Susie Monday

Artist, maker, teacher, author, head cook and bottlewasher.

Sign up here for monthly newsletters from me!

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.

More Pages
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 

 

To receive a notice of new posts in your email, scroll down this column to the end of the page and subscribe via FEEDBLITZ or add this blog to your own subscription service. You can search the blog with any phrase or word, by typing it into the seach window below:

Subscribe .. Or Write Me!

Subscribe to a email feed of this blog by filling in your email address in this box. Your email will not be sold or shared with others.


Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz
 
  

This form does not yet contain any fields.
    Login
    Powered by Squarespace
    « Daily Practice | Main | Visioning for Online Teaching »
    Friday
    Nov202009

    How to make an art quilt if you're me

    DateFriday, November 20, 2009 at 10:21PM

     

    Start with color.

     

    I do this a lot. Over and over. Til its right from the beginning. And yes, the studio stays a mess til this part is done.

    (and a bit of a notion of an idea, theme, relation to something earlier done)

    Continue with shape and composition.

    Work from strong suit to strong suit.

    Keep it on the table until it's together enough to put on the wall.

    (Where I am now.)

    Pin up and look. Keep it up. (still to come)

    This pomegranate virgin is in my heart, singing of abundance, life force, generousity of spirit. I am holding her in my heart right now.

    What is your process? Where is your strong suit? Do you let yourself start there or try to follow someone else's formula for success. I think your main task as an artist is to discover those gifts, honor them, and let them lead your process. Don't believe other people's formulas. Maybe you try them out to see what works and not, but in the end, just as you stitch together your cloth, you stitch together your way  of working. It will be as unique and as personal and as much a part of your "voice" as any other aspect of visual style or content.

    AuthorSusie Monday | Comment1 Comment |
    tagged , , , in , ,

    EmailEmail Article to Friend

    Reader Comments (1)

    Susie,

    When I am doing my little collages, I actually do the same thing you do. The studio is a mess. I have been to chicken to work on something large. I guess that is the next step for me.I have been thinking about it for over a year.
    November 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSusan

    PostPost a New Comment

    Enter your information below to add a new comment.

    My response is on my own website »
    Author Email (optional):
    Author URL (optional):
    Post:
     
    All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.

    Notify me of follow-up comments via email.