Susie Monday . El Cielo Studio

Since Wednesday, I've been adventuring in the Northeast. My longtime colleague Susan has been directing a kid's program at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, near her home up here in the land of tall trees. She flew me up to help wrap up the second of two weeks, and to help shape the final "show and tell" for parents, and add a bit of help for a teacher's presentation next week. (I've got a hitch in the downloading photo process -- forgot the cable AND the cardreader, so more art later).

This program, NEW WORLD KIDS,  has been a pilot/continuation/experiment taking work we did years ago with Learning About Learning Educational Foundation and updating it for today's parents, and, in this case, a primary audience of 5-to-6 year olds. Throughout the week they've  been working with Susan, the museum's education staff, and a slew of tecnical supporters-- one aim has been to get pictures and good video for taking the program to the next stage, bigger and broader, we both hope (stay tuned for more). Exploring what we call "the Sensory Alphabet, " (formerly "the elements of form" for any of you in the audience who may be Paul Baker theater people), these little kids have been building fluency, learning about their inherent  preferences and working through the open-ended creative process of taking ideas into form.

Here's more from Susan's essay describing the program and process:

"The Sensory Alphabet is what we call the building blocks of creative literacy. Just as basic as the traditional alphabet used to teach the literacies of reading and writing, it is the basis of our sensory connection to the world around us – line, color, texture, movement, sound, rhythm, space, light, and shape. (It is tempting, first off, to think of it as an arts or design vocabulary...but it is more than this...it is just as fundamental to an ability to “read” physics, basketball or DNA.)
This elemental vocabulary is the pattern language of everything that is “out there.” Because it describes, but doesn’t define, it enlarges the capacity for seeing patterns. It lets us see both lemons and windows as shapes...both ballet and algebra as lines. It also enlarges our capacity for perceiving patterns between disparate objects, fields and cultures...and this ability is one of the hallmarks of creative, innovative thinking.

"Consider The Sensory Alphabet as another very basic symbol system we want our children to acquire, just as basic as the traditional alphabet and numbers parents and teachers have long taught their children. The Sensory Alphabet multiplies children’s early repertoire of ways to symbolize, understand and communicate their ideas. Equally as importantly, it builds the foundation for a more informed interaction with the digital media that demands fluency in this symbol system, conveying ideas through images, videos, icons and sounds. As is obvious, these new media have largely abandoned written language ––and even the spoken word -- as the means of communicating meaning, information and story.

"Practicing Creativity

Along the way we consciously engage the creative process in small and large ways. Each interactive (or open-ended) activity includes:

1. looking/ gathering /collecting ideas
2. playing/experimenting with various media
3. selecting/editing/creating
4. reflecting on the work. "

                                                                       Susan Marcus,     
                                                                       educator and consultant

 

This pretty much describes my approach to both teaching and making art -- filling up, playing around, selecting and shaping, and reflecting on the process. Using a basic set of ways to think about and investigate ideas non-verbally. The reflection part of the process is often what this blog helps me with. By trying to succinctly explain, capture and summarize either product or process, I seem to find ways to make it clearer for myself, to see my stengths, to take the next bold step.  

Once upon a time, I was one of a group of young women artists who spent the day at the LBJ Ranch, a few years after Lyndon's death, with Lady Bird and some of her women friends, a group including former press secretary Liz Carpenter, a senator's wife of two, and a couple of other close friends, including Patsy Steves, a San Antonian friend of the educational foundation where I worked. These women had made a tradition of spending a week together each year to create, enjoy, relax and rejuvenate their friendships. They invited artists, noteworthy speakers, chefs and others to teach at their informal  gathering, and obviously took pleasure in each other's company. I remember that Lady Bird was as gracious a hostess as her reputation predicted, but that she also had an unexpected quietly wicked sense of humor. She, along with the other women, journaled, played with clay, collaged and even acted in skits in this morning-long creativity workshop in the ranch's living room and outside on the patio. 

This gathering  seemed to me, then and now, a measure of their open curiousity, their willingness to step outside their usual roles, and it certainly deflated any notions I might have held about "famous people" being fundamentally different than other people. (I was still that young!) And, as I am now not too much younger than Lady Bird was during that gathering, I appreciate that she and her friends took time for each other, time to be together, laugh, eat, get their toes done, speak in their own inimitable voices.

Some may fault Lady Bird for chosing wildflowers as a special cause. She answered the criticism this way:

“Some may wonder why I chose wildflowers when there are hunger and unemployment and the big bomb in the world. Well, I, for one, think we will survive, and I hope that along the way we can keep alive our experience with the flowering earth. For the bounty of nature is also one of the deep needs of man.”

As an artist, I, too, wonder if what I do is "important." If making the art that calls forth from my heart is justified in a world that has such pain, anger, violence and damage. I've come to feel much as Lady Bird did about her flowers. We each have something that our heart calls us to do. To do otherwise is unwise at best, at worst, can make ones life misery. Right now I am called to art and teaching, and so that is what I do.

One of my wildflower inspired Borderland altars. This one features a photograph of a Texas thistle.

As a Texan I appreciate the legacy of wildflowers Lady BIrd left us. We who live in the Hill Country owe much of the beauty of our roadsides to her work, the awards she gave annually to the highway maintanence divisions who preserved flowers, and to her continuing advocacy for beautiful parks -- state and federal -- near the ranch and across the country.

True confession. I have excuses for my woeful absence from art-making since my return home. Economic for one. Funny how a trip empties the coffers. As a advocate of "when the doorbell rings and the bank account is empty, better answer" school of employment, I've been wearing my consultant hat and my art eduator workboots. I have managed to craft a life that is creatively challenging, it just happens in different directions sometimes.

This spring and summer I've been working on a library outreach family program in association with a major showing of the works of Fernando Botero. -- the first U.S. venue for his exhibit that traveled Europe the last few years. The exhibits are spectacular, and ring with resonance in this majority Latino city. Botero, whose work I had dismissed as facile from my scant exposure to his ubiquitous bathing women posters, has become an artist of interest to me. His work has this dark, ominous quality that both defies and defines his baroque volumetric vision of the world. Also, Botero has taken on some heavy topics in his work -- most recently Abu Ghraib and torture.  (These drawings aren't part of the show, but a lecture about them was part of the programming.) Many of his archetypal portraits are subtle but telling examinations of power and its effect on a nation; others present quite chilling images of violence and distruction. And his studio practice and productivity  is inspiring. (OK, no matter what else is going on, I am trying to do some work at least eight of the week's overstuffed hours.)

If you are anywhere close to San Antonio between now and mid August, I strongly recommend a visit to the exhbits at the Southwest School of Art and Craft and San Antonio Museum of Art. See www.boterosa.org for more information.

As part of the citywide celebration of the exhibits and Botero, we've been producing family day workshops at each of the city's 20 branch libraries, three per Saturday, and usually one of those is mine. My colleague and longtime partner-in-work Zet Baer (also a fiber artist) and I planned the program, recruited staff and volunteers and are also lead teachers some of the weekends. 

We've had great activities for kids and parents. One of my favorites: Kids see prints of Botero's portraits; make a Boteroesque hat to wear, have their face painted to look like one of his portraits. We have a sheet of mylar that reflects their image as if in a Botero painting (like a fun house mirror) and then they paint a self-portrait. Or even another painting of their own in Botero's signature style. This is a wonderful exercise in looking closely, learning through copying and paying attention to style as signature.

The summer at El Cielo has been unusually wet and cool for Texas, but, we're getting steamy and I suspect that drier weather is upon the proverbial doorstep. Last year I launched the first Burning Woman workshop, with a slight nod to the Burning Man event of the Southwestern desert, and a more-than-slight wink at the ever threatening menopausal wave that haunts many of us women of a certain age. This year, I've got two Burning Women workshops scheduled -- the August event is completely booked, and I hope to find a few more adventurous souls for the July 28-29 event.

Like last year, we'll be exploring the role of passion, heat and inner fire in our work, whether its in fiber or another media, though the techniques will focus on fiber/ mixed media tools and materials, the heart work comes from whatever lights your switch. Each event is a little different, since to keep these home studio workshops fresh for myself -- and since each one is limited to 6 to 8 participants, an intimate number -- it seems right to make each one as special and unique as possible.

This one comes at a good time for me, because I'm finding it difficult to get the heat off of my skin and into my work right now. Perhaps the fires are a bit banked after the long absence from the studio, or maybe its just part of the natural ebb and flow that comes with creative work, but I am ready to feel a little more passionate about what I put my hands to. Though I put these workshop events together for others, and certainly feel I have some experience to bring to the participants, the chosen topic often seems to turn up just what I need at a certain time -- even though the calendar was planned months ago. As I research, design and try out the processes and techniques, the writing exercises, the stillness and the action that feed each other, I usually get my next right action. I think it has something to do with focus and motion, pulling the bowstring and putting my eye against the arrow shaft.

So, here's a little more about the workshop. If you are interested in attending, leave a comment or email me directly.  If you come back later, the brochure should be posted on the workshop link on the righthand sidebar.

Burning Woman Workshop
July 28-29, 2007
Saturday , 10:00 am through Sunday, 3:30 p
For women artists only.

Are you burning with a desire to make art, only to find it smothered or smoldering? Or are you finding burn-out to be a challenge in your life at work or at home? Do you even know your is your heart's most passionate creative desire? Can you remember when you last let art-making take charge of your time and energy? Maybe you just need to fan the flame a little?

Where ever you find yourself on the farenheit scale of creativity, take the time at this retreat to channel that inner fire into creative expression and explore the relationship of passion, energy and desire to art and art-making. Participants will be engaged in a life-affirming series of exercises, meditations, rituals and art-making in a variety of simple media, including fiber, paper, paint and dye.

We will practice sun-printing, burning and rusting on fabric and other surfaces; explore microwave dyeing and sun-batched color on cloth. But even if your discipline is other than textiles, you will find renewed energy from this focus on creative passion as we create rituals and light bonfires to keep our inner vision burning bright.

Participants will also enjoy the pool. hot tub, walks along Hill Country roads and trails in the area surrounding El Cielo Studios. The airconditioned studio, located next to Susie's home, offers 1200 square feet of work space, as well as room to spread out under the oaks and on the deck overlooking a 20-mile view into the Texas Hill Country. come dressed for the weather, for swimming, for outdoor explorations. Accommodations are available in the house and studio for a modest fee, and all meals except for your Saturday sack lunch are included. Most supplies are included in the tuition, as well.

Fee: $150, accommodations $15-$30, depending on room. El Cielo Studio is located about 1 hour north of downtown San Antonio. For artists coming from afar, rooms are available before and after the workshop on premises or  I can make arrangements for you at a downtown or near-airport motel or hotel. Or book a stay into one of nearby Bandera's dude ranches for a true Texas getaway! Email me directly at susie monday @ sbcglobal .net. (Remove spaces to send email.)