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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    « World Shapes: Art-making Inspired | Main | Back, already? »
    Sunday
    Aug302009

    Color: trip photos + how to use them

    DateSunday, August 30, 2009 at 10:00AM

     Tallinn, Estonia, Old Town

    More photos from the Scandinavian trip this summer: these screamed "color" when I went though the digital stacks. I love digital photography, but you have to admit that it makes editing an essential part of the process. Back in the film days, I could never have brought home 2000 plus photos! If you've just tuned in, I'm taking the next seven days (plus yesterday and today) to post pictures from our big summer trip/cruise sorted by categories of the Sensory Alphabet.

    Here are some ways that colors in photogrphs (my own and other's) inspire my work:

    1. If theiy're mine, I use the photos directly, printed on fabric or other strange materials, then use them as a collage element in my art quilts, or even as stand-alone small fiber pieces with stitching and over-printing.

    2. I notice what works compositionally with color in a favorite photo, then let that proportion or relationship inform a piece of work.

    3. I like to play a color matching game, mixing colors of paint or dye to match a color that I find striking in a photo or painting.

    4. Especially with photos of the natural world, I find new and unusually color schemes that I wouldn't ordinarily think about. Coor is such an important element in my work, I am always working from both intuitive.

    While specific images from this trip have not yet found their way into my work, I have gotten some interesting ideas for some new workshops, coming soon to this blog. Meanwhile, here's the color selection to inspire your work!

     

    Grocer's shelf near Highgate Village, LondonHydranga blooms at the V&A, London

    Very old stained glass panel in the V&A collection

     St. Petersburg, Russia

    Summer Palace outside St. Petersburg

    AuthorSusie Monday | Comment3 Comments |
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    Reader Comments (3)

    Mother Nature is truly amazing. In addition to color schemes, one can learn a great deal about color proportions from her.
    August 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSusan
    So glad you are back, Susie! Have missed your musings. Your trip is an area of the world I, too, want to explore. Can't wait to see how you adopt new techniques into your work. I have been playing a lot this summer with text on the surface. And getting ready for a big trip soon to Switzerland and Lake Como.
    August 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterPat S.
    Hey are you a professional journalist? This article is very well written, as compared to most other blogs i saw today�.
    anyhow thanks for the good read!
    December 12, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterlaptoplover

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