To all the makers

Praise the world to the angel, not the unutterable world;
you cannot astonish him with your glorious feelings;
in the universe, where he feels more sensitively,
you're just a beginner.

Therefore, show him the simple
thing that is shaped in passing from father to son,
that lives near our hands and eyes as our very own.
Tell him about the Things.

He'll stand amazed, as you stood
beside the rope-maker in Rome, or the potter on the Nile.
Show him how happy a thing can be, how blameless and ours;
how even the lamentation of sorrow purely decides
to take form, serves as a thing, or dies
in a thing, and blissfully in the beyond
escapes the violin.

And these things that live,
slipping away, understand that you praise them;
transitory themselves, they trust us for rescue,
us, the most transient of all. They wish us to transmute them
in our invisible heart--oh, infinitely into us! Whoever we are.
Earth, isn't this what you want: invisibly
to arise in us? Is it not your dream
to be some day invisible? Earth! Invisible!
What, if not transformation, is your insistent commission?
Earth, dear one, I will! Oh, believe it needs
not one more of your springtimes to win me over.
One, just one, is already too much for my blood.
From afar I'm utterly determined to be yours.
You were always right and your sacred revelation is the intimate
death.
Behold, I'm alive. On what? Neither childhood nor future
grows less...surplus of existence
is welling up in my heart.

This poem by Rilke was one of our Christmas meditations. Found, as these things often are, by chance in Earth Prayers from  Around the World: 365 Prayers, Poems and Invocations for Honoring the Earth. A little online research -- it's the last  half or so of Rainer Maria Rilke's Ninth Elegy. If you want to read the entire poem, click here.

Ritual for the Returning Light

 

On one of the lists that I subscribe to, one correspondent posted this ritual for the New Year. As we turn the sunlight into the next season, remembering that the days will lengthen, the dark will receed, the fields that are fallow will soon turn green with new growth...

I want to record this in order to make it part of our morning ritual during the Journal workshop in  January -- still dark enough to benefit, even though the Solistice is past. I hope she doesn't mind the quote.....

Gather together family and friends and give everyone a stick or twig, 5 or 6 inches long. At one end of the twig tie a red ribbon and at the other end, a green ribbon. You'll need a fire of some kind: this could be done in your fireplace or an outdoor firepit or just the grill on your deck. Toast to the sun or say a few words about the returning of the light, then everyone breaks their stick in two. As you toss the red-ribboned stick in the fire, think about the bad events and negative habits you're eager to lose in the flames. Save the green end as a souvenir, a token of hope, and think about new beginnings.
  
   
 

Nuevo Laredo, Nuevo Laredo

For many U.S. and Western Europe residents (as well as the popular media), Christmas means snow and snowmen, vistas of white and, perhaps even a little elfing magic. But for those of us in the Borderlands, the weather may be chill, or like today, peasoup and heading toward the 80s. When I want holiday spirit, I can't count on the weather to cooperate, but I can ALWAYS count on Nuevo Laredo. Tuesday's visit was a kick.

 

 

 

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.

Finding your Voice, part 1

Mixing metaphors I know, but its a convention convenient.

How does one find that unique quality of work and process that lead to a personal voice or style?  Today I worked with my friend Susan Marcus on a longstanding book project that has grown out of our mutual history as arts educators and graphic designers, and strengthened as separately we explored personal creative paths in different  arts media.  Now back together we are hoping to bring the content to a new shape in a book for parents and educators called  New World Kids.

At its most basic level, the question posed by these parents is "How do we find out who are children are as creative beings?" And that's the same question I hear adult artists and would-be artists ask, as well.

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.

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. Texture, color, line and shape ARE design "terms," but what if we think more broadly about these? Consider these consepts as  the equivalent of the written alphabet for a non-verbal syntax.

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. What do you fill your personal world with? How do you doodle? What do you wear and why? Is it about color or culture, ease or movement, tactile quality or interpersonal message? There's no wrong or right answer to any of this. What is, what is. It's just that as adults we may have so many "non-individual reasons"  -- for protective coloring, for cultural or tribal survival, to fit in or stand out or for keeping the peace -- lots of  "outside" reasons for our likes and dislikes, our playtime and routines, that we may have forgotten to pay attention to what it is we really love. Look there. Love what you love. Its the first step to finding your style as as artist, to singing your own song.




 

Inspirations All Around

Gee, I love this life, where the flow of images greets me from such wild sources. "DV8's work is about taking risks. It is about personal politics, about breaking down barriers between dance and theatre, and above all, about communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously. The company tells stories through extended naturalistic movement in a radical yet accessible way, shunning linear narrative and rejecting the traditional conventions of ballet and modern dance. It also challenges notion of dance by demonstrating how expansive and individual the medium can be." This is the trailer for their 35 minute film "The Cost of Living."

Has anybody out there seen this movie: The Cost of Living?

 Here's the trailer:

Local Delights

 

Writing assignment from the latest Julia Cameron book, Finding Water: The Art of Perseverence, (which BTW I am having to persevere through, finding her tone sometimes whiny and self-indulgent in this third book of the Artist Way trilogy):

"List five delights of your own locale...Allow yourself to see your world as an interested stranger might see it."

1. Texas Hill Country honkytonks have, in this new century, more than a bit of self-conscious, even ironic, attitude. But in fact, as well as fancy, they are the real thing. People dance the way you think dancing should be done, with manners and style and a regard for the musician's cadence. Local bands do their Saturday night gigs, with the background of hope for Nashville success grounded less in American Idol and more in their tunes. The beer signs glimmer and glow;  corny dichos dangle from the ceiling along with old boots and old hats, gone to rest where old cowboy clothing that's been good enough goes. Floore's Country Store is one such place. We spent an evening there last weekend, and all the Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons that I've spent in such Texas places came back to tell their tales.

 

2. The view into the valley today is full of fog and wind and rain, spitting into the December sky and scrubbing the cedars free of their orange tinted pollen. Somehow it reminds me today of an gumbly urban train station, with harsh iron scent and  a tunnel leading out below the city streets. The seven hills outside the window are slumbering under cold blankets of mist, the rain is sliding down the windows, much like that on train windows -- but here the motion is from the outside in. But it is an impersonal day, nothing friendly about this wind, this nature.

3. The winding road that leads from Highway 16 to our front gate presents itself daily like a moving meditation. The curves make me slow down and hug the righthand side, alert for deer, the roadrunner whosse territory intersects my own, and the crazy neighbor boy in his pickup who drives too fast. Climbing up in the evening after a day in the city, the road treats  me like my fingers treat rosary beads, slowing my breath, making me pay attention to the world beyond the one between my ears.

 

4. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego on this day. Her altar in our home is lit with candles and decked with evergreens and rosemary. As I walk past in the hallway, the colors and the terracotta of her images there will dance a little outside of their everyday space, visible again. She, for me not once a Catholic, is Sophia, Wisdom in her feminine guise, Compassionate One who makes herself visible and useful and present in whatever shape and form She needs to be to reach and comfort us. The mystery of spirit becoming real, roses blooming in desert wastes, hope born from ashes of pyramids, the assertion that perhaps the bleeding hearts of virgins could be done away with and still the sun would rise.

 

5.  My studio nest is overfilled with sticks and stones and scraps of bright fabric, boxes of Christmas brought out from the attic, piles of cloth eyed for the angel now pinned to the wall and waiting for stitch. Walking in there today after the snuggness of the house will be a challenge of chill and damp until the wall heater warms the air over my work table. Rodeo, the border collie, will join me under the table on a pile of old blankets, glad to be out of the rain. Then I will fall into the rhythm of sewing, the machine humming under my fingers; the wind still howling but unimportant. The world narrowed to the space beneath the needle.

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.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

 

Detail of Los Madres sculpture in Tucson, AZ, a sculpture project  by Valerie James.

 

Hopi Elders' Prayer

Hold on to what is good,
Even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe,
Even if it is a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do,
Even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to my hand,
Even when I've gone away from you.
Hold on to what is good.
Hold on to what is good.
Hold on to what is good.

Sha Sha Higby

 

My artist date this week was to see a performance by Sha Sha Higby, a performance artist and fiber artist who makes ingenious and magical costumes and masks. The performance had the quality of metamorphasis of an insect, and was quietly striking, though I felt the dramatic structure took second place to the visual art quality of the piece. Here's a link, if you'd like to see a bit of her work. And this link is to a small movie of a perfomance.

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

Creativity, according to Sir Ken

My artist’s date this week was a day-long “creative economy” conference sponsored by the City of San Antonio, an event that is part of SA’s emerging realization that the arts actually do contribute to the economic health of the city. Gee, what a concept.

As part of the day, we heard a speech by Sir Ken Robinson, (knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for his contributions to education) who arrived here in the U.S. a few years ago to work at the Getty. Robinson is now is off and running in the world of corporate America, and bureaucratic makeovers, working to shift this country’s understanding of creativity and education.  I like what he has to say – though I think I’ve been saying the same thing for about 45 years – but I never had the ear of the business and government world that he has, and, thank God, he does. I hope they listen. It seems maybe they or some of “they” just may be, thus this conference. The next best thing about Sir Ken (beyond the message that we are all born with creative brains and our educational system does its best to stomp it out of us) is his sense of humor – he is a fabulous speaker and it isn’t about a fancy Powerpoint. Here's what the TED site says about Sir Ken and the speech from, I think, the 2006 TED conference in Monterrey:

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."

Though the San Antonio speech wasn’t allowed to be videotaped (agent’s rule), another of Sir Ken’s speeches is part of the TEDTalks library. Check it out here. His latest book, which I bought, is Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. P.S. You can also find this talk by Sir Ken on UTube and I have an easier time getting a smooth good download on that site.

PPS. If you haven't explored the TED Talks yet, I strongly encourage you to spend your next dedicated to TV on this channel instead. The offerings are astounding. These pieces make me believe in the power of video and the internet all over again. 

iki (いき, often written 粋)

 

I've been trying to figure out how to better describe my approach to artcloth. Improvisational is OK, but taken. And all of my methodologies aren't precisely improvisational -- I intend to print an image at times -- I just like it to fuzz away under and over and beyond some of the other surface aspects. And I don't care a lot about how precise the placement or even the coverage is. Maybe its pure and simple laziness, but if so, I am trying to take the trait and push it into a positive attribute! And I am not so interested in making something elegant as I am in making it tell some kind of quirky story.

So I was taken by the discussion of a Japanese concept called "iki," on one of John Maeda's blogs (this a new photo blog on Technology Review).

"Nozomi and I chatted about the strange "fuzzy logic" fad in Japan of the early 1990s, when it was not uncommon to see a "fuzzy logic vacuum cleaner" or a "fuzzy logic rice cooker" on sale in the Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo. The premise is quite simple: instead of encoding values as numbers, ranges of numbers are tagged as having membership association with a word. Words are such great containers of knowledge.

Nozomi suggested that our conversation was essentially about iki (pronounced "ee-kee"). It's something to do with inexactness and openness but all in all "the right fit" to a complex issue. Although it's difficult to comprehend, I totally got it. I guess iki is iki too."

What do you think? I love the part about inexactness and yet, "the right fit." As the wikipedia link above shows, iki is related to wabi-sabi, but unlike that aesthetic term and concept, has more modern and current useage in Japan.

 

I love this part of the definition:

An iki thing/situation would be simple, improvised, straight, restrained, temporary, romantic, ephemeral, original, refined, inconspicuous, etc. An iki person/deed would be audacious, chic, pert, tacit, sassy, unselfconscious, calm, indifferent, unintentionally coquettish, open-minded, restrained, etc.

An iki thing/person/situation cannot be perfect, artistic, arty, complicated, gorgeous, curved, wordy, intentionally coquettish, or cute

I am not sure but that my life, not just my work, aims for iki. Course there is that unfortunate cross-meaning and slightly different pronunciation.

Looking and reading further reveals a whole host of information about iki, and it will be interesting to study further. Just a glance revealed that "I am iki" is an impossible statement, and the following in a Master's thesis by Yamamoto Yuji gives me pause -- I think my work is too complexly textured layered to adopt iki as a descriptor, even if I thought anyone would know what I meant.

Other examples of spontaneous manifestations of iki include the locution of casual conversation, a
certain posture, dressing in a gauzy cloth, a slim body, a slender face, light makeup, simple hairstyle,
going barefoot etc, suggesting how innocuous everyday phenomena emit iki. On the other hand, works
of art can be iki, but their “artfulness” makes them rather difficult to be iki.

At any rate it is an interesting idea to ponder. Tanslated concepts are a rich gift of living in such a connnected world. 

 

All three of the photos on this post are examples of some recent artcloth. Each of them is pretty small -- the largest is about 40" long and they were are created as demo samples during my recent workshops on scraps of cotton and old sheeting. Now the challenge will be to find the same feeling and get the same qualities on larger pieces of fabric, maybe even on silk.  The first two were monoprinted with dye and/or textile paint. Then soy wax batiked with both handpainted wax and with a soy wax silkscreen. The purple and yellow piece was first layered with brown and pale blue with a deconstructed silkscreen, then soy wax batiked with a soy wax silkscreen (the same screen used on the other two pieces). I really like the batik quality one gets with the soywax screen -- I think its an interesting faux batik look that goes well with a direct waxed process on top or under. One gets the repetition of the screening process, with the overall compositional quality and layering of color of the batik. Now, just finding time and emotional focus to do some bigger pieces! iki or not.

Another, less layers, but done with the soy wax screen and thickened dye:

 

Tagged times two

I thought I might could just wait it out, but no, now I have been tagged twice with this seven things thing. My fear: there is noone else left in the bloggosphere (blogasphere? bloggingsphere? ) who has not yet had to find seven other bloggers to lead all of you eager readers to.
But no, with two tags -- first by Thelma Smith and then by PaMdora --

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

So, seven facts about myself.

1. I lived for 35 years in the same house, then picked up and moved to the country, Pipe Creek, which has a post office but is not anything incorporated or politically real in terms of elected officials.

2. Our companion animals: Rodeo the border collie, Sam the killer old man cat, Cheech, the indoor Burmese with three legs, Lucky, the kid -- Maine Coon. 

3. I never learned to type until I was a feature writer for a major metropolitan daily.(didn't want to end up a secretary, ever). The most interesting assignment was going out into the middle of the Gulf and watching people scubadive into the Flower Garden Reef, or maybe it was having to learn to rock climb, or the little family circus on the Texas border.

4. My inlaws call me Susiepedia. I think they mean it as a compliment, but I am not certain.

5. I LOVE to take driving vacations with Linda in to Mexico. Mexico is an incredible country with amazing people and breathtaking natural beauty and most Americans -- even most Texans --  never get beyond the resorts.

6. This should be no surprise to anyone who knows me: I am the eldest child, eldest grandchild on both sides. (that is me and my little sister above)

7. In another life,  (maybe my next one) I would be a travel tour organizer or a travel journalist.

 Seven taggees:

Sabrina Zarcos 

In the Mood for Arte 

Gay Pogue 

That's all I can come up with for now. Maybe more later, maybe not. It's kind of annoying to have to do this. Like a chain letter with recipes or underwear or recycled paperbacks. It sortof seems like a good idea at the time, but doesn't quite seem to pay off the way you think it might.. so I hope those I tagged forgive me if they pay any attention. 

Letter from Tuscany

 

This art quilt is destined to hang at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center -- an example of the kind of art quilt journey that my end-of-November workshop will inspire. It was fun to take my own course today, taking memories, journal pages, the color palette of the countryside and the architecture and turning it into this piece. Making it today let me relive a day spent in and near Lucca -- Lucca has a Medieval wall that surrounds the old city. It has been preserved as a park that features a 2 mile path perfect for bikes and hikes around the circumference. We rode bikes one morning, and this old villa was one of the sights. It seemed abandoned but grand, and I can just imagine what kind of meals and parties and family dramas must have once filled those windows.

Here's one of the original photos; followed by a detail of the art quilt.

 

 

AND, this is the town closest to where I 'll be teaching a workshop in March. The Italian Adventure continues with the course, co-taught with writer and creativity workshop leader Carol Ikard. I am still waiting for the "official" brochure to be completed, but here's what I know so far:

 DATES: MARCH 15- 22 --- This is spring break weekend here in San Antonio, and is the weekend before Easter, so one might want to add a week on to the excursion and spend Easter in Florence or Rome.

LOCATION:  Selva, a compound of restored farmhouses and gardens near Lucca, located on a 1000-acre estate owned by a Baronessa. Working vineyards, orchards and olive groves are part of the estate, as well as the rustic mountainous area where Silva is located.

Cost, all inclusive, except for transportation to either Pisa or Florence: €2150 double occupancy

 Here's the four fiber art classes, just part of the full schedule of activities (morning writing workshops, cooking classes, field trips almost every day, activities for spouses or non-fiber friends who want to come along for all of the fun,

Monday -- Field Guide to Tuscan Color" --
Color is the one of the first design elements we associate with Tuscany - the warm rustic hues  of old walls and stacked stone, the rich botanicals and jewel tones from the grapes, flowers and foliage, the natural siena and ochres that come from the very earth. Using modern low-toxicity dyes, and some simple natural dyes (onion skins, beets and rust), participants will create organic and textural patterns on silk scarves and quarter-yard lengths of rayon, silk and cotton textiles to use in the week's subsequent sessions.

Tuesday -- "Beyond the Terrace" -- The beauty of Selva's landscape and its grasses, leaves and trees will inspire designs for printing on our fabrics.  Using the natural world as inspiration for design on fabric and paper participants will try their hands at solar printing, direct leaf printing, and develop designs for stencils and stamps.

Wednesday -- "Etruscan to Tuscan -- Historical Imagery to Inspire" -- We'll design and create printing blocks and stamps using historical imagery, photos taken on the week's field trips, images from Etruscan and Roman antiquity, as well as our own sketches and collections from the Tuscan landscape. Printing on fabric (if I can solve the technical and shipping issues)

Friday -- "Layers of Tuscany" -- Using all of the materials and tools from the art sessions, participants will layer their imagery to make one-of-a-kind art cloth, then cut, fuse and hand-stitch a small wall hanging. Simple embroidery stitches, beading embellishments and the use of fusable webbing to create original designs will be included in this final session

The schedule for participants is tentatively designed to include the following.                                                        
Sat        Arrival in afternoon; welcome with sparkling wine & refreshments; Susie & Carol introduce the program; begin limoncello making process; dinner under the pergola  
Sun    08.00    Early morning visit to the shepherdess to see the magic of pecorino cheese and ricotta.    
    09.30    Brunch   
    11.00    Creativity Expanded: unpacking creatively; feeling art and responding; thinking art   
    12.00    Walk around the property to search out natural materials for later fiber arts sessions, photography  
    13.00    Lucca Antique Market (opportunity for more materials)   
    17.00    Fiber arts workshop: Field Guide to Tuscan Colors   
    20.00    Dinner prepared by Emanuela   
Mon    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: The Committee and Drawing left-handed   
    10.00    Beyond the Terrace  Fiber Arts Workshop
    13.00    Lunch at Selva and break   
    15.30    Lucca:  fabric shops, weaving museum, private collections of antique fabrics, button shop, da Vinci exhibit, etc.   
    20.00    Dinner prepared by Emanuela   
Tue    07.30    Breakfast   
    08.00    Van to Florence: museum of silks, Renaissance archive   
    13.00    Lunch in Fiesole; Etruscan museum and Roman amphitheater  
    17.00    Leave for Selva   
    20.00    Dinner at Selva prepared by Emanuela   
Wed    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: seeing designs and symbols 
    10.00    Fiber Arts Workshop: Layers of Tuscany   
    13.00    Lunch at Selva and break
    15.30    Return to Lucca to explore more fabrics and shops   
    19.00    Puccini concert   
    20.30    Dinner at Puccini Restaurant at Piazza Puccini   
Thu    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: Enlarging art and enjoying mistakes, writing about ideas and art  
    10.00    Etruscan to Tuscan Fiber Arts Workshop
    1.00    Lunch at Selva and break   
    3.30    Tour of baroque villa with antique fabrics and tapestries plus fantastic garden   
    5.30    Begin cooking lesson with Emanuela   
    8.00    Dinner   
Fri    08.00    Breakfast   
    09.00    Creativity Expanded: 
    10.00    Fiber Arts:  (Felt, beads, embroidery)
    1.00    Lunch at Selva and break   
    3.30    Tour of vineyard, wine and olive oil tasting   
    7.00    Pizza with Eduardo   
Sat        Departure   

 Let me know if you're interested. The trip is limited to


 

One for the environment

When I learned tonight through Planet Textile Threads that this was a blog action day for environmental action, i had one fast thought. As an art cloth maker and an art quilter I recycle A LOT. And right now, I am trying to reuse and use up. For every thing I don't buy, don't have shipped, don't order online or find at Office Max I save energy -- usually both mine and the world's.

Here's to you doing the same. Which may just mean using up the stash. Using the dye you have. Using the paint that has been sitting on the shelf. It is quite easy as a fiber artist to be seduced by the catalogs, by the new techniques, by the fun toys. I am certainly no saint. But, I am on a mission this month to cook up the deep freeze, go to the dyes on the shelf. shuffle some stuff out of the boxes into thrift stores for someone else's good use. Catalog and sort my piles of old table linens and send what I can out to the holiday sales. All of these are actions with environmental consequenses on the plus side of things. What else as artists can we do?

Simplicity Simplified

If you've been reading my blog for long you know I am a fan of John Maeda's Laws of Simplicity. Though my work my not look it. I just got word in my mailbox that TED has just posted his short talk.

It's a pretty lightweight talk as TED Talks go, I think I like his writing better than this presentation, but, the art gave me a few giggles. 

"About this Talk

The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art -- a place that can get very complicated. Here, he talks about paring down to basics, and how he creates clean, elegant art, websites and web tools. In his book Laws of Simplicity, he offers 10 rules and 3 keys for simple living and working -- but in this talk, he boils it down to one simply delightful way to be.

About John Maeda

John Maeda is a graphic designer and computer scientist dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, as well as his devoted students at MIT's Media Lab, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity."

The Back Story

 

 More back story for that last quilt posted: Here are the lyrics to "And She Was." (Maybe I already told you this, oh well.)

And She Was

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

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

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

CHORUS

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

And she was looking at herself
And things were looking like a movie
She had a pleasant elevation
She's moving out in all directions

CHORUS

Joining the world of missing persons (and she was)
Missing enough to feel alright (and she was)

At our recent Artcloth Network meeting, we spent a bit of time debating the use of short artist statements as part of the labels next to the work at our exhibit. A few people stood firm on "letting the work stand on its own," with some discussion  about how no one expects a painter to put an explanation next to his or her work. Others concurred that artist statements often can read like just so much jargony gobbledegook. (Only bad ones, I say.)

So are explanations of one's work something we as fiber artists should eschew, with the intent of being more accepted as "real" artists, since that's what painters do or don't do.  Well, yes, and no. Having worked fairly recently in the world of museum exhibits, I know that the trend, even in the vaulted A with Capital A Art World is for more explanation, not less. I personally enjoy exhibits more when I can read something of the back story. I don't know if we are just less comfortable with letting go of the verbal, and less well-mastered in visual literacy, or if we just want more. I don't find explanations off-putting, and I really like knowing more about the artist, no matter what the media. In a sales gallery, one expects the manager, owner or staff to to the job. In a volunteer organization's gallery space, that's a bit much to hope for.

By the time discussion had ended, we found ourselves in agreement that the use of SHORT artist statements relating to the work at hand -- stories -- did help the exhibit and help the audience, especially in a relatively "new" media like artcloth.
What do you think? Do you like reading labels, like the supporting materials you find on websites and blogs? (I guess if you are reading this, you might say, yes.) Do we humans around the virtual fire pit want stories in the same ways our ancient ancestors did?

Somehow this also seems to relate to something I read today on John Maeda's "Symplicity" blog. He is wondering whether the physicality of products is going to be less important than the software associated with them as the world goes on into the ether. Think about it, the ipod is less about the machine you hold than the software on itunes that makes it oh-so-versatile.