Scrolling through UTube this morning, I chanced upon this bit of advice from Bob Baker. It was a good reminder to me of what to focus upon as I work on some promotional plans for upcoming shows and exhibitions.
I am from...2
I am from the third seat of the aqua blue station wagon,
from Plymouth and Dodge,
from fights about whose turn it is,
and whether that was really a license plate from Alabama.
I am from the long, low front porch, screened, a cool cement floor
and the glider with a tin-chime in its swing.
I am from the thorny sweetheart rose outside bedroom windows left open,
from oleanders on the highway median,
a low hurricane sky stretched out flat as an ironed sheet over the coastal plain.
From the Hill Country, too, with its false horizons and blanket of cedar pollen come December.
I am from hardscrabble people who left and kept leaving, some coming back this way
and beauties with thin noses,
from Rosemary who started out Rowena and sang opera while doing the dishes, from three generations of James Lee
and three doctor Shipps.
I am from the ones who take to their rooms and never come down
from one who walked in front of a train.
And from others who don’t. Aunt Nan and Aunt Jack and Aunt Judy and Ruth, the dancer
From those who shall sit at the table until everyone is finished
and those who would never put to pen anything too intimate.
I am from Catholics turned Methodists turned Presbyterians,
the chosen who can’t sing worth a,
well where I’m from, we don’t curse, that’s for sure.
I'm from big oil city out on the edges where young families survive doctoral tyrants and colicky babies,
from meatloaf and pot roast, and tomatoes picked just before supper.
From the buzz of story that seeps under the door at night,
Texas Rangers and buggy rides,
droughts and droughts and droughts,
and the flashflood that washed away Uncle Ray’s kin,
farms lost and found,
fortunes ebbed and flowed,
French poodles and Neiman Marcus hats
and the occasional steer brought to market.
I am from thick scrapbooks on the bottom shelf,
baby books 1,2,3,4,
cardboard boxes stacked in sheds,
regrettably dusty shelves waiting for spring cleaning in a 4-square house on a few creek-navigated acres.
From people in photos with names carefully noted on the back,
living tangled tight in as many spider webs as my heart can spin.
Update on 2008-03-12 00:11 by Susie Monday
A few more found across the globe. Imagine that time travel between us seems interestingly similar although we are far spread globally. I think many of us must be around the same age...
I am from..
I am from prickly pear pads covered with cochinil and from the sticky sweet carpet of yellow mesquite beans. I am from the grape Koolade scent of purple Mountain Laurel in March and the musty flame of sumac leaves in October.
OK, let's take a tiny creative break from all that focus.
I spent half an hour this morning soaring around the blogosphere. The best thing by far I picked up was a wonderful writing exercise on Terry Grant's blog, And Sew It Goes (I followed the trail from one of my regular must-reads -PaMdora's Box).
The premise is to write something based on a evocative poemevocative poem titled I am from by George Ella Lyon.
This is making its way around the internet (see 2 Lime Leaves), not quite a meme as one doesn't exactly get tagged, but I hope you'll try it, and if you have a blog, post it there with a comment so we can find it. If you don't have a blog, just put your version in the comments here or in my next post where I will publish my version! See you tomorrow with poem in hand. Here's the template that started it on its internet voyage, from writer Fred First in his blog post on February 18, 2005. He put this together from the original poems structure, I think.
I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)
I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).
I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).
From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).
I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.
I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).
From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).
I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).
Of course, you can make your own version without the template, too; many of those doing this exercise have done just that. But I think I will enjoy the structure -- open-ended forms like this appeal to me, just like figuring out the size of a potential art quilt seems to be the first step my creative process requires. I like filling in a space with colors, rhythms, lines and shapes and this kind of writing is the literary equivalent, I suppose.
Think of this as a creative breather, something that might take an hour out of your busy day, but that will feel as though you've had a wonderful massage, a walk in the woods, a picnic by the lake -- all without taking much time or gasoline to get there.
Focus is fine. Necessary and Essential. But we creative beings (and that's all of us) also need to take deep drinks of water from the random universe. Playing around with a not-so-familiar framework or media or idea is often just the thing to renew your energy for that big push.
Focus
What does focus feel like?
I am taking an online course -- actually more of a group coaching program -- that asks me to focus on a specific goal for 28 days. (My goal is to plan a creativity coaching service that complements and extends my teaching and studio work.)
This focus thing is hard for me. Really hard. Even in attempting to focus, I find myself all over the map. Am I really such a flittery-gibbit? Oddly enough, I know that one of my strengths is my ability to focus on the task at hand, in hand, on the table top. Once I am in the flow with a concrete activity, it is easy for me to have my headlights on the task and the work gets my total attention. BUT, focus that is conceptual -- to narrow my thinking and planning to a specific end -- rather than a hands-on goal -- like finishing that piece of art on the table -- is more difficult. I don't know what to do with the sea that I am already swimming in. I am trying to transfer the feeling of concrete focus to conceptual focus. What does it feel like in my body, in my spirit?
Last week (the first of the 4-week program) I made a bit of progress. This week I want to do even better. One thing that seems to help is intention (and stating that intention out loud): Today I will spend 4 hours on my Breakthough Goal, and 4 hours on the other work that needs doing, chosing the most important tasks, making a "next action" list and checking them off as I get them done.
Another thing I learned last week is that the more specific and measureable my actions are, the more likely I am to accomplish them --As one of Linda's statistics professors says, "If you can count it, you can do it." For example, last week I set a goal to collect 50 names for my mailing list, as I am planning a quarterly newsletter and want to send it to a wide audience. At the Joan Grona sale, I made it a point to ask every single person who walked into the gallery to give me contact information if they would like to receive arts event and workshop information. And it worked. I now have 50 new names to add to my list.
So, off to the studio -- today, to the desk -- focus, focus, focus. I'd love to hear any strategies that help you accomplish your goals, especially those that help to make the fuzzier conceptual ones more like real on-the-table tasks.
Zero InBox
Here's another helpful organizational hint from Merlin Mann's 43folders, one of my very favorite website/organizational resources. I am posting this today, because of a topic on a private blog that is being used by participants in Alyson Stanfield's Artist Breakthrough Program -- more about that in my next post.
Show and Sell
Overheard in the gallery: talk about Obama and Hillary pro and con, con and pro; spaceships in Stephenville; clothes trades and recycling; stories about Hipp's Bubble Room (home of the Shypoke Egg, everlasting Christmas and the tiny train around the room that closed in 1980), and all the other things that artists and art-lovers like to talk about in such energetic settings.
Here we are (well, as soon as I get my photos downloaded from the phone and uploaded to the blog, here we are) at Joan Grona Gallery at Blue Star, showing our stuff, selling our wares. This little two-day artist fair was organized by my friend Gene Elder. While the attendance was sporadic, the company was delightful and we had fun, as artists do, oohing and ahhing over each other's latest products. Joan was a gracious host to all the frivolity, allowing her upscale serious gallery to take on the temporary air of a gypsy fair with everything from beads to found treasures, paper collage, plastic burgers, pitchers of beer (the aforementioned Hipp's Bubble Room installation), et al.
The show concludes tomorrow (Friday) after another 11 am - 6 pm session, so hurry on down if you are in the San Antonio area. And while you are at Blue Star, stop in to see the art cloth exhibit at StoneMetal Press gallery, too.
More Soy, More Fun
Soy you want ta make some pretty cloth?
Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have been fighting technology all day, and making bad puns seems to be the only way I can get back on the sunny side.
Things were a lot more fun this weekend at the Soy Batik workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. Eight participants attended, most of them from outside of San Antonio, and only one person was an APKTM (Artist Previously Known to Me). We were up to our eyeballs in dye and wax and the place reeked like a Chinese restaurant from all that soy wax. (One of the things I miss about beeswax is its luxurious scent. But I don't miss the hasstle of removing it from fabric, as opposed to the hot-water wash required by soy wax.) I think everyone did splendidly, but I always think that, because they do. This group of artists were particularly eager, experimental, able to take an idea and fly with it. Teaching is one of my true delights in life. I share with the "students" all over again the pleasure of the techniques, the sensory joy of the materials, when I see how others react to their "first time" at something new. That seems particularly true with hot wax and painted dye. The colors can't help but make your day.
Marta from Del Rio works on a watery swirl -- inspired perhaps by the creek that will be the focus of an art and science project this year in her home town. She and Linda (in back) are spearheading an exciting study at their art center, housed in the old Fire House.
Here's a sampling of work in progress. I left my camera at home on the second day, so I am waiting to receive promised photos from the participants. Unfortunately some of the emails I collected are impossible to decifer, others are just wrong, so I hope the magnificent 8 involved will see this post and send me the pics.
Roberto took a particularly adventurous hands-on course. He gave us all recipe calendars from his sales merchandising -- Nestle's Mexican product line -- La Lechera. Take my word for it, the Dulce de Leche is fabulous.
One of Sharon's pieces in progress -- doesn't this look like a fabulous magic carpet?
Accidental Hearts
Some recent work. Speaks for itself.
I am a sap for Valentine's Day, even though we don't go in big for any sentimental celebration. I just like the shape of hearts. (OK, it's a trite image as a noted art instructor and juror once told me, but an image can still has power even if it's trite, I think,) This is me working from my heart, listening to every little creak that puts me on my path. Today, the heart said, "CLEAN UP THIS PIGSTY" so I have been undoing all the clutter and putting my tools where I can actually find them. And sitting doing a bit of stitching in front of Project Runway reruns.
These "accidental hearts" -- a series of 5 -- are small wall "altares" eaach about 15.5" by 11.5" by 1.5" or 2". The are pieced and machine quilted with machine and hand stitching, some with buttons and other embellishments. The fabrics are all dyed, printed and/or overdyed and the central heart images were made with handpainting and deconstructed screenprinting in the Kerr Grabowski workshop I took a couple of weeks ago. The hearts were actually the prints that appeared accidentally on the drop cloth under some scarves I was printing. Because the silk scarves were so thin the dye seeped through and added another layer to a complexly printed accidental piece of design -- actually on the back of a piece of commercial upholstery fabric. Thus the title of this little series.
PS. the colors are more like that in the detail. I need to tweak the saturation in the one's taken outdoors today.
Here are some other valentine's sites I found while scrolling and stumbling along:
Video Valentine from PostSecret
Under the Big Quilt
The Wanderer/The Dreamer, Susie Monday, 2007
I just filled in my faculty contract for the Houston International Quilt Festival. For those of you reading who are not in the quilter's world, this is an annual journey to Mecca for many a quilt-hearted soul, from traditional to fringe element. Or bead element. Or doll or wearable or art quilty edgy element. Acres of quilts, acres of quilt-related items, hundreds of classes and workshops.
I was asked to submit a proposal earlier this year for the Mixed Media room, was accepted as a teacher, and so will join a 147-member faculty for the 2008 International Quilt Festival in Houston, October 27-November 2. I'll be teaching a three-hour workshop that is a short.sweet version of my Artists Journey/Artist's Journal workshop on Monday, 6-9 p.m. -- this is at the VERY START of the conference before many have arrived, but I am thrilled to be on the schedule at all. I also will be demo-ing an Inspiration card deck project in the Mixed Media Miscellany Ampler on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2-4 pm abd again on Saturday, 10-noon. I have also submitted a proposal for another demo of my art quilt artist altars. It will be a full week for me, and, judging from my previous visits to the Quilt Festival, quite an inspirational time.
The catalog comes out in July I believe, and at that time you can register for these (and other!) great workshops. If you've never been to festival and like fiber art of any sort, try to make it part of your travel plans this year. My first visit completely shook my understanding and comprehension of the world of the quilt, and subsequent visits continue to do so.
- International
Quilt Festival/Houston
October 30-November 2, 2008
Houston, Texas
George R. Brown Convention Center
Order the class catalogue
Meanwhile, due to a couple of people changing their plans, I have two openings for the March "Calling All Archetypes" workshop. There is only room left for sleepover participants for one of the studio beds ($15) or for the sofa in the living room (free bed), so if you are interested contact me soon. The workshop is March 7,8,9 beginning with a potluck on Friday night. Here's the plan:
Explore the inner team that keeps you going, makes a difference and sometimes holds you back from your best life. Working with exercises inspired by Julia Cameron, Caroline Myss and the Tarot. Create a unique fiber art quilt altar to one of your personal archetypes, learning fusing techniques, sun-printing with dye and soy milk (weather permitting), photo transfer and machine quilting. Suitable for all levels, and inspiring for those beginning an art journey in fiber. Note: Friday night is an optional evening potluck and stayover. $150 if payment is received before March 1, $160 thereafter.
(The photos in the post are examples of a small archetype piece of mine --above-- and participant work in progrss from a recent Archetypes workshop in Arizona.)
Finding your Voice, part 2
About time for part 2. Actually, it's about content. The second stage of finding one's voice as a visual artist has to do with content and themes.
Many artists who are just starting out jump around from one topic to another, one genre to another, one influential teacher to the next -- this is an important stage in learning to be oneself. Sooner or later 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. Committing to solving the same problem different ways earns a potent benefit in the process of finding one’s voice. 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.
Working in series is at the heart of finding content. Some artists resist this -- the "lists" are full of dialogue about those who defend their right NOT to work in series -- and sometimes the arguments can be convincing. But I challenge you to find any artist (in any medium, even) who has achieved a measure of creative (or professional or financial or even popular) success who has not come to grips with working in series. Yes, a body of work might travel through a universe of themes in its breadth, even a galaxy of styles, but within that space travel, the artist finds herself or himself treading some familiar paths over and over, if only to find new ways to solve compelling problems. Series work does not have to be exclusive or linear. I have several series all going at once -- but I do return over and over again to address and to identify certain key images, shapes, icons and themes. One visit just won't do the trick.
I do allow myself to wander around between the roads. One needs to stray, to play, to meander -- just where do you think those series are born? So the artist's life seems to me this seesaw -- pushing out from what is known, tackling the next turn around a known arena and, on the downside, dashing out into dangerous traffic.
There are times (and I happen to be herein) when one can't stand the idea of doing anything that looks anything like what one has done before. That's scary. One little inner voice says: You have worked hard to establish this content as your own. This IS your style. And the devil on the other shoulder argues, Tsk, tsk, repeating yourself again are you? This teetertotter can be paralyzing. My advice (to myself, mostly) keep the momentum. See what happens. Do the new. Punch it up next to the more familiar and see what happens.
What do you do? Where do you dance with content? How do you own your work?
Hearts and Journals
Button, button, whose got the button? I've been making these little stuffed heart milagros, embellished with vintage buttons. The ones I'm using were gifts from my friend Zet, and a few others that I've picked up and stashed away. But now I need more, since I want to sell these at the Love and IndepenDance sale coming up at Joan Grona gallery on February 21 and 22. I did have them (as well as some art cloth journal covers) for sale at the Federation conference -- a last-minute sales idea that recovered the cost of my room and meals on the road! ($22.00.)
Coincidentally, Linda's niece sent me a link today to this Austin artist Malka Dubrawski and one of her posts (see January 3) showed the buttons she had bought at a nearby junk and treasure's shop. I am jealous, so I guess it might be time to look locally for some junky shops -- buttons are rarely available at my usual thrift store haunts. So, dear readers, if you know of some shops for me to check, please leave a comment. Or better yet, send me 20 buttons and I will send you a heart!
Here are a few of the journal covers:
Playing in Plano
This art quilt was juried into the DAFA sponsored Federation of Fiber Artists exhibit in Plano -- with about 58 other works, it will be on display through the month at the Plano Art Center. The link will take you to a gallery of all the work in the show.
The title is "Floating Above It," and the work is inspired by the song by Talking Heads song "And She Was"
The lyrics:
“And She Was”
“And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She's making sure she is not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbor's house
Now she's starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes
“The world was moving and she was right there with it (and she was)
The world was moving she was floating above it (and she was) and she was
“And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard
“She was glad about it... no doubt about it
She isn't sure where she's gone
No time to think about what to tell them
No time to think about what she's done”
Hard at play with a bunch of Babylocks. Theralyn Hughes, Pat Schulz in front, Jack Brockett and Ruthie Powers can be spotted in the back.
Just like in the quilt, the wind is whirling up the ridge after a couple of wonderfully warm and sunny days. Alas, I've been stuck deep inside the studio shuffling papers, filing forms, putting my month in order after playdays with the Federation of Fiber Artists (the Texas coalition of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and now, Austin) fiber arts groups. The every-other-year conference, hosted by Dallas Association of Fiber Artists, was in Plano this past weekend. I took a couple of half-day workshops -- 3-d shibori techniques with Carol Lane Saber and needle felting with the Baby Lock embellisher with Sara Moe. What I learned: 1. instant set dyes work great for hotle room dye workshops, given the water, batching limitations and 2. I am not immune to the seductive appeal of the needle-felting embellisher.
But I resisted (for now) given that the winter's equipment budget went for a new laser printer and ink jet printer. I figure the Babylock will still be there when I get around to it. I certainly understand why its the toy of the moment for fiber artists. I had believed myself to be immune because I am not particularly interested in adding a lot of fuzzy texture and random frays and textural tornadoes or 3-dimensionality to my work. I like the flat plane of fabric and I prefer to develop a sense of visual texture with patterned layers of imagery. BUT, when I found out I could actually create fabric out of little bits of other fabric, and that I could quite subtly add an element of pattern hither and yon, I was a goner. This is too much fun. Three hours barely gave us enough time to see Sara's examples and to put a few needles into action. The only downside I can see is that I will break way too many expensive needles figuring out what and how to use this machine, when I do spring for one.
(Addendum: Deborah Boschert also posted some great photos and information about the Federation conference here.)
On another front in Plano, we had the Federation exhibition at the Plano Art Center, a wonderful repurposed space with character, tall ceilings and a nice ambiance. Juror (and keynote speaker for the conference) Joan Schulze chose 6 awards of merit, among them Laura Jeanne Pitts, Leslie Jenison and Leslie Klein of FASA. (Was there another San Antonian awarded an honor -- I can't remember!) Anyhow, I counted myself among good company.
Below: Leslie Klein, Leslie Klein and Martha Grant, Leslie Jenison, group shots of happy artists Rachel Edward, Yvette Little, Jean Peffers and my art quilt amid a crowd.
MORE at the show: Pat Schulz's piece inspired by her travel in Guatemala, Pat, husband Gerald and Rachel; Laura Jeanne Pitt's stunning art cloth and Lisa Kerpoe's layered art cloth is peeking out behind the talkers.
StoneMetal Press Reception Tonight
Remember this soy-wax printed whole cloth little quilt?
The three pieces I featured recently on this blog will be on exhibit at StoneMetal Press in the San Antonio Blue Star Arts Complex for the next six weeks, through March 21. An artist's reception for "All in the FIbers" curated by Jane Bishop is tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and I'll be there with some of my artist friends who also have work in the show. Tomorrow, First Friday, will also feature an opening event as part of the usual First Friday phenomenon -- I'll miss that since I will be in Plano (near Dallas) for the annual Federation of Fiber Artists conference. Stonemetal Press is a gallery/printmaking center with an emphasis (as you might surmise from its name) on printing, and this exhibit features printmaking on fiber surfaces.
For more information contact the gallery at
StoneMetal Press
Printmaking Center
First Floor, Bldg B
Blue Star Art Complex
1420 South Alamo
San Antonio, TX 78210
210-227-0312
Deconstructed Screenprinting with Kerr Grabowski
One of Liz Napier's deconstructed pieces in progress-- stitch to be added!
Kerr with a workshop participant Laura Jeanne Pitts' work behind her.
FASA sponsored an inspiring and energizing workshop this past weekend with Kerr Grabowski. Kerr is known for her lively and creative art-to-wear, as well as her well-honed techniques -- in particular what she calls "deconstructed" screenprinting. Her methods for using a screen to transfer textural images are fun, freeing and allow for lots of personal expression. All of the participants made wonderful samples and yardage, and I won't be surprised to see how far each person takes the ideas. Kerr is a generous and supportive instructor, willing to share what she has learned from years of experimentation, so that we all benefit from her experience and expertise. Take one of her classes if it ever comes your way! All of us at this one (in the perfect venue at the Southwest School of Art and Craft) were clamoring for another next year -- and plans are already underway to make that happen.
Here are some additional pictures of the workshop and some of the work -- sorry if I get the artist name wrong, just send me an email for corrections. I don't have time to upload all 50 photos (and that might task your interest), but Kerr promised to publish others on her site as well.
Mary Ann Johnson's exploration of texture and shape.
Diane Sandler's yummy piece of work using deconstructed screenprinting and drawing with dye.
The Art Cloth Network Wants You*
*If you have a passion for making art cloth, like small group networking, and see a trip to New Jersey in your future!
With roots deeply imbedded in the fertile soil of fine craftsmanship, art cloth encourages the entwining of branches that include traditional women's work, high fashion and historical textile processes like batik, shibori and African mudcloth. | | |
Art Cloth pays homage to all of these but synthesizes them in a specifically from an essay by Jane Dunnewold | ||
The deadline is coming up for Art Cloth Network membership applications -- February 15 -- and I just realized that although I had sent the notice out on line and onto various lists, I had not actually put a dedicated post on the blog. There's still time if you are interested in making and learning more about making art cloth to send in an application. You need not be an expert, but you do need a desire to make art cloth as a genre unto itself, and you will need a few shots of fabric to use in your applications. New members are being sought to fill few vacant spots in this group limited to 25 members, nation wide. We propose and produce exhibitions dedicated to art cloth, maintain a website and meet about every 9 months for wrangling, sharing, teaching, learning and having a stimulating and interesting meeting. Because of the size of the group, and our intention to serve as supportive peers to one another, the face-to-face gatherings have proved essential to really getting benefit from the organization. Applicants for this round of membership must commit to attending the next meeting, Sept. 4-7 in New Brunswick, N.J.
Second commercial message: If you are in the San Antonio area -- or need a midwinter vacation -- and want to add a technique to your surface design tool box, I will be teaching a soy wax workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft on February . The piece at the beginning of this post, and the one at the end both use soy wax screenprinting and soy wax batik to create their fluid and richly layered imagery. Register by going to the school's link
Spend two days using the latest hot wax techniques to make beautiful multicolored fabrics. The use of |
Creativity Coaching?
Line Collection, 2008
I have a question for all of you: I have been thinking a great deal about my "mission" and my "business." Although making art is very important to me, even more important (in a life mission kind of way) is my commitment to helping others develop and strengthen their own creative and unique "voices." That's why I teach in the ways I do, and why I usually end up doing the other consulting in arts ed fields that I do.
I make, exhibit and sell art in order to have credibility to my main "audience," which at this time in my life is other artists, often it seems, other women artists who work in fibers. And, because personally, I NEED to make the art I make to feel whole and fulfilled at a spiritual level. But, in honest truth, my driving motivation is not making the cover of Art in America or hanging on the walls of the American Museum of Craft or turning up on the Today Show as some kind of superartist. I don't have that kind of ambition or singlemindedness! I have entered enough juried shows to know that I can sometimes get in and that it has more to do with what show and what juror than it does with the quality of my work. I have a style and a body of work that is evolving fast enough and consistently enough that I don't feel stale or stuck. And I think what I do is a pretty good example of an artist finding her style and voice.
As I sort through the expenses and income of the past year (and I do need to make a living doing this or some other work) I am thrilled to find that the workshops here at El Cielo Studio have been successful both creatively and financially. And, that those workshops that are less technique oriented and more conceptually dealing with artistic and creative growth are the ones that seem to be the most in demand.
I have had the idea of perhaps also offering some kind of "creativity coaching" or maybe even an on-line course that would help emerging and developing artists locate, develop and strengthen their one-of-a-kind visions -- finding a style or "voice" that has at its foundation their unique perceptions and process of work. The point would be to move some of these emerging artists more quickly along the path from being dabblers and workshop junkies and pattern followers to finding their own most powerful areas of creative "production," whether their goal is selling, exhibiting or just for personal enjoyment. My work with children and teachers for the past 35 years has had this kind of approach at its core, based on my early work in the "Integration of Abilities"course, the children's theater work, and late Learning about Learning, with my mentors Jearnine Wagner and Paul Baker.
What do you think? How could I make this work? Do you think there is a potential market for this kind of coaching? It would differ from traditional coaching in that much of the work would be hands-on assignments, with the "clients" sending images of their work (or posting them) for feedback, direction, analysis and critique. I think that some kind of "group setting" for this kind of work will be best, because sometimes the things people need to see and recognize about their personal approach and individual style is best seen in contrast to what others are doing. So some form of on-line group with lists, photos to post etc, seems called for. However, with a recent book study group that I set up on the social networking site NING, it's been obvious that MANY people (of a certain age anyway) have a resistance to using more complex internet interfaces, and don't feel comfortable about poking their way around to learn new interactions. Maybe an orientation session would solve that problem?
Anyhow, this is as excited as I have felt in a long time about a possibility for my work. I'm getting those tingly little feelings that either mean it's a good idea, or that whether it is or not, I better try out a version somehow and see how it flies.
I plan to participate in a new online course/group, the Artist Breakthrough Program, offered by Alyson Stanfield, ArtBizCoach, with this idea as the core product to plan during a 28-day online format (if I get accepted). That should give me more experience in the nuts and bolts and possibilities of the online group, too.
Anyhow, I'd love your feedback and comments. If you were going to take part in this kind of thing, how would you like to see it work?
Texture collection, 2008
Meanwhile, back from future plans to the world of almost-right-now, I have a new session of Independent Study starting at the Southwest School of Art and Craft. I am planning on opening each session of studio work with a short creativity lesson session and a quickie demo of a new or underused surface design technique. The school's facilities for doing large dye and print work are superb -- each participant will have a full 4 foot by 8 foot print table for her or his work. If you live in the San Antonio area, consider signing up for this 6-week course on Friday mornings, through Feb. 28. (And there are a few spots left still in the next two El Cielo Workshops -- Feb. and March. )
Jan Phillip's Artist Creed
Something my friend and sister artist Martha K. Grant sent me this morning begs to be shared with all of you. I will find out more about Jan when I have time, but meanwhile, this is a lovely sidebar to my weekend with the Artist Journey/Artist Journal. Hope you enjoy it.
Artist Journey/Artist Journal
(back to front) Cher, Dian and Leila work on their creative maps.
This weekend saw a new reiteration of the Journal workshop -- the third year begins at El Cielo Workshop. It was a full house, a new moon and a wonderful group of caring, sharing women...again. I am blessed to have this space, this time, these skills and an audience of co-creators for my quirky kind of teaching. What I like best: the small size of the group, the all-day/all-night rhythm, the pacing of working and playing, eating and talking. The sharing of trials, tribulations, victories and strategies for living a creative life. Playing with materials, new and old.
Friday night began with my co-instructor Sue Cooke showing us all how to make a small lovely Coptic bound journal, with decorative papers, real bookbinding stitches and all the right amount of patience. Saturday and Sunday brought the group through pathways toward a way to use journaling in the way that makes the most sense for each individual, and along the way we all worked on studio rituals, goals for the year and recognizing what must be given up to accomplish those goals. (Ah yes, the old 24-hours-in-a-day reality.) Here are a few of the mixed media Journal Boxes made by those present. (click on the thumbnails for a larger view) In order, boxes by Heather, Sharon, Leila, Cher, Dian. I love open-ended forms, as you can see. The same instructions and a stash of materials, a few simple kindergarten cut-and-paste instructions, and look how different these minds are!
Here are a few more in-process pictures.
If you are interested in being part of the next El Cielo workshop artist's retreat, call or email me as soon as possible as each workshop is limited to seven at the most (and a few people have already reserved). Coming up:
THE HEART OF ART
February 9-10, 2008
Saturday & Sunday
$160, most supplies included. Accomodations, free to $30. $150 if paid by Feb. 1.
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. Where our passion is, so lies our potential for genius, for inspired work, for speaking in the voice that is truely your own. The work we do from our hearts surpasses that from any kit, any class, any technique. Start the journey of identifying that one-of-a-kind self that longs to have its say in the world.
CALLING ALL ARCHETYPES
March 7-9, 2008
Friday evening to Sunday
$160, most supplies included. Accomodations, free to $30. $150 if paid by March. 1.
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.
And don't forget:
SOMETHING SPECIAL: Workshop in Tuscany
March 16-22 in Lucca, Italy.
Sensory Alphabet
One of Nina's line collection photos (at the Aldrich)
Another chapter in the Creativity Sagas. Susan, Cindy (both colleagues from our nearly childhoods) and I have been working with the educators at the Aldrich Contemporary Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, giving a 3-day crash course in using the Sensory Alphabet (an equivalent of letters and numbers for everything except letters and numbers) and developing programs that help kids (and their parents) identify individually powerful and authentic creativity. This was a kind of step 2 interaction after the successful program Susan ran at the museum last summer for 5 year olds. Remember this post?
The sensory alphabet (which might sound at first blush like design terms or an art vocabulary) is line, color, shape, space, rhythm, movement, texture, light, sound. And yes, the arts (visual, performing and edges and overlaps thereof) are where this "alphabet" can be used easily with children, but the idea is broader and deeper than that. ie: Creative people in many disciplines and fields of study and invention are most likely working from their strenghts corresponding to their perceptial strengths. Show me a good mathematician, I will probably see a person strongly interested in rhythm, space and line.
All this is the subject of our book-in-progress, but the work this week has been to help this staff apply some of the key concepts we've all been interested in to their program development. The most important and critical reason we are interested in putting this work out in new forms and with new audiences is that since our work in the '70s and 80s, the world of primary (and secondary) education has gotten smaller, tighter, less interested or responsive to individual talents and interests and more test driven than ever. The results -- here EVEN in this quite affluent area of the U.S.: parents hungry to find programs that actually help their kids find successful and creative paths into the future, something more than just skill aquisition, something that touches and awakes a fire for learning, achieving, applying information, using deep wisdom.
Here's the an example of the COLLECTION exercise we started with. Try it! (I've got eight others, if it's of interest, email me and I will send you the complete list of 9.)
Collecting Ideas with the Sensory Alphabet
The next 2.5 – 3 hours will take us through the Sensory Alphabet with a series of collection techniques – these are just a few of the ways the SA can be used to generate personal content -- as well as to explore a theme, a period of art history or a work of art.
We will spend about 15 minutes with each of the 9 alphabet concepts: Line, Shape, Color, Movement, Rhythm, Space, Texture, Light, Sound. As you work with these Sensory Alphabet “screens,” you might also want to consider these “modifiers”:
Tension
Balance
Contrast
Progression
Direction
Size/Scale
Volume/Mass
Weight
Emphasis
Repetition/Diversity
General Instructions:
During the next 2.5-3 hours, (that's for the entire 9 categories) use as many different spaces and materials and media available as possible. If you usually sketch to collect ideas, spend at least part of each session doing something completely different: writing, moving, making sounds, taking photos, tearing paper, etc. Use both the familiar and the unfamiliar.
Work quickly without judgment. This is art-making; this is not product. This is not good or bad. This is collecting, stretching, playing, finding new and old ways to interact with the environment around you. Play as a child would play, but record as you go, finding different ways to record what you notice, engage with and find interesting.
Don’t pay attention to what anyone else is doing. You can’t be better or worse, by definition.
Pick and choose between the following assignments for each sensory alphabet element as you wish. You may do several of the assignments or only one in the time allotted. BUT the emphasis is on fluency to some degree. It is more appropriate in these exercises to work with flow from one idea to the next, collecting as much information and as many ideas as you can during the assignments.LINE
- Collect 15 different physical lines.
- Draw at least 20 different lines on LARGE pieces of paper.
- Walk the patterns of at least 5 lines you see in the natural world or in art works around you.
- Write the story of a line you like.
- Pick a natural object that appeals to you and find all the lines in the object. Sketch them over and over.
- Translate some of the lines you have found into a collage using string, yarn, sticks, thread, wire or other linear materials.
- Draw lines with a variety of different media. Go for diversity in scale, speed, color, fluidity or lack of, weight, thickness, etc.
- Fill a sack with lines.
- Make contour drawings of something you see. Draw very slowly following the lines in the object without looking at the paper. Use the pen as though you were following the lines by tracing them with your finger.
- Fill different sizes of paper with as many lines as you can. Or with one very long line.
- Imagine a new written script or language and write it out.
6 Steps for Mapping your Creative Journey
One of my New Year rituals is to map my creative path -- where I've been, where I see the road unfolding ahead. It's one of the exercises for my Artist Journey/Artist Journal workshop, and it's one that I've begun doing each year to set my own compass. And it's what I will work on for some time today in the studio. I like the visual nature of this exercise and it seems to loosen me up for more pragmatic, linear, word-oriented goal-setting. Perhaps you'll hear more about that later this weekend!
Here are the basics. The task: Draw , paint, collage an illustrated and annotated map of your journey as an artist.
Six steps to map your creative journey.
1. Chose a time period -- last year or the last five years -- or take the whole of your life's creative path. Work big, on a poster sized sheet or on a long accordion-folded length of pages taped together. You may need to do a little research: look back at calendars, a blog or journal you've kept, your morning pages, the photos in your albums. Don't read in detail, just skim the territory.
2. Is this the map of a world, a state, a universe, a neighborhood? Set the scale at what seems most pertinent, most interesting at the moment. Draw the shape of that known world map. Is it a circle, a rectangle, an unusual polygon, a universe with your solar system at its center?
3. Start with drawing in the big cities (or buildings or planets), the departure ports and destinations, the major landmarks, the mountain ranges, light years or busy streets you've traversed. What stands out from the background? Name and label these if you can.
4. Where were the highways, the byways, the crossroads and the roads noted but not taken? The deadends. The distracting side streets, any detours (and were they worth it?) What were the oceans crossed, the rapids and rivers that took you with the flow? Remember you are working on this visually and metaphorically; it may not seem to fit together exactly, but your job is to keep drawing, painting, pasting and collaging.
5. By now, you have much of this known world sketched in. Add some details -- historical markers: "What HAPPENED here," "On this spot in 1972." Name the streets and buildings. Note who else is wandering around your map -- add the names of friends, supporters, fellow travelers (maybe even a nemesis or two).
6. Now look at the territory outside the known map. Where are you headed outside the comfort zone? What other destinations beckon? And, like a Medieval map, there might be some places that deserve some warnings: "Here dwell dragons," "Beware the wormhole, " "Sirens sing here, wear ear plugs."