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. 

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    « Dark/Light | Main | Synchronicity's Ground Rules »
    Wednesday
    Oct252006

    No Back Splash

    I promised myself a day of work on a new quilt, even though the iggly piggly little nits and bits that plague the self-employed are heaped high on the desk. But My Artist Self is just a little kid, and if she doesn't get to play, she gets very ornery.

     So today, rather than great words of wisdom, we all get play time with color.

    Not that the play is completely fret-free. This large Sirena has been hidden in a stack of dyed fabrics, scraps of embroidered dresses and a batt of cotton already top-coated with a layer of WonderUnder and she is a little cranky about showing up. I spent most of the day trying one shape, one pattern and then another, rescuing, undoing trying to balance the rather tricky orange and aqua. Being fearful that this was a big giant waste of good cloth -- boy. where does that come from?

    This is one intermediate stage (note feet of The Artist standing on the cutting table):

    Lg sirena1.jpg 

    And here's the next one --

    lg sirena2.jpg 

    I sure hope I don't decide I liked the larger pieces of Guatemalan belt better -- as you can see, what was a nice bold set of stripes is now a mosaic of little squares. This mermaid  is boating through a coral sunset, juggling the rising moon, and I wanted to get the sense and movement of reflection on water when the ocean turns pink and aqua, silver and gold.

    So, I'm still not sure, but with the larger pieces ironed down, I'll leave the little bits and textures to settle overnight, and hope that I'll either like it all in the morning -- or, as can happen, tear it apart and start  again. But one thing is sure, we had our swim.

     

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    Reader Comments (3)

    love this and these colors...you have a way of using words to infuse a piece with soul..and speaking of...good thing your feet WERE in the photo so we can see the scale of this very large piece!
    October 27, 2006 | Unregistered Commenterkathy
    Nice to see someone else photograph this way! :} Didn't realize the scale of that piece--you are a mad brave woman! I like the squares myself, more flow and "organicness"--great image!!!!!!
    October 29, 2006 | Unregistered Commenterarlee
    OMG! Great piece! Fantastic, can't wait to see more!
    October 30, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterSarah

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