Susie Monday . El Cielo Studio

The second annual Texas Museum of Fiber Arts exhibit at the State Capitol was this past Memorial Day weekend. Here are a few pics from the Preview Party, a grand and fun cocktail event in the Lt. Gov's reception room. My FASA colleagues Rachel Ridder Edwards (above with her first prize "Ode to the Majestic"  jacket) and Laura Beehler (below with detail of one of her amazing art cloth pieces) were among the award winners. I didn't get back to see the entire exhibit but hear it was well received. I guess you'll figure out by the pictures I took that I often have trouble feeling at ease at cocktail parties, no matter how good the food! Lots of floor pictures in other words! But what struck me most in this lovely room was the textural riches, the real materials and the kind of Texas pioneer honesty that the room and space embodied. I love that it is well-tended and true to its history, not all gussied up with a 2008 sense of luxury and glamour.

Where have I been? Wrestling with the muse in the studio, my friends. (And setting up newsletter templates for FASA.)

With the deadlines for two shows just over the horizon, I've been working diligently on the design table. Funny thing happens; for two days I cut and laid out fabrics working with the idea of making another medium sized Sirena (mermaid) piece, intended for my exhibit in Rockport. (Coastal town, right, makes sense?) Finally I realized she just was not swimming into the picture -- two small a background perhaps, too strident a color palette. So now what?

Looking around the studio, my eye fell on my "in table" and the bright Mexican embroidered  tablecloth so generously given to me by Donna LoMonoco. A couple of little voices spoke up: "You've been working on the wrong side of the beach. We creatures are ready to dive in." And so they did: two slightly  scary Sea Harpies and a Sun Dog. (I know sun dogs are the little circles of light that come through the tree leaves, but this one is winged and has a rather forked tail.)The piece came together pretty fast after that. And so I seem to have added a new category to the angels, saints and sinners who show up in my work. (They are definitely on the sinner side of things, not really evil, but ready to cause a bit of trouble.)

The lesson, for me, is to know when to quit. And to know where to go for inspiration when I need it. Mexican and other folk art always inspires my eye and my hand. These figures don't look like the animals on the tablecloth, but they share a their shapeliness and quirky form. They are members of the same family, I think.

Sewing is next -- I've this piece and a Stella Maris ready for stitching. I will post after pictures closer to the exhibit dates -- but meanwhile, if you live in the Corpus Christi or Rockport area, I hope you'll put the opening reception on your calendar: Saturday, August 9,  5-7 p.m. at the Rockport Center for the Arts. I'll also be teaching a half-day version of my Field Guide to Color workshop for the Fiber Artists Society of the Art Center of Corpus Christi in Calallen, another small coastal town close to Corpus. That one is 9-1 also on Saturday, and for registration info, call Paula Gron at 361-985-1137.

A wide assortment of odds and ends have landed in my inbox the past couple of weeks -- worth sharing but without much of a common thread to tie the ends up neatly.

From Leslie Jennison:
"There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal weekend edition 
about the burgeoning quilt-making industry which features Caryl Bryer 
Fallert.  It is of interest because the article brings up the 
economic strength of the industry."

 From Martha Grant:
"I thought you'd like to see my finished altar from your workshop! I'm happy with the way it turned out. You can put it on your blog, if it'll fit. I'm benefitting from learning the assembly process for this, because it's factoring into my genealogy series for the New Braunfel's (Art League Gallery) show. (Which is taking on a life of its own.)"

Many of you have already seen this quilting video, sent to me by Diana Kellerman. The quilt world seems to be getting a great  deal of media attention right now!

 "If you missed the CBSNews program Sunday Morning  on March 16 we would like to share the 7 minute video with you here. The Sunday Morning  program highlighted the quilting industry and International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas with a spotlight on all time favorite quilter, Ricky Tims." (The annoying commercial at the start is pretty short.)

Since I've been working on my website, several people have sent me links to other artists who have their work on iweb created sites. Here's Alicia Merritt's, some incredibly beautiful work.

And, finally, although sans photos since once again I got too wrapped up to take any pictures, a short report from the weekend workshop. I really enjoyed the "words" part of the event, although I think we could have worked another hour -- hard to do though when you start after work! The eight women writers who attended were involved and inspiring in their work. Five of them came out to the studio on Saturday for the visual arts part of the workshop, learning techniques for adding words and images from the night before. Again, lack of time was the only challenge. If I try this one again, it probably needs at least another hour.
 
 
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A breakthrough in the studio yesterday -- that big blue quilt background that has been plaguing me finally had a visitor. I started my morning with dance as usual, and during the floor time and its final short meditation, I used Eric Maisel's 6 breath centering sequence (See Coaching the Artist Within for more information.):

"1.Come to a complete stop.

2. Empty yourself of expectations.

3. Name your work.

4. Trust your resources.

5. Embrace the present moment.

6. Return with strength."

This meditation, which one does with first person affirmations timed with in and out breaths "(I am completely) (stopping)" is becoming a practice for me. I haven't been successful at sticking with meditation techniques that ask for 20 or 30 minutes a day: I'd rather be dancing, which is for me a moving meditation about being present in my body. Maisel's 6-breath focusing technique, more cerebral and left-brained bridging) is do-able for me, and seems to be giving me what I need as I move through my day. I can call on this technique whenever -- not just at a specified "meditation" time, or when I have a spare 20 minutes (hah!).

Yesterday, I knew I needed something specific to work with when I finished the meditation, so I had Linda trace my body on some large brown paper to use for pattern cutting. Then I headed to the studio, spread out the pieced blue background, dumped out some fabrics I had already auditioned during a previous visit to this work, and started fusing and cutting.

The women who inhabit my art quilts don't come to me full blown; they really do appear in the making, somehow communicating their insights and stories as I move through the design process. I've never been one of those artists who had a preset mental image or a schematic or detailed sketch or the final project, though I do sometimes use sketching as one of the stops on the journey. My starting place is generally with color or a color scheme, and with shapes and iconic doodles that are part of my tool box, those things that have come to my work over and over and have become part of my "style."

By the time I left the studio last night (for a really fun evening watching a DVD of Fat Actress) this new woman had found her place, stepping from one reality into the Cosmic swirls, juggling stories and moon spheres, leaving her watery scales to become part of the stars. As I worked I realised that Jill Bolte Taylor's story had worked its way into the piece, and that this was about that step from left to right brain. I'm not going to include a photo yet, I may want to enter this in one of those prestigious exhibits that don't allow prepublication, but I'll stick in a detail to give you a taste.