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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    « Living Large | Main | Two Weekends for Play and Passion »
    Tuesday
    Jun212011

    Five Ways Travels can Enrich Your Art

    DateTuesday, June 21, 2011 at 10:37AM

    As I plan a trip for the summer, I want to remind myself, that even on "vacation,"my artist /maker mind is not vacant! In fact, what an artist date, extended and intensive. We all know that, but here are my tips for making travel especially productive and mind-feeding. Let me know any other travel habits you have that awaken, energize and contribute to your artistic vision, tools and skills.

    1. As a surface designer and art quilt maker, I don't take along too many tools of my trade, but I DO take the  makings for a travel journal that I add to along the way. My essentials: small format sketchbook (small enough and light enough to carry with), watercolor pad and brush, black ink pens, glue stick, scissors (packed in the luggage so I don't get them confiscated).

    2. Take photos (and edit as I go, this is from past experience). Use them for inspiration, printing on fabric, motifs and designs to turn into thermofaxes and stamps back home. I usually don't post until I get home and have time to mull over the best images to share. Usually sorted by Sensory Alphabet theme. I try to take not just the long shots, but lots of details. Usually pick a theme or topic to shoot consistently (I have an amazing collection of manhole covers and street paving stones.) I think I'll look for shell design elements this trip.

    3. Museums, museums, museums. Duh. Also historical sites, gardens, etc. I do occasionally (where legal) snip and press leaves from what are exotic trees for me,  to use for screens and thermofaxes back home.

    4. Dollar stores, Euro Stores (or whatever the local currency equivalent) for a different set of (usually Chinese-made) stuff that can become stamps, stencils and texture tools. OK, this is sometimes a silly use of luggage space, but I am willing to take old undies and even slacks that I will leave behind in order to take home some weird, wonderful find. Oh yes, cheater readers in the fashion of the place. You gotta see, right?

    5. Maps, brochures, ephemera. Also go into the travel journal. Also rich mining for future work. And helps the memory when others travel to the same destination. A network of traveling artists is a wonderful thing to have!

     

    AuthorSusie Monday | Comment3 Comments | Reference1 Reference |
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    • Response
      Response: Five Ways Travels can Enrich Your Art
      by Gill M at Travel & Art on June 26, 2011
      Quilt artist Susie Monday has written an excellent article on how to make your Travel Journal more than just a recepticle for your memories. Travel provides inspiration for her other artwork, and she uses her journal to capture those ideas for future use

    Reader Comments (3)

    A roll of double sided tape helps corral some of the emphemra!
    June 21, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterPat S.
    what an excellent post this is!! thanks Susie!
    June 26, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterJane LaFazio
    Those are very wonderful places, reminds me of when we have a tour around Madrid. It really gives you an edge of inspiration.
    July 9, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterplumbing

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