To see details about 2008 workshops at my home studio El Cielo and around the region, scroll down on this page. Events are listed in reverse order, upcoming ones first:
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. Directions and supply lists sent when you register.
WORDS ON THE SURFACE
May 9-11, 2008
Friday evening to Sunday afternoon
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 new exercises. Some of the techniques explored include: sunprinting (with dye and paint), thermofax design and printing, handpainting, soy wax batik with text, collage and stitched letters. Participants will also see a wide variety of examples and work in teams to discuss and critique the use of text in fiber and other contemporary work, broadening their conceptual understanding of using words in art. Friday evening will start out the creative work with writing exercises guaranteed to put deep rich imagery in motion.
CREATIVE JUMP-START
June 14-15
Saturday and Sunday
Are you ready to kick your creative energies into high gear? Ready to go beyond other people’s ideas and patterns and into your own? Susie will lead you through a weekend of open-ended creativity exercises, exploring the sensory alphabet, playing with a wild assortment of materials, and challenging your understanding of your mind at work. Learn more about your strong suit as an artist, and how to work in your deepest and richest material, content and processes. Optional: This workshop can be followed up with 6 weeks of consultation by email and phone on a project that helps your develop your personal voice as an artist, $100 additional fee.
FOOL MOON/FULL MOON
July 18-20
Friday night - Sunday
The moon has long been seen as a symbol of the unconscious, and a sacred goddess of feminine instinct. How does the unconscious, the instinctual, even lunacy, influence your art work? Do you make room for accidents, for the spontaneous and unplanned? This El Cielo Studio workshop will take advantage of the July full moon to inspire a weekend of intentional accidents, spontaneous expression, and improvisational techniques for fiber and mixed media art, as we open our hearts and eyes to the power of the uncontrolled. Among the activities: guided meditation and journaling, moonlight storytelling around a bonfire and moonlight hike (weather permitting), time in the hot tub, and making an artist altar that explores your understanding of the divine feminine. Fabric art techniques covered include silk painting effects with salt and other additives; faux shibori and low-water dye techniques using the microwave; shaving foam dyeing and other improvisational play.
BURNING WOMAN WORKSHOP
August 16-17, optional Friday night, Aug, 15
Where ever you find yourself on the Farenheit scale of creativity, take the time at this retreat to channel that inner fire into creative expression and explore the relationship of passion, energy and desire to art and art-making. Participants will be engaged in a life-affirming series of exercises, meditations, rituals and art-making in a variety of simple media, including fiber, paper, paint and dye. We will practice sun-printing, burning and rusting on fabric and other surfaces; explore microwave dyeing and sun-batched color on cloth. Even if your discipline is other than textiles, you will find renewed energy from this focus on creative passion as we create rituals and light bonfires to keep our inner vision burning bright.
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
PAST EVENTS
WORDS ON THE SURFACE
NOVEMBER 3 & 4 (Saturday morning though Sunday afternoon)
In this workshop participants experiment with a number of different ways to use written language, letters and text on surface of fabric, for application in the making of art cloth, art quilts and art-to-wear. By putting ideas and personal vision/story into work, artists deepen their own expression of individual voice, using words that are important, using STORY in a quite literal way,all can be part of that personal way of expression. Some of the techniques explored include: sunprinting, thermofax design and printing, handpainting, soy wax batik with text, collage and stitched letters. Participants will also see a wide variety of examples and work in teams to discuss and critique the use of text in fiber and other contemporary work, broadening their conceptual understanding of using words in art. Fee $150, plus accommodations if desired, $15 - $30.
ART QUILT JOURNEY
NOVEMBER 30 & DECEMBER 1 (FRIDAY-SATURDAY)
at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center
9:30 am - 4:00 pm each day
Learn to make an art quilt using fusible webbing and machine or hand quilting, starting with the idea of a journey -- whether a literal voyage or a metaphor about a journey in your inner life. You'll embellish and stamp fabrics to make them your own, design and develop a composition, select appropriate colors and turn your personal stash into a small art quilt, learning techniques that can be used on other projects large and small. Even "non-sewers" will enjoy this technique for expressing ideas in fabrics.Call 830-895-2911 to register.
Artists Journey/Artist Journal
At El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
With fiber artist Susie Monday
January 11-13, 2008
(Friday evening though Sunday afternoon)
This workshop, now in its third year, has become a tradition for some of us. The new year is a time to reflect, to reevaluate, to set new actions and new rituals into motion, to make new habits. This retreat and workshop will enrich, enliven and inspire your creative path through year’s start, and, with some persistence, into the next, with reflections on your work, new approaches to journaling and imaginative ways to look at daily, weekly and seasonal routines and rituals that support your artist self.
This workshop retreat is for the fiber artist, book artist and anyone interested in using journaling as a tool for creative growth, reflection and inspiration, whether you consider yourself an “Artist” or not. While similar in content to previous workshops at El Cielo, a whole new lineup of activities awaits the participants with projects in mixed media collage, a personal card deck, and an altered book journal. You'll also design and start a January journal quilt, with the promise of internet "publication" for all those who wish to participate in a monthly journal quilt challenge.
Come prepared to reflect upon (and share as you wish) your current work, your goals for 2007, the ebb and flow of creativity in your everyday life. The creative life is lived amid all our other roles and responsibilities; it takes attention and nurturing to carve out the time and space for original, fresh-eyed work and, most importantly, to find the delicate balance between setting goals and going with the flow.This workshop will explore tried-and-true measures for journaling that journey, as well as experimental techniques and materials to use in your journal this year.
We’ll share meals (bring a sack lunch for Saturday, Saturday supper and Sunday brunch are included in the fee), vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads or into the cedar as the weather permits, as well as participate in a variety of fun and meaningful exercises using simple materials.
FEE, including meals: $145 per person. 10% discount for registration before 1/1/07 ($131.50). Limited enrollment. Overnight accommodations are available for a modest fee ($15-$30). Supply List: your favorite kind of journal or notebook, assorted pens, pencils, markers, and watercolor set (optional), scissors, favorite poem.
Fee: $165, accommodations $15-$30, depending on room. El Cielo Studio is located about 1 hour north of downtown San Antonio. For artists coming from afar, rooms are available before and after the workshop on premises or I can make arrangements for you at a downtown or near-airport motel or hotel. Or book a stay into one of nearby Bandera's dude ranches for a true Texas getaway! Email me directly at susie monday @ gmail . com . (Remove spaces to send email.)
Susie Monday has taught adults and children for more than 30 years. Her art cloth and quilts have been included in international exhibits and private collections. Recent teaching credits include Gemini Ink, Southwest School of Art and Craft, University of the Incarnate Word, King Ranch, and McNay Art Museum. See her work on-line at http://monday.myexpose.com
Burning Woman Workshop
July 28-29, 2007
Saturday , 10:00 am through Sunday, 3:30 pm
For women artists only.
Are you burning with a desire to make art, only to find it smothered or smoldering? Or are you finding burn-out to be a challenge in your life at work or at home? Do you even know your is your heart's most passionate creative desire? Can you remember when you last let art-making take charge of your time and energy? Maybe you just need to fan the flame a little?
Where ever you find yourself on the farenheit scale of creativity, take the time at this retreat to channel that inner fire into creative expression and explore the relationship of passion, energy and desire to art and art-making. Participants will be engaged in a life-affirming series of exercises, meditations, rituals and art-making in a variety of simple media, including fiber, paper, paint and dye.
We will practice sun-printing, burning and rusting on fabric and other surfaces; explore microwave dyeing and sun-batched color on cloth. But even if your discipline is other than textiles, you will find renewed energy from this focus on creative passion as we create rituals and light bonfires to keep our inner vision burning bright.
Calling All Archetypes
At El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
With fiber artist Susie Monday
April 7-8, 2007
Each of us depends on a cast of inner characters to get our work done: the organizer, the dreamer, the judge, the caretaker, the scout, the wild woman, the fool, and the wise one, for example. Whether we call these inner guides, inner selves or archetypes, their multiple voices help, hinder and guide our creative work.
During this renewing Art Journaling and Art Quilt workshop, participants will explore these inner aspects as characters, as well as their relationship to the archetypes of legend and myth. With personal imagery developed through journaling, each person will transform his or her insights into a small art quilt
Sat. April 7, 10 am - ?*
Sun, April 8, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm
Participants will explore their inner teams with a series of interesting and revealing art journal exercises adapted from diverse readings including Caroline Myss’s Sacred Contracts, Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves, as well as other writers. Then, using the information and images that were developed in the journaling exercises, each person will design and create a journal quilt or artist’s altar art quilt honoring one of their inner archetypes, angels or voices. Quilt design techniques include working with fusable webbing, machine and hand quilting and embellishment with printing and stitching.
Those present will share meals (bring a sack lunch for Saturday, Saturday supper and Sunday brunch are included in the fee), vistas from the deck and hikes or bike rides down the country roads or into the cedar as the weather permits, as well as participate in a variety of fun and meaningful exercises using simple materials. Accommodations are available at my home and studio for a modest fee ($15 to $30 depending on the room). For the commute, count on an hour drive from midtown, or 30 minutes (16 miles to Timbercreek turnoff) from the intersection of Hwy. 16 (Bandera Rd.) and Loop 1604. Then 3.5 miles on the paved road to the studio.
FEE, including supper and a simple brunch: $150 per person. Limited enrollment, 10% discount for registration before 3/21/06 ($135).
Supply List: A shoebox full of fabrics of your choice, scissors, embroidery threads and beads, journal and favorite writing materials, a poem that speaks to your inner self (selves).
Artists Journey: Dark into Daylight
At El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
With fiber artist Susie Monday
TBA 2007
The days are dark: literally --as the light wanes toward Winter Solstice -- and politically, as peace on earth seems quite distant. This workshop retreat will give participating artists a chance to explore the movement and balance of the dance of light and dark, of war and peace in our lives and the lives of our planet. How in design, images depend on their opposite to give meaning and beauty, and how, in life, light and dark are both part of the cycle of creative growth. A chance to look at our own stance in the ongoing struggle between war and peace –in our emotions, our own homes, our everyday interactions. To ignore the shadow is tempting, but some of our most meaningful and most generous work as artists comes from paying attention to the darkness in our souls, the paths through pain and loss.
We will journey through techniques that allow work from dark and light opposites, and have the joy of doing so supported -- exploring shadow/light, darkness/daylight and the spiritual traditions that are part of this season. I am not a trained therapist: this workshop is not for deep psychological work, but the small group format insures a safe and confidential environment to explore dichotomies through journaling, conversation and creativity.
On the technical, art-making side of things, we will cut a plethora of Notan expanded squares and experiment with other Notan exercises (NOTAN is a Japanese word which means "dark-light". NOTAN as it relates to design is defined as the interaction between a positive and a negative space. ...). We will make fabric art quilt peace flags to send to an international collaborative art project. All the while playing with contrast as an element of design, and manipulating photographic images with software to create high-contrast images suitable to silkscreen and thermofax production.
WHEN:
Sat. Dec. 2, 9:45 am - ?*
Sun. Dec. 3, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm*
*Supper will be prepared by the group about 6 pm. We’ll conclude the day’s work with favorite poems, and time in the hot tub, with hillside walks, amazing vistas and a nurturing environment. Call 210-643-2128 for more information.
Or email susiemonday@sbcglobal.net
We’ll share meals (bring a sack lunch for Saturday, Saturday supper and Sunday brunch are included in the fee), vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads or into the cedar as the weather permits, as well as participate in a variety of fun and meaningful exercises using simple materials, most of which are included with the tuition.
FEE, including meals: $145 per person. 10% discount for registration before 12/1/06 ($131.50). Limited enrollment. Overnight accommodations are available for a modest fee ($15-$30) per night. Supply List: your favorite kind of journal or notebook, assorted pens, 1 -2 yards of black dischargable fabric, scissors, favorite poem about dark/light.
Susie Monday has taught adults and children for more than 30 years. Her art cloth and quilts have been included in international exhibits and private collections. Recent teaching credits include Gemini Ink, Southwest School of Art and Craft, University of the Incarnate Word, King Ranch, and McNay Art Museum. See her work on-line at http://monday.myexpose.com
As with all my workshops, both beginning art cloth and art quilt makers and experienced practitioners are welcome.
Artists Journey/Artist Journal
At El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
With fiber artist Susie Monday
January 20-21, 2007
The new year is a time to reflect, to reevaluate, to set new actions and new rituals into motion, to make new habits. This retreat and workshop will enrich, enliven and inspire your creative path through year’s start, and, with some persistence, into the next, with reflections on your work, new approaches to journaling and imaginative ways to look at daily, weekly and seasonal routines and rituals that support your artist self.
This workshop retreat is for the fiber artist, book artist and anyone interested in using journaling as a tool for creative growth, reflection and inspiration, whether you consider yourself an “Artist” or not. While similar in content to previous workshops at El Cielo, a whole new lineup of activities awaits the participants with projects in mixed media collage, a personal card deck, and an altered book journal. You'll also design and start a January journal quilt, with the promise of internet "publication" for all those who wish to participate in a monthly journal quilt challenge.
WHERE:
El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek,
with fiber artist Susie Monday
WHEN:
Sat. Jan. 20 10 am - ?*
Sun. Jan. 21, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm*
*Supper will be prepared by the group about 6 pm. We’ll conclude the day’s work with favorite poems, and time in the hot tub and pool, with hillside walks, amazing vistas and a nurturing environment. Call 210-643-2128 for more information.
Or email susiemonday@sbcglobal.net
Come prepared to reflect upon (and share as you wish) your current work, your goals for 2007, the ebb and flow of creativity in your everyday life. The creative life is lived amid all our other roles and responsibilities; it takes attention and nurturing to carve out the time and space for original, fresh-eyed work and, most importantly, to find the delicate balance between setting goals and going with the flow.This workshop will explore tried-and-true measures for journaling that journey, as well as experimental techniques and materials to use in your journal this year.
We’ll share meals (bring a sack lunch for Saturday, Saturday supper and Sunday brunch are included in the fee), vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads or into the cedar as the weather permits, as well as participate in a variety of fun and meaningful exercises using simple materials.
FEE, including meals: $145 per person. 10% discount for registration before 1/1/07 ($131.50). Limited enrollment. Overnight accommodations are available for a modest fee ($15-$30). Supply List: your favorite kind of journal or notebook, assorted pens, pencils, markers, and watercolor set (optional), scissors, favorite poem.
Full Moon/Fool Moon
At El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek, Texas
With fiber artist Susie Monday
The moon has long been seen as a symbol of the unconscious, and a sacred goddess of feminine instinct. How does the unconscious, the instinctual, even lunacy, influence your art work? Do you make room for accidents, for the spontaneous and unplanned. This El Cielo Studio workshop will take advantage of the February Full Moon dark of the moon (what calendar was I looking at?) to inspire a weekend of intentional accidents, spontaneous expression, and improvisational techniques for fiber and mixed media art, as we open our hearts and eyes to the power of the uncontrolled. Among the activities: guided meditation and journaling, moonlight storytelling around a bonfire and moonlight hike (weather permitting), time in the hot tub, and making an artist altar that explores your understanding of the divine feminine. Fabric art techniques covered include silk painting effects with salt and other additives; faux shibori and low-water dye techniques using the microwave; shaving foam dyeing and other improvisational dye and paint play.
FEE, including meals: $145 per person. 10% discount for registration before 2/5/07 ($131.50). Limited enrollment. Overnight accommodations are available for a modest fee ($15-$30). Supply List: your favorite kind of journal or notebook, a box with lid (any size and material) for your altar, warm clothes and walking shoes.
Susie Monday has taught adults and children for more than 30 years. Her art cloth and quilts have been included in international exhibits and private collections. Recent teaching credits include Gemini Ink, Southwest School of Art and Craft, University of the Incarnate Word, King Ranch, and McNay Art Museum.
SEPTEMBER 21, 22, 23 (Friday evening though Sunday afternoon)
FIELD GUIDE TO COLOR
Color is one of the fiber artist’s most emotionally powerful tools; mastery of dyeing and printing with color is essential to creating work of power and meaning. We walk a fine line between “over-organizing” our color choices and letting our palettes run riot over our compositions. This workshop is color theory made fun, with hands-on application of the "rules," and when and how to break them. Using a variety of source material, exercises and media, including dye and fabric, watercolor, collage and egg tempera, participants will work with simple and complex color schemes in a variety of hue families. Dye experiments and color analysis, as well as a look at personal color palettes and how to make them work on the wall will also be part of the workshop. Fee: $175, plus accommodations if desired
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. Suitable for all levels, great for those beginning an art journey. This workshop goes beyond technique to looking deeply and working intensely with one's self image and personal story as it relates to your creativity and art work.
Participants will explore their inner teams with a series of interesting and revealing art journal exercises adapted from diverse readings including Caroline Myss’s Sacred Contracts, Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves, as well as other writers. Then, using the information and images that were developed in the journaling exercises, each person will design and create a journal quilt or artist’s altar art quilt honoring one of their inner archetypes, angels or voices. Quilt design techniques include working with fusable webbing, machine and hand quilting and embellishment with printing and stitching.
Note: Friday night is an optional evening potluck and stayover for a small additional fee of $10.
WORDS FOR THE WHOLE CLOTH
April 11-12, 2008
Friday evening & Saturday
(overnight stay available on Friday night with advance arrangements and $15 - 30 fee)
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. 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 come out to 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.
