Houston, Houston

Here I am in the heart of the big time quilter's world, feeling, occasionally, like I'm in junior high on the first day and everyone else knows everyone else, except me. Silly. And then the next moment I'm meeting and actually talking to someone who has just been a name on the quiltarts list or in a magazine byline and having a ball. With my tribe, as Seth Godin's new book puts it. And this tribe gathers at the International Quilt Festival.

I'm taking baby steps with teaching here, and learning what and how to teach in such a setting. Then, I'm taking some classes with some of the artists whose work I have long admired: Hollis Chatelain and Libby Lehman, for example. My intent was to post daily with all the news, awards and photos, but here I am, three days later and finally having internet connection (paid for extra) at the hotel. So, no doubt if you care about such things, you already know that Sharon Schamber won the big $10,000 prize for Best of Show with an ornate, patterned and quite breathtaking quilt.

I don't even aim at this kind of quilting, in fact, I suspect that many of the quilters here would not even consider me a quilter. And I'm not, but my work, like that of many fiber artists, still connects my heartstrings to the traditional work of women quilters through time. I suspect we have been piecing small scraps together for much of our human history. And, with the notion of adding personal meaning and style, the art quilt came along and added an entire other dimension to the field.

This afternoon, the art quilt tribe will be at the SAQA booth to meet the "Masters," artists whose work has just been published in a beautiful collection of quilts published by the Studio Art Quilt Association. Many of the artists will be on hand to sign the book, and I want my copy -- and to meet more of these amazing artists.

Earlier, 2:00 to 4:00, I'll be demonstating making an inspiration deck in the mixed media sampler. This is less a technique than an approach, and just so you don't feel like you're missing this little piece of Festival, here's my handout:

Mixed Media Sampler
International Quilt Festival 2008
Instructor: Susie Monday
El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
susiemonday@gmail.com http://susiemonday.squarespace.com

A Personal Inspiration Deck
One suggestion: Make a card a day until your personal deck is complete. 52 is the traditional number for a deck of cards (13 cards in 4 suits) but you can make a deck as large or as small as you wish.

1. Make your own version of the Tarot deck, with your take on each of the archetypes in the major arcana and suits that refer to cups, swords, rods and coins (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades).

2. Invent your own set with your own categories (think AIR,FIRE, EARTH, WATER or MIND, BODY, SPIRIT,) and personal archetypes (see Caroline Myss book, THE SACRED CONTRACT, for ideas)

3. Simply make cards with images, quotes, colors, etc that are meaningful to you.

4. Make a deck picturing
13 people/ roles/archetypes (judge, seamstress, lover, etc)
13 actions (dance, sing, jump,etc)
13 mental approaches (brainstorm, make a list, blow up the idea, etc)
13 emotions (calm, enegetic, dreamy, determined)

5. Make a deck picturing
13 verbs
13 adjectives, adverbs
13 nouns
13 preposistions,conjunctions

6. Make a deck with mixed media techniques on paper or use an actual deck of cards as the base for each collage.

7. Make a deck of micro art quilts, using interfacing or Tivek as the base for fused and/or sewn cards.

Use your cards for:
Finding a focus or direction when you begin creative work.
To suggest a direction when you feel stuck
As a reminder to include personal meaning and imagery in your work
To add a thoughful or emotional dimension to the work at hand
As the subject for journaling and self-discovery

StumbleUpon Rewards

StumbleUpon is my daily reward of choice lately for certain tasks, doing things I ought to but don't, the inevitable shoulds that creep into the schedule. The whole concept of behavior changing by incremental baby steps relies on daily rewards, and I find that my inner 7-year-old (or maybe its the inner 12-year-old) really needs them.

I've been reminded of the power of little steps and little rewards by picking up Martha Beck's The Four Day Win. It's a non-diet diet book (something calling to me as some one who lives in my clothes is finding them way too tight). Food is not one of my major issues, but I think most American woman over a certain age find the inevitable battle going on between the desire to eat everything yummy in sight and a rather realistic concern over health, if not appearance (of course, not me, never, I really don't...)

So, past the dietary sidebar, the real purpose of this post is to reccommend Stumble Upon as a lovely timewaster. Download the little desktop toolbar widget (mine's on Firefox) and you'll have this toy at easy hand. Click on StumbleUpon and you get a random web page that has been reccommended to Stumbleupon by at least one other human webbrowsing person. (we think they are human, anyway.) You can get to StumbleUpon by clicking the big logo above, register and enjoy.

P.S. You can review my blog on StumbleUpon by clicking on the logo on the righthand sidebar. You'll also find some of the sites I've liked on my elcielo page. (Commercial announcement)

P.P.S. Here's the Amazon link to the Beck book: (another commercial announcement).

The Four-Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace

Fiber Artist Wins Genius Grant

My friend (and sister art quilter) Martha Grant sent me this notice last week and I finally had a few minutes to look into the story:

from the CBS News website: Mary Jackson is an African American basketmaker whose work exemplifies the way that fine craft can preserve and extend our personal and family stories and our world views. “This woman was awarded one of the 25 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grants worth $500,000. Yaaay for fiber artists everywhere!

"Mary Jackson, 63, fiber artist, Charleston, S.C. Jackson has preserved the craft of sweetgrass basketry.--"

There is also a video about Jackson's work on the Craft in America website. Here's more of what that source has to say about her:

Mary Jackson (b. 1945) is a basket maker who lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, Stoney. She makes sweetgrass baskets that come out of a tradition that has been passed down to her from her ancestors. It originated in West Africa, and then was brought to America by slaves.

This kind of basket making is an identifying cultural practice for people who were cut off from their own history, and has been a part of Charleston and Mt. Pleasant communities for more than 300 years. Jackson uses sweetgrass, palmetto, pine needles, and bulrush in her work, which is innovative, but always mindful of its past. Her baskets are represented in many collections including the American Craft Museum, White House Collection of Arts and Crafts, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Museum of African American History, Detroit.

According to the CBS website, other visual artists who won this prestigious grant this year are:

Tara Donovan, 38, sculptor, Brooklyn, N.Y. As an artist, Donovan transforms ordinary materials into sculptures that mirror geological and biological forms.

Jennifer Tipton, 71, stage lighting designer, New York, N.Y. Tipton uses lighting to evoke mood and accompany dance, drama and opera.

It's heartening to see the range of ages represented and, simply by the fact that two of these visual artists, and 7 of the 25, are over the age of 55. This age-span tells me that Malcomb Gladwell is onto something in his New Yorker magazine article, one that has deservedly been making the rounds on the fiber art lists. Read more here: "Late Bloomers - Why do we equate genius with precocity"

Quiltmania 2 in Arlington

Susan Fuller-Sutherland put together a great powerpoint about the Quiltmania exhibit, Piece by Piece, at the Arlington Museum of Art. With her permission, here are a few shots of the installation (with my three pieces). An artist's reception is scheduled for November 15. If anyone reading is within a shout of Arlington, I hope you will attend at my invitation. I hope to make it, but that soon after Quilt Festival, it may be difficult for me to take the time away from the studio. I am not sure that I have a complete list of the other's whose work is in the show, curated by Mary Ruth Smith, but I know that these Texas artists have work included: Ann Adams, Pam Studstill, Liz Axford, Jack Brockette, Sylvia Weir, Julie Upshaw,

Fiber Arts Exhibit at Gallery Nord

This art cloth of mine received second place honors;

In the Midst, In Memory of Dr. Israel Cuellar

Fiber Artists of San Antonio opened its annual exhibition last night at Gallery Nord on N.W. Military Hwy. The space is really a wonderful venue and the work is up to the arena this year. I am amazed at the beauty and power of the show, and feel so blessed to be part of a group with so much creativity, skill and imagination. Linda Rael and Lisa Kerpoe were the co-chairs and worked with diligence to make the event run smoothly. Taking top honers: Mary Ann Johnson with a bearutiful surface designed and stitched wall piece. Sorry MA, I don't have a picture of it yet! Lisa Mittler, Laura Beehler, and Laurie Brainerd also won awards.

Janet and Linda Rael during the awards ceremony. Linda and Lisa, too.

Janet Lasher stepped in as juror after Kim Ritter had to bow out after suffering damage to her home and studio during Hurricane Ike. We were fortunate that Janet was in town and had all the credentials a group could desire in a judge. Her task was not an easy one, but the show she selected is quite a good representation of the breadth of work being done in the organization.

Rather than chatter on about the work, I'm just going to post some photos, and let you see for yourselves. I think I have all the names and some of the titles down, but even without that info, you'll see the breadth of work. Forgive me if I didn't get your work on the blog yet, I need to return to take some more photos when fewer people are in front of the work! 

Suzanne Cooke's The Girl in the Mirror

To the left, one of Linda Rael's art dolls and on the right, handbags by Diane Barney.

Two more of my pieces, Shaman/Crucifixion and She Steps.

Diane Sandlin's art quilt Sunset at Chaco Canyon

Sarah Burke's Jagged Edge Bowl (Sarah has been one of my students and this is the first show she entered!)

Dian Lamb's Heavenly Flashlight (sorry this one is a bit blurry --  I'll reshoot it)

Laurie Brainard's Dance, one of the award winners.

If you are anywhere near SA this month, take the time to see  the exhibition. You won't be sorry!

Fall Newsletter is "in the mail"

I hope. I seemed to have spent an inordinate amount of time NOT sending my newsletter -- making stupid technology errors. Every time I do this I swear I'm going to get a service that handles it -- and then another quarter rolls around and I haven't made the transition. I know that keeping my email list up to date and clean is an essential part of doing business these days, but it sure is boring.

Anyhow, that's the back story whine (whoops, switch that bracelet around) and here's the link to the newsletter up in cyberspace. If you'd like a subscription all your own (and didn't already get the mailing), just send me an email with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. susiemonday@gmail.com.

P.S. I am taking Lily Kern's Quilt University on-line course on Digital Photos on Fabric, in preparation for some workshops and to experience the online teaching and learning environment. I'm learning a lot, and mostly, having fun playing in Photoshop with some of the images I've collected over the years. The pomegranate images in this blog are the results of a few hours of fiddling around with different effects. I've been printing them out on fabric, so don't be surprised to see them on one of my textile paintings in the future. I'll be sharing some of Lily's tips (as well as a lot more garnered in other research) at my Southwest School of Art course next weekend -- Photos to Fabric, October 11-12, from 10-4 daily. There's still room for a few more participants if you are interested in learning more about using photos in your fiber art. Go to the SWSchool website to register online. We'll be preparing fabric with Bubble Jetset, using various transfer methods, playing with software (bring a laptop if you have one), trying out repeat designs and tiling photos to poster size images, and turning a photo into a good image for thermofax printing. Email me if you have questions.

And, don't forget about the El Cielo workshop on Oct. 17-19: Altares, Dias de los Muertos.

Talent and Success

Jeff Koons surely has success defined with his work on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Is he more or less talented than other artists whose work never makes it out of the garage?

Alyson Stanfield sent a tweet sometime last night asking: "Should I tell clients they won't find the success they want in a certain area b/c of lack of talent? I've always thought this wasn't my job."

A provoking question, and one that every teacher/coach/human being with artist friends must confront. My core values include a belief that every person is gifted and that creative work is our human condition-- certainly our human right. That doesn't mean that every person out there making oil paintings, watercolors or art quilts is equally "successful" at creating a piece of art. Nor, are any of us who do this work called art successful all the time.

Alyson's question really has two parts, one reason I couldn't even think of answering in the realm of Twitter. "the success they want in a certain area" and "lack of talent." Let's start with the tough one: "lack of talent."

According to Webster's (as quoted by Eric Maisel): talent is "any natural ability, power or endowment, and especially any superior, apparently natural ability in the arts or sciences or in the learning or doing of anything." Maisel in his book Creativity for Life; Practical Advice on the Artist's Personality and Career, writes compellingly about the subject of talent -- one of the most interesting points is that any artistic discipline requires an entire constellation of abilities -- a painter, according to Maisel, for example, must be able to make a powerful composition, have a fine color sense, a knack for new images or ideas, and the ability to evoke a powerful response -- so what if you have one or two but not the others?

That Webster's definition also adds "apparently natural" -- thus implying that some abilities at least can be learning, polished and improved. So there is that to consider as well.

Thus said, talent also, for me, has the dimension of "best fit." Since I think we all get to be creative in this particular manifestation, each of us comes into it with abilities and endowments to do something extremely well, something unique and un-doable by anyone else, stories (which might be in the form of quilts or paintings or jewelry or paintings) that no one else can tell. What I superficially judge as "lack of talent" really often means that the person in question has not (yet) found his or her strongest and most powerful form of expression. Watercolor just may not be it, no matter how much the person likes watercolors, lusts to be a watercolor artist and has latched on watercolor as his or her world. And that, I think, has to do with a lack of education for looking, dispassionately, at how and what are our sensory strengths, our physical patterns, our creative processes, our "best fits" thus to make a good match between what we come into the world with, and what we can most powerfully create.

Can a teacher help with this? Sure, but gently I hope. In the end though, each of us who wants to own the title "artist" must do a lot of clear-headed thinking about our abilities, powers and endowments and what the discipline of the medium really demands.

The other part of the question, "the success they want in a certain area," also implies another misfit -- maybe the artist just thinks the only success for her or him is to be hung on the wall of  MOMA. Is he or she reaching for a measure of success out of a need that has nothing to do with the creation of art, but fulfills some other longing for success, for fame, for fortune? The only way out of this one is more introspection, I fear. And a teacher or coach who can gently push one toward confronting and answering the tough questions about success. And, again, a realistic assessment of the fit between the "talent" and the marketplace (or exhibition space) desired. And talent may just not have a whole lot to do with some of those arenas of success: it could just be showmanship, luck, what the market wants, the historical "value" on a particular talent, the general economy...

Alyson is a art business coach, and she has curatorial experience and knows what the art market is on many, many levels, from personal experience and from her work with clients and workshop participants. Should she burst the bubble? I tend to agree that it might not be her job, as she defines it with her art business clients. Perhaps there's no harm in trying to get them to see clearly and come to the conclusion that they have not (yet) found their correct creative fit in the world? In conscience, can she keep taking someone's money to coach them through the business aspect of their artistic career, when she strongly feels that no matter how good they get at the business of it, they don't have the chops in the work? Maybe so, after all, no matter where they go with their work -- however they find the fit, now or later -- the business advice and techniques and skills should still be valuable. What do you think?

Maisel's book and the questions he poses for artists to answer might be a good tool to recommend. I'm finding it amazingly provocative, scary and quite helpful to work through -- and this from a woman who's done quite a lot of introspective thought about life, art and my place in it!

P.S. The entire realm of defining success is a rich, complex one -- and Lisa Call in her blog has been doing some really good defining, so for more on that, see this link (scroll down to find the success posts).

P.P.S.Creativity for Life: Practical Advice on the Artist's Personality, and Career from America's Foremost Creativity Coach

Recommended: Rayna's Book

What I've been reading lately. And using a lot for inspiration. I think Rayna's book is great for small, medium and large artists. Even if you think you know a lot about printing on fabric, I bet you'll find some fresh approaches and new ideas in her colorful book.

And true confessions. This is a test to see if I could figure out the affiliate marketing links with Amazon. If someone buys a book after clicking on the link from my site, I receive a small percentage of the sales price. (I don't even know what it is.) I don't want to clutter my site with advertising or sales links, but this is a very real part of the web environment, and though I will only ever recommend books that I endorse, I see no reason not to take advantage of this aspect of marketing technology, miniscule as it is. If you are interested in doing the same on your blog, and if you make it a habit to recommend books or other Amazon products, the affiliate site and very simple instructions can be found on this Amazon link.

Still experimenting, I think I like the linking with the image only -- in theory all the info is still available to a potential buyer, but it's a cleaner look. But, hey, simple instructions or not, I can't figure out how to link the code with the image.

Of course, in the case of Rayna's book, I'd rather just send you to her website and let you buy directly from her. So this is an exercise in potential future market opportunity. That is, if we end up with any economy left operating. I am an optimist, after all,  or I couldn't be an artist.

Clean Art

Here's just a little artistic inspiration for the day, found thanks to Claire Fenton, one of the blogging artists whom I like to read. The documentary and art have an interesting imbedded twist about marketing and sponsorship, too. Here's an artist who gets his unusual media to pay the way.

Seasonal Palette

There is a hint of fall in the air, even here in deep South Texas. We opened the windows last night and slept with a cool northwest breeze -- at least until the neighbor's dog cornered a raccoon or armadillo or whatever under his porch. Ah, the peaceful country life. Nevertheless, like a chef in a big city kitchen, i find my color sense turning to autumnal hues, longing for the leaf turning rusts and reds and golds that are at least a month away from the hillside!

So here's a little visual inspiration, no matter what colors your actual geography is gifting you with today. For me, it's a tiny little look into the future. 

Above: Beautiful rusted fabric -- a great way to get autumn hues --  by artist Adrian Highsmith. She used this fabric in a series of textile collages for a recent art exhibit in New Braunfels.

Pomegranates are among the early signs of autumn here. This photo has found its way into a couple of new textile pieces -- one will be part of the faculty donations at the Houston International Quilt Show -- and I just realized that I forgot to photograph it before shipping! But, the piece above, finished just today, uses a similar color scheme and another print from the photo above. Look for the companion piece in Houston.

(P.S. I hope the leaves will at least have a tiny bit of russet by the time of my next El Cielo workshop, October 17, 18, 19. The topic -- Altares: Dias de los Muertes. You'll choose the memory or experience to honor;  a person, place, former self, even the birth/life/death cycle of an idea, creating personal symbols and meaningful imagery. The techniques: constructing a art cloth altar with fusing, machine quilting, hand-stitching and embellishing of fabrics you've created with photo transfer, flour paste resist and hand-painting. If interested, email me at susiemonday@gmail.com.)

Above, Not yet, but coming. This photo was taken a couple of years ago, when our fall produced some lovely hues. That's not always the case, but these early cool fronts bode well for color on the hillsides.

Infinite Variety/Creative Choice

Infinite. Abundant. Words that have both spiritual and material connotations. One of my favorite writers, Annie Dillard, speaks of the fecundity of nature in her first book of prose, Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek:

"A big elm in a single season might make as many as six million leaves, wholly intricate,without budging an inch; I couldn't make one.a tree stands there, accumulating deadwood, mute and rigid as an obelisk, but secretly it seethes, it splits, sucks and stretches; it heaves up tons and hurls them out in a green, fringed fling."

And I worry sometimes about having too many ideas. You may worry about having too few, but my experience with artists is that's its always too many. I suggest that for today, just today, you and I take a page (a leaf?) from the elm and just make what needs making, at whatever stage that is, for whatever purpose, and if the caterpillers come, or the shoot withers, or the bud never opens. Well, there are at least 5,999,999 more to come just this season.

The photo that sparked this thought  (and, now my desire to reread Dillard's classic narrative of her year on Tinker Creek) were taken on a campus walk with friend Susan on the Rutgers campus. This little garden must have a horticulture department at its source -- the variety of late summer pods, and blooms and leaves, colors and shapes and textures, is enough for a lifetime body of work. Surface design, indeed.

Does anyone know what any of these flowers are? They were all unfamiliar to me. And If that spiny leafed plant will grow in my climate, I want it. Surely that would be deer resistant!

Teaching with Web 2.0

As I research options for my on-line course -- probably  "Text on the Surface" after feedback from a number of readers on and off the site -- this video by Dr. Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist, came across my path. Synchronicity was working overtime -- Linda wanted me to see if because of the implications for her Mass Communications teaching and research, and it opens ups a whole host of possibilities for teaching with the aid of electronic, digital interfaces. He presents an overview of the educational issues of teaching and learning in a web 2.0 world, and says that no one, no matter his or her age, is starting from scratch with this media --"There are no natives here," he says, explaining that most of what is happening of relevance to educators today had been launched within the past 3 years, and that daily hundreds of other interfaces are being created, tested, marketed, and used or discarded. So, no excuses, you aren't too old. Even today's 18 year old is faced with the same challenges of learning these new tools. Most of them, Wesch says, are still working just superficially, with no experience either at actually using the creative potential of these new tools.

It's a fairly long piece -- and specifically directed to university professors teaching young people -- but if you are interested in the landscape of kids, media, information and teaching, it's well worth the time. Although my ambitions for using technology aren't that ambitious, I do think that as a teacher the meta-message about the learning environment is one that must inform my work, in and out of the studio. Obviously, my "learners" are already looking for something meaningful; most of you who might take a course are already self-selected -- no course credit here. You might just try the first 30 minutes, that covers most of the big ideas-- though the remainder is a fascinating look at how his students recreated world history and cultures through a simulation based on "rules" of anthropology and using web-based tools.

One of the key ideas in this longer piece is well presented in a shorter, visual piece, "Information R/evolution." That how we have traditionally thought about information, as a thing, that can be catagorized -- filed -- in one kind of linear way, is no longer the case. Now information can exist simultaneously in more than one category, can be user-defined (rather than "expert" defined) and is no longer defined to a material form. "There is no shelf."

Wesch also produced "The Machine is Using Us," an great piece produced in 2007 that became one of the most-watched videos in the blogosphere ever. If you haven't seen it, the link is here.

If you are interested in creating web-based learning portals for yourself, fear not. Here are a few places I have found to play around. The first two are wiki-like aggregators that you can customize, keep private or publish to the world. Flock is a social network friendly browser that puts Flickr, My Space, etc all on your home page, Ning is a social network site that lets you build pages and whole sites around interests and then lets people subscribe to them. Stumble is a nonlinear "earch" engine that lets you find web pages you didn't know to look for!

• www.Pageflakes.com
• www.netvibe.com
  
• www.Flock.com
• www.ning.com
• www.stumbleupon.com
  

Please remember: YOU CAN NOT BREAK ANYTHING DOING THIS. You probably can't even screw up your computer unless you have no virus protection and use a PC and that's only if you start downloading a lot of strange applications. Check the site, make sure it's real and exists with actual content, not just links do other webpages,

No one is going to grade you or make you feel stupid except yourself. Yes, you are entering a public arena sometimes, but you control that. Most of the sites that I am exploring have a "private" function where only you have access to the material, links, tags that you upload or make use of. However, I would also challenge you to release some of your fears about going public on the web. I don't believe that I have opened myself up to harm, to stalking, to any physical danger by having a blog or by participaing in wikis (used authored sites). I have made many interesting connections with people whose ideas and input have stimulated my learning and my life. It is a new frontier, and we all can grow with it. 

I'd love any meta-sites that you like to use. New ones appear everyday. Some last, some don't -- we are in the equivalent of the wild wild west frontier days here -- nearly lawless, but there are fortunes to be made.

On-line, On-board, Textile Teaching

Stop Fear, journal quilt, 2007

As those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know, I sometimes float ideas that want exploring for my art business or my teaching practice -- even sometimes my art work. Sometimes something comes of it, sometimes, not.

One of those tracks, coaching, seems to have run its course without much action on my part. After quite a bit of research on the topic, being a coach and making that business works seems to embody the same challenges and work load that teaching art and making art do -- it's a highly competitive field, with many practitioners and many approaches even within the niche of creativity coaching. I am pretty sure that what I was thinking about doing is being done by many people with more skills, credentials, and who see that as their primary passion and gift to the world. Then, too, I didn't find long lines of people clamoring for this service! The best way for me to guide artists and would-be artists in their creative work and their creative processes is to improve my teaching, expand and formalize the materials I use for my workshops, and to keep being a maker, living the maker's life. (By the way, one of my favorite bloggers Merlin Mann, has a lot to say about productivity and the maker's life on his redesigned blog.)

One idea that I've toyed with in the past and that I, here, publicly state as a goal for the next 4 months, is to produce an on-line course. Hold me to it. I will offer the course at a highly-discounted rate  (maybe even free) for 10 to 15 of you who read this blog  -- beta testing, as it were. I will include photos and video demos, an e-book workbook and how-to materials. Get your name on the invitation list by leaving a comment or sending an email with suggestions!

Thus said, I need a little market research, and I hope you will help me with that -- whether or not you have taken an on-line course before or not. Leave comments here on the blog, or send a personal email to susiemonday@gmail.com. In the textile art world, there seem to be two distinct approaches to on-line offerings: 1. short -- 6 lessons or so -- courses that deal with a fairly specific technique, approach, tool or medium, costing about $40 to $80 per course. Some of these are hosted on sites like Joggles, Quilters Keep Learning or Quilt University, others on the artist's own website. Most have some feedback option, but it may or may not be used by the participating student.

The second type of offering is longer, more expansive and cohesive courses with design, often taking several months and costing quite a bit more -- Jane Dunnewold's correspondence course on Complex Cloth fits this. And I know some of the other "big name" fiber art teachers do some similar programs, and they cost usually about $300 or more for a season or a year's course. I don't think I'm ready for this!

In the interest of starting small, the first type of course seems most do-able. Here are a few ideas I have thought about, do any of these sound interesting to you -- or do you think one or the other might find an audience?

• How to make an altered jean jacket using fusible webbing, fabric collage, stitching and original design ideas
  
• 7 Scarves -- new surface design techniques on silk scarves
• An on-line version of my Calling All Archetypes workshop  (this might be a slightly longer one, culminating in making an art quilt to an archetype important in one's life)
• An on-line version of my workshop Words on the Surface, using text on fabric in various media and a variety of techniques
  

Any others come to mind? What price would you be willing to pay for a 6 lesson series? A 10 lesson series? Would it be important to have a shared photo file of student work -- that's easy enough to set up and could be a great place to see the diversity of work. How about a blog to discuss the class assignments? Or do you think these interactive elements are too difficult for most people to use and would make the class less marketable? Hoping to hear from you!

Around the World in 40 (or so) Blocks.

After a successful and productive Art Cloth Network meeting in New Brunswick (with a day-long Manhattan museum adventure on Friday) Susan Ettl and I returned to the Big Apple today and took a whirlwind trip around the world -- from Penn Station we went first through (eating at a Japanese/Korean cafe of course) Korea Town, then bused down to Washington Square, taking in a park filled with sun-loving tennis fans watching the live action on a big screen. Then we walked down through Soho (now the land of glitzy boutiques where once my artist friends and I slept on sleeping bags in big unfinished lofts), stopping in at a wonderful Indian import store, then  to Canal, perused the bag and pashmina vendors over to Tribeca, back to China Town (dollar stores and housewares, joss paper and interesting items for soywax batik) anda small park on Bayard -- I think Columbus Square  -- which was just about as close as one can get to China without crossing an ocean (two live Chinese operas, simultaneously, martial arts practice and many, many tables of card and game players),  then back north through Little Italy to catch a little Latin Jazz improv back in Washington Square, and back on the bus to Penn Station. Once back in New Brunswick, we ate dinner at an elegant Ethiopian restaurant, a first for both of us. (injira, the flat crepe-ish fermented flour bread is amazing).

We experienced at least five distinct cultures, not counting the tennis and jazz, the youth culture of our college campus bus ride back to the inn, and the almost overwhelmingly melange of languages, fashion, faces that are the "culture" of New York City. I ran out of battery power for my iphone camera about half way through, but these shots will remind me of the inspiration of this big, beautiful, American city.

Postscript:  I recently promised my brother-in-law Chai (Dr. Israel Cuellar, PhD, noted scholar, research psychologist, novelist and Chicano activist/scholar) that I would be "tasting" for him, as his ALS had made it necessary for him to give up the pleasures of "real food." All the flavors of today -- the physical, the emotional, the tactile, the movement and light and space, the visual feast -- I dedicate to his memory. Chai left his body late this afternoon, after the most valiant, brave and powerful encounter of a relentless disease that I have ever witnessed. I had the privilege to work with him as an editor for his novel (soon to be published), The Barrida Cure, that he wrote as his final creative challenge and accomplishment over the past four years.

My prayers are with his soul and spirit, at last free from suffering, and with Linda, his sister, and with all the family.

Material Inspiration

Don't you love it when an artist uses unusual and intriguing materials that completely surprise and enchant? So it is with this installation by Caroline Lathan-Stiefel at the Mason Gross Gallery at Rutgers University. I have seen Lathan-Steifel's work in magazines but never up close, and what she does with a pipe cleaner is simply stunning.

Lathan-Stiefel makes me want to push the envelope with other materials. too. (Like my sister ACN artist Rayna Gillman does with old kitchen tools and printing and soy on fabric.) Perhaps this work will inspire my garments for this year's FASA Runway Show. Can't you imagine an entire ensemble or two constructed with similar techniques and materials?

 

Interesting enough, just up the street from the art school's gallery, and at another Rutger's art must-see, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, is a work with similar linear interest. Russian abstract expressionist artist -- nonconformist, though apolitical-- Evgenii Mikhnov-Voitenko in this undated work, an untitled oil on canvas, was working with a similar vocabulary of shape and line. Here's the detail, then the entire work. I love how the synchronicity of creativity speaks across oceans, decades and even the choice of media.

Catching Up or Starting Fresh?

I find myself getting back into the blog after nearly a month away. Not even an intentional vacation from the page, rather a retreat from on-line life in favor of a packed August -- between exhibits, deadlines, workshops, and designing several new web-based projects, my calendar suffered a meltdown.

Perhaps more to the point, I've taken a vow to leave the computer in the studio -- or packed up in its tidy little briefcase -- during early morning and post "work hours," in the interest of sanity and domestic harmony. If this (blogging, et al) is important as part of my work, of my bigger picture of self in the studio, of the business of being the artist and teacher I want to be, then its worth doing as part of my work day. Frankly, the laptop was taking over my living room -- even the bedroom --  at all kinds of inappropriate hours. Inappropriate, because, well, live people deserve my undivided attention when I am in the same room with them. In order to step back from the brink, it seemed necessary to just shut it off for a bit, and decide how and when and what was most important to continue.

So we will see what that means. Exactly.

One issue, as I've come back online with the new month, was whether to try to catch up the record and my readers with all that's gone on -- two shows, three workshops, two trips, new art cloth projects and techniques, new classes planned and promoted. Yikes. No way. So we start fresh with today. With what's right now, as I sit here in the University Inn at Rutgers, a day early into town (New Brunswick, N.J.) for the Art Cloth Network meeting.

I have a visceral "new year" reaction to the first week after Labor Day, from 16 years of school calendars (back when schools still started after LD). The month has that new pencil, new notebook, new box of crayons feel and energy, so what better time to start on a virtual new slate. I've always considered myself lucky to have this second fresh start during one calendar year, don't you?

So here, besides the blog, are my fresh starts:

1. More time for just doing nothing. Letting quiet and peace make a space for what's new.

2. Saying "I'll think about it. Let me tell you tomorrow" before I automatically say "yes," to a request, no matter how important or  how much fun it intimates.

3. Take a yoga or NIA class weekly -- I need the class structure to move myself into fitness. The sweets of summer have gone to my waistline.

4. At least two "no drive days" each week. With planning, I can do that. Without planning I spend way too many hours in the car.

That's enough. See number 1. And number 2, even when I am the one doing the asking.

New Work -- Textile Art on the Coast

Here are just a few photos from the opening reception and Artist Talk -- taken by Linda, friends present and accounted for!

Textile Painting vs. Art Quilt

"Dreaming: The Beach" detail, 2008

We artists in this world of textiles, fiber art, quilting go round and round about terms. Is what I do textile painting, fiber art, art quilts, studio art quilts? Why is it important? For one thing, if we are to ever have a broader understanding (perhaps, demand or desire) for our chosen medium, we want that broader public to "get it." Some of us making what have become known as "art quilts" as opposed to "bed quilts" come from traditional quilting backgrounds. Others, like me, have never tried such a project, and, while respecting the tradition and while borrowing, stealing and emulating some of the technical aspects, feel that our work is more akin to a painting than a bed cover.

Then, when one adds the aspect of surface design -- actually "making" some or all of the fabrics used in the artwork -- things get even a bit more complicated.

I am taking a free internet marketing course - The Thirty Day Challenge -- that has presented a whole new set of information that relates to taking this work to the web and what words one uses to describe art. What do people "look for" and how many searches does a particular set of words engender in a day. I won't go into it indepth -- still too much to digest --but its interesting to hear how an outside perspective looks at this "content." In the rubric of this course, if one wants to actually sell something via internet, one is looking for search terms (keywords) that have at least 80 searches a day, and fewer than 30,000 competing sites that include those keywords, as well as a whole lot of other search engine criteria that put one at the top of a google page, since that is how most of the people "out there" are looking for items and topics on the web. What's really interesting is that there are a whole lot of people inventing sites for marketing purposes that have very little to do with the actual making of content or product. So how do these terms measure up? Art quilt has relatively more searches but way more competing sites. Textile painting has less competition, but not many searches either.

Meanwhile, I am thinking about the artist talk I will make tomorrow (Saturday at 4:30 p.m.) at my solo exhibit of new (and recent) work at the Rockport Center for the Arts. Here's a bit from the artist statement booklet I made for the show:

This work continues my lifelong exploration of fabric as an art medium, as I pursue a vision as expressive and personal as that of any artist who uses watercolor, oil paint, or acrylics, albeit informed by the traditional craft of the quilter. Some of the fabrics I use began as vintage table linens rescued from estate sales, or embroidered Mexican dresses that have seen one too many fiestas. I keep my eye, like the raven, attuned to things shiny and intricately patterned. The selection of ethnic textiles from Africa, Mexico, Guatemala honors the work of those anonymous hands, no doubt many of them women’s. When the fabrics come together on the design table, color and pattern are the voices that speak to me, with stories inspired by the icons, images and natural beauty of these South Texas Borderlands. Stitched lines add another visual element, tying together the tales and textures.

The techniques used to create the fabrics and the art work include hand-dyeing, screen-printing with dyes and textile paints, soy and traditional wax batik, foil and metal leaf embellishment, hand and machine embroidery and stitching. One of the appeals of this work for me is its variety of scope, scale, precision and improvisation, and its connection to both the past and the future through craft and skill.

Notice that I kind of sidestepped the terminology issue -- the mention of the "quilt" is a bit oblique. (ironically, the piece above  incorporates more machine stitching and a more regular "quilting" pattern than anything I've done before.) What's your take on this? While I don't really expect to sell large works from my website -- I think art of any kind is hard to fall in love with on a screen -- I am toying with making my altered jean jackets available, maybe doing some cards, and the idea of an online workshop or course is still floating around in my large scheme of trying to make a living as an artist.

P.S. There's a preview of 2009 dates and topics for El Cielo workshops on the Workshop page now.

Art Quilts by the Sea

Rockport, Texas is a bayside town with a reputation for artful activity -- lots of galleries, art events and an active community of local artists. Saturday at 4:30 pm I'll be presenting an artist's talk in the Garden Gallery of the Rockport Center for the Arts, that's where my small solo exhibit of (mostly) new work is on display through the end of August.

I'll also be teaching a Color Workshop in CalAllen -- another small town near Corpus Christi. With 22 registered, its one of the larger workshops I've taught! We'll be playing with the color wheel, dye, paper, paint and trying to find color palettes for each person to stretch their imaginations while holding personal meaning.

I'm behind on blog posts this week -- simply too much going on! But several folks have promised to send me photos of the New Braunfels exhibit, and, from all reports, the show there is getting good traffic and lots of buzz. People are still amazed to find out that many fiber and textile artist start out with white cloth and end up with incredible one-of-a-kind garments, quilts, wall art and applique work.