Artist, maker, teacher, author, head cook and bottlewasher.
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The art I make is the result of a life-long love of pattern, texture and color. How I teach is a skill honed by experience (I started teaching creative arts to younger kids when I was 12). After earning a B.A. in Studio Arts from Trinity University, I helped lead an internationally recognized educational foundation, designed curriculum exhibits for schools and other institutions, wrote and edited for a major daily newspaper, opened the San Antonio Children's Museum and then, a dozen years ago, took the scary but essential (for me) leap to become a fulltime artist and art teacher.
This weblog is about the maker's life. The teacher's path. The stitching and dyeing and printing of the craft of art cloth and art quilt. The stumbling around and the soaring, the way the words and the pictures come together. Poetry on the page and in the piecing of bright scraps together. The inner work and the outer journeys to and from. Practicalities and flights of fancy and fearful grandeur, trivial pursuits and tactile amusements. Expect new postings two or three times a week, unless you hear otherwise.
To reach me, leave a comment after a post, OR email me at susiemonday@gmail.com
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I am learning to use Constant Contact, finally. I am tired of never getting my mailing lists straight (as I am sure some of my mailing list victims are) and I think this will really help. I have found the process mildly, but not overly frustrating, about on par with learning any other web-based tool.
However, having written the darn thing on the site, I now have to figure out how to make a link here to the blog, and put it on as a downloadable pdf. I think this LINK may do the trick, but it's not exactly the format I am looking for (and whoever Charlotte is, thanks for letting me use your copy) However. Slowly, slowly is my advice for using any new computer aided process!
Beautiful sounds from TED TALKS. Here, "Rokia Traore sings the moving "M'Bifo," accompanied on the n'goni, a lute-like Malian stringed instrument with a soulful timbre." from this TED site.
And, thanks to Valerie's recommendation, this is a great newsletter about creativity -- all phases and stages. Your can subscribe from the website here.
I found this about the site its originator from the ABOUT page:
"Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will become."
Here's a fun example of a book review from the site:
Let’s be clear: I want this book to be useful to you. There are many great how-to books and biographies out there, and even more gorgeous collections of current and classic work to awe and inspire. But looking at catalogs of artistic success won’t make you a better artist any more than looking at photos of healthy people will cure your cold. You’ve got to take action!” ~ Stefan G. Bucher"
If there is any phrase I hear from quilt artists and textile artists often, it's the "but I can't draw" lament. So what? I can't either, much, but that doesn't stop me from trying. And, in trying, I've found that my skills at rendering 3-d life in 2-d form has improved over the years. Because, in truth, that's what drawing is (a skill) despite the fact that some few of us come into the world gifted in line and shading. Of course, those are the ones who long, long ago in your life convinced many of us that we really were not artists, since we could not draw 1. Horses, 2. People, 3. (related to 2) Faces, 4. Anything.
I am mounting a campaign to turn the rest of us into fearless sketchers, because it is fun, Because you can capture information about the world and your ideas that can not (even with cameras) be captured any other way. And, third, we can all benefit for the careful attention to NOW that drawing promotes. Drawing is actually a very wonderful entry into meditation, as a practice it is especially valuable for those visually inclined.
My venture onto this bandwagon starts in September 7-9 with a workshop at El Cielo called Fearless Sketching, $175, Friday evening potluck (optional) through 3 pm Sunday. My friend and master of drawing Sarah Jones is scheduled to help out, but I'll be leading most of the activities with an eye on our fears and insecurities. Discover drawing as a meditative practice, as a way to capture an idea, as a reminder and as an approach to learning a new skill. And I'll also be sharing some iPad drawing tools that are fun to use, too, for those of you exploring that new media.
In a completely unrelated to quilts, here's the Rover. What it does have to say? We are so much alike, even as planets. A little lack of water goes a long way!
Monday, August 27, 2012 at 03:33PM 
