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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    « Thinking Blog | Main | Talking Art »
    Thursday
    Apr192007

    Yikes

     Barb2.jpg

    Here it is Thursday night, and my time in the studio devoted to art making has been not quite zip. This small art quilt is the only physical manifestation I managed all week.  The rest was business, art ed consulting (stuff like ordering a boatload of supplies, chasing down helpers, figuring out the first workshop), and general disorganizing.(OK, Shuffling the deckchairs around.) 

    This is a commission piece, and one that has had its challenges. Here is the second try, the first having crashed on the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The woman who had requested that I make this piece in memory of a mutual friend turned out to have negative experiences and associations with that image. Who knew?

    barbsvirgin.jpg     barb1det.jpg 

    However, the altar has already sold at the 1550 Gallery show, and I think the second piece is really closer to the spirit of our friend. In both pieces, I incorporated pieces of clothing and tried to capture the energy and wonderful earthiness of this lovely woman we both knew and loved. She was gutsy and brave throughout her life, and kept her own counsel. As a native Minnisotan, she embraced San Antonio's color and vibrant life, but kept hold of her roots, her accent and her wry sense of humor. When I leave my body, I hope someone makes art from my clothing, cut up and stitched into something playful, bold and full of color. I really can't think of a better legacy, even more so than the quilts I hope to leave behind, scattered around on the walls of friends and strangers.

     
     

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    Reader Comments (3)

    thinkingbloggerpf8.jpg
    Marion Barnett tagged me in this Thinking Blogger game. I was flummoxed, then proud, then intrigued enough to go digging. The original concept originated with Ilker Yoldas.

    Deciding on five is difficult. My mind functions like the little silver ball in a pachinko game. It goes here and there and inhabits a very large universe. So five thinking bloggers from me are a very diverse group.I am tagging the following bloggers.

    1. Postcards From Cairo by Jenny Bowker
    2. El Cielo Studio - Journal by Susie Monday
    3. Words by Martin Dwyer
    4. Edward Winkleman by Edward Winkleman
    5. KDS’ Ramblings on the Web by my friend, the Spider

    Congratulations, you won a !

    Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

    The participation rules are simple:

    1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
    2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
    3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

    April 21, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterthelmasmith
    Love the colorful wprk of art. Very nice.
    April 22, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterartbydelilah
    I saw your blog mentioned today in another blog and I decided to come over and check it out.

    I am so glad I did! I love your work! And your words are interesting too - but I love your artwork.

    Thank you!
    Diane Clancy
    www.dianeclancy.com/blog
    April 23, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterDiane Clancy

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