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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    « Kreativ Blogger don't need to spell it right! | Main | Holiday Bazaar »
    Monday
    Dec012008

    Thinking, Learning, Creating, Birthing a Book

    I think this has been a two, maybe three year pregnancy-- and by some stretch, we might even count its conceptual moment it to, let's see, 48 years ago? (This is hard to imagine, even though I've been there the whole time.)

    Forty-eight years ago, I was 12 years old and my parents moved us to Waco from Houston. Where I had won an art class at the Houston Museum of Art from a drawing of a chicken made from a treble cleft sign. I still remember it.

    The classes would have been a long commute, so instead I was enrolled in Baylor Children's Theatre, directed by Jearnine Wagner under the auspices of the theatre director Paul Baker. And that was the germ of what became this book, written and designed by my longtime colleague at the drawing desk and composing table, Susan Marcus.

    At the heart of that early experience (which was far more than what most children's theater programs or lessons were then or now) and at the heart of the book is the Sensory Alphabet (aka "elements of form") and the idea-to-form process. As kids, we ate it up, as an adult, I still use these simple but profound tools to solve deep and profound problems, whether in the world of art or business, enterprise or interpersonal interaction.

    What do these tools do? The Sensory Alphabet gives one a way of talking about, working with and creatively playing with visual and sensory information in ways that help one transform, notice convergent and divergent information, solve problems and approach media, materials and tools with knowledge of one's own strong suits. A conscious grasp of one's own creative process gives the maker a sense of security, a map along the way, an understanding through the tough spots and a way to work collaboratively with appreciation for other's strenghts and talents.

    Several years ago, Susan and I decided that the ideas that we had worked with (both as young people and later as co-founders of the Learning About Learning Educational Foundation -- 1968-1985 -- with Jearnine, Cynthia Herbert and Julia Jarrell) were due an update. In our separate and collaborative projects we knew that the creative message, the approaches, the tools that were so a part of our own creative lives needed a new platform for a new generation of parents and teachers. Susan was, I gratefully acknowledge, the driving force for this book. I worked primarily at her direction and instigation --- and the beautiful design work is all hers. I am honored to be listed as co-author and think her quite generous with that shared billing.

    It is a work of deep collaboration, with each other and with the past we share, the ideas and inspiration of our Learning About Learning cohorts, the children, the parents, boardmembers, Friends, funders and others who gave us their time and attention. The experience with parents and children and teachers has continued through the work of all of us who were part of LAL -- Julia now directs a program for international teachers through Gerogetown University and the Alamo Community Colleges. Dr. Cynthia Herbert is a consultant to the Houston I.S.D and other educational institutions. Susan and I worked most recently with children at the Aldrich Contemporary Museum of Art in Ridgefield, CN.

    Here are the book's concluding pages, with some photos from some of our recent programs.

    I think it sums up what we are trying to do.

    We need all the children now.

    We need the ones who are hard-wired for movement — they
    will become the dancers, athletes, coaches — the ones who
    have to move to think.


    We need the ones who are especially sensitive to the
    vibrations and the needs of other people, and animals — they
    are the potential police officers, dramatists, vets, teachers,
    biologists, managers, psychologists, healers — the ones who
    have to feel to think.


    The future needs all the children now.


     

    We need the ones who naturally think in 3D — the potential
    architects, surveyors, industrial designers, sculptors,
    homebuilders, urban planners, masons, engineers — the ones
    who need to experience space to think.


    We need the ones who experience the world in images
    — the next photojournalists, graphic and web designers,
    filmmakers...the ones who think through their eyes.


    We need the linear thinkers - the coming writers, storytell-
    ers, mathematicians, planners, draftsmen, playwrights,
    logicians, chemists - the ones who think best in linear arcs.


    We need the ones who are innately attuned to the earth and
    its cycles — the budding botanists, cosmologists, farmers,
    astronomers, conservationists — the ones who naturally think
    in the larger patterns of our planet.


    We need the ones who touch — the next weavers, chefs,
    physicians, carpenters, potters, gardeners — the ones who
    think with their hands.

     

    Notice: The careers listed come from a twentieth century
    lexicon. They don’t even scratch the surface of what lies
    just over the horizon in the immediate future. Currently,
    the “30,000 foot view” of our twenty-first century presents
    an awesome spectrum, one that spans large-scale and
    critical problems of global survival to amazing discoveries
    and possible solutions to those problems in diverse and
    overlapping fields of study.


    Reflecting on this near future brings our children’s
    educational needs into a higher focus. As we noted in the
    introduction to this book, our schools, even the best of
    them, seem stuck in a pedagogy of the past. Assurance that
    our children can participate successfully in this time of
    unparalleled change and shifting boundaries of the future
    will require their individual creative thinking.

    The “Back to Basics” clarion call is of limited reach. It neither encompasses the myriad media in young lives nor provides the thinking tools for innovation that our children need now and tomorrow. And, at this time, parents are the literal keys to opening the doors of change.


    We want our New World Kids to be confident of the gifts they
    bring into the world and confident in themselves as creators.
    Each of them embodies an absolutely unique perspective and
    collectively, they need clear vision and the sure footing to
    carry us all into the next Renaissance.

    The future needs all the children now.

    For more information, and a look inside a few more pages, see the website in progress at New World Kids.

    If you're in the San Antonio area, Susan and I will be presenting a multimedia presentation and signing books at The Twig Bookstore on December 8 from 5 to 7 p.m. You can also order a book by clicking on the shopping cart link on the sidebar of this blog.

    If you live in the Dallas area, you can find out more here about our appearance at the Baker Idea Institute, January 16-17, 2009.

     

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    Reader Comments (5)

    Susie - this looks fabulous! I just ordered one to use with my grandkids. If you're sending them out, would you sign it? congratulations on getting this exciting book off the ground. What an accomplishment!
    December 1, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterrayna
    Susie,
    Congratulations on the new book! I can't wait to read it. It is time we looked at alternative and positive ways to teach our children to tap into their creativity.

    Susie K.
    December 2, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSusie Krage
    YEE-HAAAAAAAWWW!!! You know I have been waiting for this book for a long time-I'll definitely be out at The Twig!!!

    But I don't know if I want to go link over and read any more pages because just reading this bit here made me cry. It is exactly what I believe at the very core of my being, and in no way could I have ever said it better. Can't wait to get that book in my hands! And I don't think it's any coincidence that your/this email was at the very top of the list (of literally about 1,000 emails) when I went to check just now. I immediately linked over.

    Long story, but you know my life-LOL! You need to go check my blog and find out what has been happening over here...you know, when you have time to read a chapter or two. Oh, then you'll know why I have about 1,000 emails waiting....

    BTW: I really still want to get with you to discuss some things, ask some questions, etc...let me know.

    Congratulations on the book! See you soon!
    Lauri
    December 2, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterLauri
    Congratulations, Susie! It's wonderful to see this completed and a dream fulfilled. I know it will be a huge smash!
    December 2, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAlyson B. Stanfield
    Thank you all for the kind messages. We are so happy to have this stage of the project up and running!
    December 5, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSusie Monday

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