quilts and the knots and snarls that bedevil us all whether we admit it or pick them out or not.
Let’s get one thing straight here at the start. Some of you are traditional quilters. You are the backbone of the interest and the audience and most of the quilt store customers and you are skilled! I am not. A quilter really. Nor am I really very good at quilting. But I think I make good art. That happens to be made of fabric. And stitched, and usually three-layered.
I intentionally make contemporary textile paintings (see Lisa Call’s blog for her ideas about that) and they are quilted (free motion) and they are also fused.
Intensely interested in pattern and color and texture, paint just doesn’t work as a medium for my ideas, and, as an artist, it is my path and passion and calling to get my ideas out of my head and into the world in the best available materials. I began sewing at a young age, but the precision required by my home-ec teacher (and that dates me, right) was an unwelcome discipline and an unnerving challenge. So I went into theater and visual arts and then later became an arts and arts-in-ed educator, museum designer, writer and teacher (there’s even a new book for parents and grandparents who want to encourage creative kids, see www.newworldkids.org), but I kept coming back to cloth.
My personal revival came in a surface design course at the Southwest School of Art and Craft in San Antonio (where I now teach in the fibers department) and in a discovery that I could actually learn to paint and pattern and design fabric. Then I had to figure out what to do with the stacks of stuff I was making and I discovered art quilts. Among those who have influenced what I now do: Jane Dunnewold, Sue Benner, Leslie Jenison, Kerr Grabowski, Rayna Gillman, Lisa Call, African textiles, Mexican embroiderers, Guatemalan weavers, limestone layers, the Art Cloth Network, the International Quilt Festival (where I also teach) and lots more.
I told you what I don’t do much of in the first paragraph. What I do do: journal and observe, listen to my dreams, follow my obsessions, pile up cloth and look at the colors together, mull over design elements and sketch, sketch, sketch images, doodles and private marks then turn them into thermofax screens for printing paint and dye, improvise dyed fabric using Kerr’s methods of deconstructed screen printing, iron WonderUnder or Mystifuse to every piece I like, sometimes piece together long rows of 5’ strips and other background fabric, then start cutting with a vague idea of what it is that is speaking to me. Then I free-motion stitch the quilt, possibly even go back and print another layer of imagery on top of it all. Sometimes I mount my work on wooden frames, sometimes it just hangs on the wall.
And yes, someday I really do want to make a bed quilt. But I am terrified of the binding. And the basteing. I read you so that I will have the courage to try someday!
For those who comment here, or on my blog during the rest of the month of February, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of that book on creativity (it’s even good for grownups who aren’t around kids): New World Kids at www.newworldkids.org
I like this site -- Simpleology -- and its offerings, and though I haven't taken any of Mark Joyner's classes yet, I enjoy reading what he has to say about life, action and inner and outer peace. In order to win a a free enrollment for a new course on blogging, all you have to do is go to his site, write about it like this, paste some code on your site to get his widget. If you're still thinking about blogging, either as a personal tool, a marketing avenue or a way to record your work and process (I do all three here), check out Mark's work and see if it fits your needs.
I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.
Here's Mark's invitation:
It took me 6 years to figure out that blogging was significant.
"This is just a freakin' self-posting guest book with comments!"
So, my company (Simpleology) decided to create a course on blogging.
Umm ... can you say "credibility gap?"
Apparently I can.
Anyway, we make kick ass courseware (among other things), but kick ass it may be - your course is only as good as the content is valid, right?
We consulted with some industry experts on the content and people who have seen it say it's great, but I'm still not in my comfort zone.
So, here's what we've decided to do ...
We're going to give the course away to anyone who blogs about it.
All you have to do is mention that it exists.
After you try it you can rip us a new one in your blog - it's all good. We accept all feedback (we may or may not agree with it - but it doesn't mean we can't be friends).
We're not sure how this stacks up against our other courseware (about which we're very comfortable - proud even), but this is what it is.
I'm half-curious to see what the blogosphere thinks about it.
Another pathway to finding one’s voice has to do with the materials and media that are central to the form. For me media is anything that takes the idea into form, be it writing, silk paint, cookie dough or conversation. Most of us as artists have the luxury of finding, exploring, layering and learning about many different kinds of media, and this time in play is an important part of the process of coming into our unique style. Some ideas work in cookie dough, others don't.
Experimentation, fluency and craftsmanship all play a role. Experimentation means taking the time and having the will to push a media or material beyond what you have seen others do with it. For some, this is easy and essential, others of us have to work hard to "break the rules," since our inclination or training may make this tantamount to heresy.
Fluency means playing with possibilities and with the borders between media, combining it with other materials and using new tools with the medium. Fluency is the brainstorming equivalent but with stuff, not just ideas. Fluency also requires “just sticking to it” long enough to get beyond the first easy idea, and this I think is the dirty little secret behind developing facility and technical skills -- ie craftsmanship.
Many artists want their first of something to be fabulous, but most of us who have stuck with art long enough know that expertise does clarify the voice. Experience with the technical handling of the media, the tools, the physical material of one’s art and craft means that the message becomes clear, the hand of the artist is consciously visible rather than intrusively visible. You’ve simply got to keep at it and the “it” has to be something you like enough to carry you over the drudge, slog and boring parts. Paints gotta dry. Dye needs its temperature. The ink line needs the right brush and the paper that lets it do what you want it to do. If you break the rules here, it's because you want to, not because you can't do it "right."
Sounds a bit like a teeter-totter and it is. Too much attention too soon to craft and you may end up with a dead something instead of a living idea. Too little attention to skillful handling, and your idea may disappear under the clutter of incompetence. And of course, all of these aspects are ever moving targets for most of us!
PS All these photos are from the recent Baker Idea Institute Workshop, where we did a lot of playing around with materials/media. Exercises are among those included in New World Kids, The Parents' Guide to Creative Thinking.
I have a cousin who when young would go take on a topic and do it to death -- several years, it was trains -- he not only had a train-themed bedroom, he knew the whistles and engineers on the train routes that went past his rural home. Another year, he decided to dig, starting with a root cellar under the house and then went onto a swimming pond in the front yard. No kidding. This kid had a knack for content and theme. His life, though not that of an artist in the traditional sense, has been rich with exploration and investigation, taking him through careers as varied as archeologist, chemist, political organizer.
For me another part of personal voice has to do with content and subject matter. Many artists who are just starting out jump around from one topic to another, one genre to another -- this is an important part of learning. Sooner or later though the time comes to get beyond the surface of a topic or interest, whether it is rural landscapes or flowers or political activism or portraiture. Or how oil paint goes onto a canvas, or the way couched lines of yarn take on contour.
Committing to solving the same problem different ways has a real benefit In the process of finding one’s voice. Perhaps this is where series comes in. (And, to respectfully disagree with artists who defend their unwillingness or disinterest in working in series) have you ever known an artist whose work really took them somewhere who did not have serial work that built one on the other? I don't.
Your series may be connected to content and subject matter or it may be a more formal approach with color or line or a particular attack in the realm of stitching that comes into play. For example, Lisa Call's structured series has a content that not only relates to her perception of land and fences, but a theme of stitch and intersection. Geography can provide a thematic content, as is does with Virgina Speigel's Boundary Waters series. Even a shape takes on a thematic weight if it's used often and explored in depth. Darcy Love's amazing art cloth and fiber art always returns to the animals and plants in her world and in her travels. Jane Dunnewold's work at Art Cloth Studios is often grounded in her study of Zen concepts.
How do you pick? Start with something that holds some passion for you – something with enough personal interest that you might have a chance of making it interesting to someone else.
Sometimes the content of one’s work is directly related to “formal” interests (for example, an artist interested in rhythm, might find a study of African mudcloth patterns particularly inspiring and influential, or maybe exploring the visual idea of windows would appeal to an artist who likes spatial concepts.) For others, a theme or content is something important because of experience, story and memory – journaling can help you identify these kinds of themes. Themes and content lead one to develop personal imagery, ways of handling materials and tools, narrative content sometimes.
I have a number of recurring themes in my work -- mermaids, iconic spiritual figures, angels, prickly pear cactus and other plants around the land, my own handprint, the colors and actual materials of Latin America. All of these come and go, layered and justaposed in my work. I come and go with them, with these series, since my particular way of working in one that honors my own need for variety and improvisation. But I keep them alive, adding perhaps along the way, dropping one or another and then circling back around. These do become the elements and approaches that make my work recognizable -- and that IS important to me. Both as an artist and a one who wants to sell my work to collectors and institutions.
What about you? How is recurring content, interesting themes, important to your work? Have you ever committed to doing something more than once?
We all want our work to be distintive and unique. Really, don't we? No matter how much we admire the work we see of other artists, when we embark on the journey of living the artist's life, we want our work to sing with our own voice. I think there are several parts to finding that voice, that path (if voice in a visual sense seems too mixed a metaphor). I also think the process is similar no matter your medium and whatever the field you pursue, be it art, quiltmaking, physics or cookery. As I've been teaching this past week, and heading into two more workshops this week -- one in Austin for the Austin Fiber Artists and my own recurring Artist Journal/Artist Journey retreat this weekend -- this piece I wrote a couple of years ago -- and revised for the upcoming events -- bears repeating. Today, Part One:
Think about "Pure Form:"
I believe – and my belief is supported by more than 30 years of work with children in creative learning environments – that each of us is born with an innate preference/leaning toward a particular way of perceiving and giving form that is directly connected to what I (and my colleagues in this work) call the Sensory Alphabet. This vocabulary of non-verbal qualities – line, color, shape, space, light, texture, movement, sound and rhythm -- is a way of thinking about and organizing one’s individual strengths of perception and invention. Looking at one’s preferences and natural tendencies through this lens serves as both a way to self discovery and as a bridge to understand other creative work. This vocabulary is not just an artistic one – it can hold as true to creative work in business as in design, in science as in art.
If you think about letters of the alphabet as being the building blocks of literacy (both spoken and read and write) and numbers as the building blocks of mathmatics and physics, then the Sensory Alphabet is what can be a symbol system for everything else (and even math and words, sinces it's more primal, more connected to our bodies and minds in a very basic way.)
Think about which of these constructs is easiest for you to notice, to manipulate, to play with –is it pattern (rhythm) or texture or color? What did you love as a young child? Which of these elements are most important to you in your home, your environment? What artists do you resonate to? Design exercises and experiences for yourself that feed your mind’s natural interests, or find teachers that share your sensibilities (look at their work and see what they say about it) who can provide classes that feed your perceptual strengths.
An understanding of your own creative style in terms of this vocabulary can be the starting place for finding your voice – and even help you find the best and strongest medium for work. For example, if color is my strong suite, I might take time to do dye and discharge samples, study Albers and other colorist’s work, take photos exploring color themes, investigate watercolor and glazing, look at color as understood by chemists and physicists, etc. If movement is a strong suite, I might see how to incorporate moving elements in my textile work, take up techniques that use my body in strenuous and challenging fashion, look at how movement blurs an image and how to capture that sense with dyeing or printing, I might even want to dye fabrics and construct garments for dance performances or architectural installations with moving components.
Most of us have three or four of these strong suites that interact in interesting ways and can pose intriguing puzzles for our work. Tracking down your strongest perceptual elements is usually just a matter of paying attention to preference, to what you notice in a space, to the materials that call your name. Journaling about childhood preferences and doing detective work in your closet, your home, your memory bank can help you name your sensory strengths.
Our book, New World Kids, The Parent's Guide to Creative Thinking includes investigations and invention activities for adults as well as for adults and children, despite the title. We think parents need to nurture their own experience with this alphabet in order to recognize their children's strengths and learning styles. Here's an example for TEXTURE -- since most of us who end up in the fiber arts are almost certainly drawing on some interest and facility for texture, I figure it might spur you own with some Sensory Alphabet play!
From NEW WORLD KIDS, all rights reserved.
TEXTURE investigations to do on your own:
1. Examine your wardrobe and make a texture inventory.
What textures really suit you? What feels good against your
skin? Make a point to buy something with a pleasing texture
the next time you shop.
2. Cook a meal with a conscious plan to include contrasting
textures, as the Japanese do. Do certain kinds of tastes correspond
to certain kinds of textures? Think temperature as well
as crisp, creamy, grainy, smooth.
3. Where can you experience coarse, slimy, mushy, matted,
abrasive, elastic, sleazy, itchy, silky, downy, frothy, fuzzy?
Consciously create one new tactile experience each day for a
week.
4. Listen to different music with an ear toward texture: contemporary
jazz, baroque, chant and heavy metal are a few contrasting
genres to try.
5. Visit a museum’s textile or fiber arts exhibitions or explore
some online exhibitions or galleries. Try one or more
of these key words for a search: fashion, art quilts, traditional
quilts, art cloth, knitting, weaving, wearable art, basketry, fiber
arts, shibori, batik.
6. Study and write a poem about the textures of your body,
inside and out.
I am one of those foolhearty types who hates to read instruction manuals, dislikes asking for directions, heartily hates following linear to-do lists -- you get the picture. So it's probably no surprise that when I want to master something new, the best way for me is the sink or swim approach. 'Course I try to choose tasks that are intrinsically intriguing and tools that are intuitively operational. (And that, in a nutshell, is why mac is the only computer for me.)
This past year, I have become a webmaster by intention, building three passable sites, with I admit, not a line of code, just a lot of tinkering with built-in templates, both on the Squarespace site for New World Kids (Squarespace hosts this blog, too -- I love their interface and the support desk is great), for my own gallery website and a new website for Fiber Artists of San Antonio. That's the one that's just gone "live" and, while I hope to tinker and improve over the next few weeks, the basic architecture is up and running and even taking money via PayPal.
I used iWeb (part of the Macintosh iLife suite of tools) to build the FASA site and my gallery site, and with some help from my friends at the Apple Store I know pretty much the ins and outs of using that software. (I do highly reccommend the Apple One-to-One program -- $99 gives you a week of private tutoring from a kid whizbang expert at the Apple Store.)
PayPal and GoDaddy are not exactly what I would call intuitive sites, and I've had to buckle down and actually read instructions, usually about 40 times, before I get the kinks out of using their interfaces with my sites. But, it no longer terrifies me -- that's what jumping in the deep end gets you -- past your fear.
If you've been thinking about building a website, I say, dive, dive, dive. And if that or some other said-to-be-difficult task looms in your new year, consider whether an external deadline or expectation from a (unpaid) volunteer client (like the Fiber Artists were for me) might be that little push on the backside that you need. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, at least on the computer, few errors are actually fatal and most stupidities can be undone. I may never be a "real" webmaster, but at least now I know enough to design and put something up that I like and that does the job for client/s (me, FASA, our book). I certainly don't sneer at templates and WYSISYG editing programs -- they frankly just make me glad I never invested time in learning to write HTML.
I know, I know, my sites won't win any awards for innovation, real techie types will point our their shortcomings in style, elegance and probably speed, but I loved the experience of learning more about electronic media and how to work in some personal style on top of a template.
Imagine painting your doorway pepto pink. Imagine what it's like to open your eyes to a chrome yellow wall, and another, and another? What's not to love about the colors in the little town in Northern Mexico that we visited over the holidays? Folks in Bustamante seemed typically Northern Mexican in their conservatism; our hotel owner was more dour than debonair; the sidewalks emptied by 8 p.m. and we never did find a bar, much less the website-touted mescal factory we had read about. BUT, in color sense, the town was anything buy shy and retiring. Even with many storefronts and homes shuttered in the winter (perhaps to open come summer visits), walls were freshly painted, the door frames bright, and every possible color combination seemed to work with its neighbor -- killing the rather limited notion we seem to have for color harmonies and proper color schemes. Of course the nature played its part, as well, with pink and orange bouganvilla blooms reaching over walls, and branches laden with limes bending over porticos. Then, there were the more subtle hues of the mountains, the early huisache blooms, the clear spring waters and blue skies at the ojo de agua.
We're planning to stretch the limits of color play at my February workshop, too. "A Field Guide to Color" is coming up mid February 20-22. If you'd like a hands-on take-no-enemies time to work with color, stretching your understanding of the rules, taking on, learning then breaking them, sign up now while there's still space. For details, see the workshop page here. We'll have dye play, painting with hue and value, chakra color meditations and more. The economy might mean fewer long trips or major workshop weeklong outings for many of us artists, so I hope you'll consider this closer-to-home affordable opportunity for an intensive improvisational dye workshop with color at its heart!
Well. I didn't win the tiara parade. I don't think my garden glove, yarn, shredded fabic, needles and pins entry was quite tiaraesque enough. But I had a great time all day. I did a "Meet the Teachers" session early in the day -- 10:30 am and believe it or not, people, a few, showed up to hear me (or the person who was next on the list). So I continue to learn a lot. and continue to meet wonderful teachers, quilters, artists, all. Here's the basic outline of my presentation, I hope you can follow along:
An Art Quilt Artist’s Altar
By Susie Monday, artist, coach and teacher
3532 Timbercreek Rd.
El Cielo Studios, Pipe Creek, Texas
http://susiemonday.squarespace.com
www.susiemonday.com
210-643-2128
Making an artist’s altar is one of the creative exercises suggested by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. I’ve adapted her practice by combining it with the process of art quilt journaling. Art quilt Artist’s Altars start with an acknowledgement of our human heritage of creativity. Episcopal priest and radical theologian Matthew Fox has written, “We are creators at our very core. Only creating can make us happy, for in creating we tap into the deepest powers of self and universe and the Divine Self. We become co-creators, that is, we create with the other forces of society, universe and the God-self when we commit to creativity.” The act of creating an artist altar honors this deep connection to the Source.
Here are some prompts, suggestions and techniques that will help you make your own art quilt artist’s altar. First construct or purchase a simple box or altar shaped frame that will determine the size of your art quilt work. I build simple 1 by 3” frames in a “house” shape for the ones I make, but you can use a pre-made gallery canvas as the structure.
1. Start with your favorite colors. Pull fabrics from your stash that represent your most beloved hues and shades. You can use one or 50 different prints. No rules, here. Combine a rainbow or stick to the subtlest shades of white you can find.
2. What symbolizes creativity for you – is it a person, a goddess or mythological figure, a place, a shape, a sound, an image from nature or from art history? Is it all of the above. Collect, draw, cut, photo transfer or collage a central image for your art quilt artist altar by starting with what speaks the name of creativity the loudest.
3. Use your favorite quilting techniques to assemble the top of your art quilt. I use fusing, piecing, machine quilting and hand embroidery for the ones I make, but you should honor your own favorite techniques. Assemble with batting, but a back layer of fabric is usually not needed.
4. Make the top of your art quilt large enough to wrap completely around the frame, whatever its size. Wrap and staple the top around the frame, fitting and folding the corners neatly. If desired, stitch fabric to the back
Good news of the day: when I went to pick up my art materials for the demo, I found a note from Leslie Riley (she organized the mixed media classes). Pokey Bolten of Quilting Arts magazines. (Cloth, Paper, Scissors, etc.) wanted to talk to me about writing for the mags. That's incentive to get my proposals in to the editors. Hold me to it.
On other quilting fronts: check out Ragged Cloth Cafe's last month post by Kate Themal, food for thought as we look at the amazing variety of quilts here in this venue: traditional, antique, contemporary, cutting edge, stange and digital.
Here I am in the heart of the big time quilter's world, feeling, occasionally, like I'm in junior high on the first day and everyone else knows everyone else, except me. Silly. And then the next moment I'm meeting and actually talking to someone who has just been a name on the quiltarts list or in a magazine byline and having a ball. With my tribe, as Seth Godin's new book puts it. And this tribe gathers at the International Quilt Festival.
I'm taking baby steps with teaching here, and learning what and how to teach in such a setting. Then, I'm taking some classes with some of the artists whose work I have long admired: Hollis Chatelain and Libby Lehman, for example. My intent was to post daily with all the news, awards and photos, but here I am, three days later and finally having internet connection (paid for extra) at the hotel. So, no doubt if you care about such things, you already know that Sharon Schamber won the big $10,000 prize for Best of Show with an ornate, patterned and quite breathtaking quilt.
I don't even aim at this kind of quilting, in fact, I suspect that many of the quilters here would not even consider me a quilter. And I'm not, but my work, like that of many fiber artists, still connects my heartstrings to the traditional work of women quilters through time. I suspect we have been piecing small scraps together for much of our human history. And, with the notion of adding personal meaning and style, the art quilt came along and added an entire other dimension to the field.
This afternoon, the art quilt tribe will be at the SAQA booth to meet the "Masters," artists whose work has just been published in a beautiful collection of quilts published by the Studio Art Quilt Association. Many of the artists will be on hand to sign the book, and I want my copy -- and to meet more of these amazing artists.
Earlier, 2:00 to 4:00, I'll be demonstating making an inspiration deck in the mixed media sampler. This is less a technique than an approach, and just so you don't feel like you're missing this little piece of Festival, here's my handout:
Mixed Media Sampler
International Quilt Festival 2008
Instructor: Susie Monday
El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
susiemonday@gmail.com http://susiemonday.squarespace.com
A Personal Inspiration Deck
One suggestion: Make a card a day until your personal deck is complete. 52 is the traditional number for a deck of cards (13 cards in 4 suits) but you can make a deck as large or as small as you wish.
1. Make your own version of the Tarot deck, with your take on each of the archetypes in the major arcana and suits that refer to cups, swords, rods and coins (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades).
2. Invent your own set with your own categories (think AIR,FIRE, EARTH, WATER or MIND, BODY, SPIRIT,) and personal archetypes (see Caroline Myss book, THE SACRED CONTRACT, for ideas)
3. Simply make cards with images, quotes, colors, etc that are meaningful to you.
4. Make a deck picturing
13 people/ roles/archetypes (judge, seamstress, lover, etc)
13 actions (dance, sing, jump,etc)
13 mental approaches (brainstorm, make a list, blow up the idea, etc)
13 emotions (calm, enegetic, dreamy, determined)
5. Make a deck picturing
13 verbs
13 adjectives, adverbs
13 nouns
13 preposistions,conjunctions
6. Make a deck with mixed media techniques on paper or use an actual deck of cards as the base for each collage.
7. Make a deck of micro art quilts, using interfacing or Tivek as the base for fused and/or sewn cards.
Use your cards for:
Finding a focus or direction when you begin creative work.
To suggest a direction when you feel stuck
As a reminder to include personal meaning and imagery in your work
To add a thoughful or emotional dimension to the work at hand
As the subject for journaling and self-discovery
I hope. I seemed to have spent an inordinate amount of time NOT sending my newsletter -- making stupid technology errors. Every time I do this I swear I'm going to get a service that handles it -- and then another quarter rolls around and I haven't made the transition. I know that keeping my email list up to date and clean is an essential part of doing business these days, but it sure is boring.
Anyhow, that's the back story whine (whoops, switch that bracelet around) and here's the link to the newsletter up in cyberspace. If you'd like a subscription all your own (and didn't already get the mailing), just send me an email with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. susiemonday@gmail.com.
P.S. I am taking Lily Kern's Quilt University on-line course on Digital Photos on Fabric, in preparation for some workshops and to experience the online teaching and learning environment. I'm learning a lot, and mostly, having fun playing in Photoshop with some of the images I've collected over the years. The pomegranate images in this blog are the results of a few hours of fiddling around with different effects. I've been printing them out on fabric, so don't be surprised to see them on one of my textile paintings in the future. I'll be sharing some of Lily's tips (as well as a lot more garnered in other research) at my Southwest School of Art course next weekend -- Photos to Fabric, October 11-12, from 10-4 daily. There's still room for a few more participants if you are interested in learning more about using photos in your fiber art. Go to the SWSchool website to register online. We'll be preparing fabric with Bubble Jetset, using various transfer methods, playing with software (bring a laptop if you have one), trying out repeat designs and tiling photos to poster size images, and turning a photo into a good image for thermofax printing. Email me if you have questions.
And, don't forget about the El Cielo workshop on Oct. 17-19: Altares, Dias de los Muertos.
What I've been reading lately. And using a lot for inspiration. I think Rayna's book is great for small, medium and large artists. Even if you think you know a lot about printing on fabric, I bet you'll find some fresh approaches and new ideas in her colorful book.
And true confessions. This is a test to see if I could figure out the affiliate marketing links with Amazon. If someone buys a book after clicking on the link from my site, I receive a small percentage of the sales price. (I don't even know what it is.) I don't want to clutter my site with advertising or sales links, but this is a very real part of the web environment, and though I will only ever recommend books that I endorse, I see no reason not to take advantage of this aspect of marketing technology, miniscule as it is. If you are interested in doing the same on your blog, and if you make it a habit to recommend books or other Amazon products, the affiliate site and very simple instructions can be found on this Amazon link.
Still experimenting, I think I like the linking with the image only -- in theory all the info is still available to a potential buyer, but it's a cleaner look. But, hey, simple instructions or not, I can't figure out how to link the code with the image.
Of course, in the case of Rayna's book, I'd rather just send you to her website and let you buy directly from her. So this is an exercise in potential future market opportunity. That is, if we end up with any economy left operating. I am an optimist, after all, or I couldn't be an artist.
