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.

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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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    « More Soy, More Fun | Main | Under the Big Quilt »
    Wednesday
    Feb132008

    Accidental Hearts

    DateWednesday, February 13, 2008 at 02:52PM

    heartcloseup.JPG

    Some recent work. Speaks for itself.

    I am a sap for Valentine's Day, even though we don't go in big for any sentimental celebration. I just like the shape of hearts.  (OK, it's a trite image as a noted art instructor and juror once told me, but an image can still has power even if it's trite, I think,) This is me working from my heart, listening to every little creak that puts me on my path. Today, the heart said, "CLEAN UP THIS PIGSTY" so I have been undoing all the clutter and putting my tools where I can actually find them. And sitting doing a bit of stitching in front of Project Runway reruns.

    These "accidental hearts" -- a series of 5 --  are small wall "altares" eaach about 15.5" by 11.5" by 1.5" or 2". The are pieced and machine quilted with machine and hand stitching, some with buttons and other embellishments. The fabrics are all dyed, printed and/or overdyed and the central heart images were made with handpainting and deconstructed screenprinting in the Kerr Grabowski workshop I took a couple of weeks ago. The hearts were actually the prints that appeared accidentally on the drop cloth under some scarves I was printing. Because the silk scarves were so thin the dye seeped through and added another layer to a complexly printed accidental piece of design -- actually on the back of a piece of commercial upholstery fabric. Thus the title of this little series.

    PS. the colors are more like that in the detail. I need to tweak the saturation in the one's taken outdoors today.  

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    Here are some other valentine's sites I found while scrolling and stumbling along:

    Video Valentine from PostSecret

    Vintage valentine clip art --

     Anti-Valentines

    Wild Heart Art -- painting/creativity workshops in Houston 

    History according to Wikipedia 

    AuthorSusie Monday | Comment2 Comments |
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    Reader Comments (2)


    What wonderful accidents!I too love hearts, 1st 2 weeks in Feb. I always play in the studio making fabic cards for granchildren and husband. Interesting this year I made my husbands card in an alter shape. Thanks you for the links, I really enjoyed them.
    Bev Longford, Canada
    February 14, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterBev
    Hi Susie,

    I think these "accidental hearts" are really fun. Love the colors, especially. I have always admired fiber artists.

    Thanks also for the nice post on my blog. I am looking forward to the ABP!!!
    February 14, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKarine Swenson

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