Susie Monday

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.

About This Blog

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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    Entries by Susie Monday (563)

    Tuesday
    Oct162012

    Newsletter -- Summarizing it all!

    In case you are not on my subscribers list for newsletters, you can read and download the latest issue with this link. (This is an earlier version, on the design wall, of one of the pieces in the Hill Country exhibit)>

     

    Friday
    Oct122012

    Shaping Symbols into Art Quilts

    Would you like to transform some surface design fun into a small art quilt? In just one day, at my Wednesday Quilt Festival workshop (#330 in the catalog), you'll take a journey from shape to quilt composition -- with original fabrics, fused and ready to stitch. The date is October 31, 2013, starting at 9, lunch 12-2, finishing at 5.

    I'm offering a full day and full of fun with these ideas: Master design skills with free-form patterns, cut-paper shapes, and original stamps as you explore personal imagery and iconic symbols. Learn to simplify photos for original quilts, printing and more using a computer or iPad, and also just by hand-and-eye. One of your designs will be made into a thermofax screen and mailed to you later. You'll layout a small quilt, with critique and assistance, with lots of custom fabrics on hand from my stash to use for your project.

    The advance workshop registration for Festival is over, but there is lots of room in this one if you want to register onsite. Just go to the George Brown Convention Center in Houston. The workshop fee is $65 for the full day event! Plus the supply fee of $25 for printer inks, copier paper and card stock, erasers, craft foam, mounting block, textile inks, thermofax mailed to student after Festival. 

    More info about Festival this year:

    International Quilt Festival Houston 2012

    November 1-4, 2012
    George R. Brown Convention Center
    Houston, Texas

    Hours:
    Wed., Oct 31 (Preview Night): 7-10 p.m. 
    Thurs., Nov. 1-Sat., Nov. 3: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
    Sun., Nov. 4: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

    Ticket prices:
    $12 daily adult
    $9 seniors & students
    Children 10 and under free.
    $12 Preview Night (includes one free additional day)
    $42 Full Show Pass (includes Preview Night)

    The pre-enrollment deadline was Friday, September 28th. Onsite enrollment will be available to sign up for classes, lectures & events. The onsite enrollment hours are as follows:

    Sunday, October 28 3:00pm - 6:00pm
    Monday, October 29 7:30am – 6:30pm
    Tuesday, October 30 7:30am – 5:30pm
    Wednesday, October 31 7:30am – 8:30pm
    Thursday, November 1 7:30am - 5:30pm
    Friday, November 2 7:30am – 6:30pm
    Saturday, November 3 7:30am – 3:30pm
    Sunday, November 4 8:30am – 10:00am

     

    Wednesday
    Oct102012

    Opening at Bismarck

     

    Well attended. Beautifully hung. Diverse works. Hope you can see it soon. 

    See more about the show at this link from the gallery: http://www.bismarckartgallery.com/fiber-artists-of-san-antonio/

    Monday
    Oct082012

    Shape, Shapely and Shaped

    Today at my Southwest School of Art class on Finding Your Artist Path, we will be looking at and thinking about and working with SHAPE and CONTRAST. Here are a few of the notes, some things to think about as you go about your creative work today!

    SHAPE
    A shape is a self contained defined area of geometric or organic form. A positive shape in a painting automatically creates a negative shape.

    CONTRAST

    Contrast is the juxtaposition of opposing elements eg. opposite colours on the colour wheel - red / green, blue / orange etc. Contrast in tone or value - light / dark. Contrast in direction - horizontal / vertical.
    The major contrast in a painting should be located at the center of interest. Too much contrast scattered throughout a painting can destroy unity and make a work difficult to look at. Unless a feeling of chaos and confusion are what you are seeking, it is a good idea to carefully consider where to place your areas of maximum contrast.

    These design elements and principles work together (as they all do!) But I think that working with shape gives the artist the perfect laboratory for investigating contrast in a very concrete direct way.

    What kinds of shapes do you doodle on napkins, notecards and the item formerly known as a phone pad? What shapes show up at the tip of your pen or pencil.

    Do you like clear, well defined shapes that are simple and concrete, easy-to-describe? Or amorphous, vague, or organic shapes?

    Do you work with shape in a “flat” 2-D world? Graphically, all one plane? Or as three- dimensional shapes, whether you paint or sculpt them?

    Where is the strongest shape contrast in your work? Do you have big shapes, little shapes and medium shapes (remember the “rule of three”)?

    Do you layer shapes in your work? Are the layers close together or far apart? Can you see through them or around them? DO you show space through layering? Or light? Or size? Or all of the above?

    What shapes your art practice? The time available, what’s left over after everything else, what you think you SHOULD do? What if you gave it another shape?

    Try cutting NOTAN shapes as a studio shape practice for a week to develop your shape muscle. What happens?

    LINKS to NOTAN:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notan

    From Jane Dunnewold 

    From my blog.

    page2image15304
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    Some “SHAPE” artists and their work (please add other suggestions to the comments section!):

    M.C. Escher --especially his mathematical tesselation art

    Lee Shiney’s CIRCLES 

    Robert Motherwell 

    Henry Moore -- Sculptor 

    Ilsa Iviks Textile artist 

    Paul Klee