Gap in posting is to be expected. When Linda goes on break from teaching, I tend to forget my (self)employed status for a while  (well, until I look at my bank account) and revel in summer in the Hill Country. And a lovely one it is so far: cool in the mornings and evenings, spectacular thunder and lightning storms, clear skies and billowy clouds and sun during the day. The tierra has finally gotten enough rain to green up and the tomatoes in the garden are ripening!

There's a new pooch, a new porch and I'm back in print in the magazine world after a long sabatical from that strand of the tapestry -- My first piece in the quilt world is in Quilting Arts in the June/July issue: a profile of Alaskan artist Ree Nancarrow. I love writing and profiles of artists are a perfect genre for me -- I get to talk to artists whom I admire and then shape a story to communicate what I find special about their work. Thanks to Pokey Bolten (and Leslie Riley who introduced us at last year's International Quilt Festival). So run out and buy a copy, send a letter to Pokey about how much you like my writing (I'm sure), and lets keep that path open!

As to the Pooch. Linda picked up a dumped black-and-tan coon hound (we didn't know at first and thought she was a bloodhound) on the highway and its been a roller coaster ride ever since. You know those free dogs -- she had a bad abcess from a fight with something; she was going into heat; she had to be spayed and her very long nails groomed; the long beautiful ears where filled with bacteria and she and Rodeo, the resident alpha animal gentle spirited border collie, have spent many a testy moment posturing about status in the pack. Not to mention that Bandera (she's named for the highway, county and county seat up the road) seems to think resident cat is a coon. Not so good, since resident cat is fearless and loves to provoke said coon hound. And that a coon hound is mostly nose. So she can't be trusted to stay home guarding the resident sheep (us) as can border collie Rodeo. But, as things will have it, we love her. Find her fascinating and goofy, and are now walking 3 miles a day to give her the run time she needs. We are all looking much trimmer.

The new porch is a big hit with family  and friend visitors, as well as the residents, two and four legged, and I can't wait to use it for opening morning sessions (if it stays cool enough) for the next workshop (completely sold out, thanks to a final registrant who found me and the workshops due to the published profile!). What a sentence.

Our neighbor Bill (That's his house, which he and his wife also built, in the background) built the extension to an existing deck, making a sleeping/dining porch about 25 by 15 with an open porch 8 feet out and poised over the cliff side overlooking the cedars and water oaks. The roof is clear near the house, letting light into the kitchen and DR and metal on the part further out from the house. Three screen doors complete the picture.

So, what are you doing this summer, so far? It's a great time to dye, to sunprint and to rust, so we're dusting off the rust bucket and the dyepots and getting (back) to work!

 P.S. Here's Rodeo, so he won't be too jealous about Bandera's star role in this post.

Everytime I think that surely the whole world is into art quilts I meet someone who looks puzzled and asks me "huh?" Quilts hung on the wall is sort of part of it, but many people also hang their "traditional" quilts on the wall. And, frankly, I'm not so sure that the borderline between traditional and art quilts is all that clear in the minds of many who even like to tinker in the trappings.

I certainly don't want to replay the whole art vs. craft discussion here, nor do I believe that we gain a lot by debating what exactly is art -- it's a lovely question that's been asked and answered for ages. (I personally like what Rudyard Kipling wrote in 1890 in Conundrum of the Workshop:

“When the flush of a new-born sun fell on Eden’s green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Til the Devil whispered behind the leaves, “It’s pretty. But is it Art?”

But I do think its worth stating and restating a few times on this blog, one the purportedly is about the studio life, practise and output of an artist who makes art quilts (aka contemporary textile paintings) and during this season of entry forms (esn't every season now?) it's nice to revisit what some of the "big kids on the block" have to say about it.

Here's Lisa Call's take on the topic, from her Squidoo lens (and she quotes and attributes several others):

What is a Contemporary Art Quilt
From Lisa Call’s http://www.squidoo.com/artquilts/

There is a lot of discussion in the art quilt world about what exactly an "art quilt" is and what we should call them. The simple term "quilt" is deemed unacceptable by a large portion of the general art quilting population because of the connotations of traditional quilt that it carries with it. So most people prefer to add some type of disclaimer to qualify the type of quilt they make.
One of the more common terms is "art quilt". I prefer "contemporary quilt". Some people say "fiber art" or "studio quilt" or "textile art" or "soft painting". But the question remains - exactly WHAT is a contemporary art quilt? Generally it refers to a quilt that was intended to be art and hang on the wall vs. placed on a bed. Although some art quilts might also be bed quilts.

What is Art?
As contemporary art quilts are "art" it's good to think about what art is when trying to define them. Of course defining art is difficult but the definition I prefer I read on Alyson Stanfield's Art Biz Blog

"What is art? . . . art is the deliberate creation of aesthetic sensations. Art is a work of a human being, not of nature. It is not accidental. It produces something that is perceived through the senses and results in a personal emotional experience. . . .

". . . it is the conscious, deliberate production of an event or object of beauty (or emotional import) by a human being, employing not only the skill of the craftsman, but in addition, an element of creativity--original, inventive, instinctive, genius. An art object is an aesthetic artifact, deliberately created.
Art actually lies in the act of creation, not in its result."

--G. Ellis Burcaw, Introduction to Museum Work, page 66

Definition of an Art Quilt
From the "Authorities"
This is Quilt National's definition:
The work must possess the basic structural characteristics of a quilt. It must be predominantly fabric or fabric-like material and must be composed of at least two full and distinct layers - a face layer and a backing layer. The face layer may be described by any or a combination of the following terms: pieced, appliqued, whole cloth, stitched/fused to a foundation. The face and backing layers must be held together by hand- or machine-made functional quilting stitches or other elements that pierce all layers and are distributed throughout the surface of the work. At least some of these stitches or elements should be visible on the back of the work. As an alternative, the work may be a modular construction (an assemblage of smaller quilts). Each individual module, however, must meet the above structural criteria.

This is Studio Art Quilt Associates's definition:
SAQA defines an art quilt as a contemporary artwork exploring and expressing aesthetic concerns common to the whole range of visual arts: painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, assemblage and sculpture, which retains, through materials or technique, a clear relationship to the folk art quilt from which it descends.

The art part of the definition is the most debateable, and as Kipling wrote, a longtime call and response.

The majority of Westerners today, if a survey of more than 500 people conducted by Carolyn Boyd’s anthropology class at Texas A&M has any validity, think that

“art is created for the sole purpose of being aesthetically pleasing to people within society and with minimum purpose beyond that of intrinsic enjoyment.”

Boyd is studying the rock art paintings of the Pecos River and, she views those great works in a somewhat different light, one that does not make them ART at all, but something more utilitarian than what that survey indicates most Americans think about art.

Human beings are makers – we evolved these opposable thumbs and then just couldn’t help but start making tools, making clothing, making shelter, making food fancier, making stuff.

As we developed more skills and fancier tools --and perhaps the time to spare, we started pleasing our senses with the things we made --adding aesthetic considerations to their functionality with decoration, embellishment – and also just with making things that had inherent sensory-pleasing qualities of texture, color, shape and form. This concern, these considerations have changed, but endured even into the industrial and post industrial, electronic world. Craft and technical skills become valuable.

We make stuff – and try to make it pleasing --but we humans also make stories. As story makers, we are as concerned with the why and how come and what happened then and what happens next as we are with making our lives run more smoothly. A story, in this broad artspeak meaning, can be a narrative, a question, a confusion, a conversation between formal elements like line and color, a public outrage, a private history -- and it can be done well or poorly.

And to me that’s where the art comes in to the quilt.

The intersections of what we think of as different fields of study fascinates me. These videos I stumbled across today provide some tantilizing connective tissue between art and mathematics in the work and research of Eric Demaine. What I liked best was Eric's statement that mathematics is an art medium. And his, sometimes a bit rattled, SEED presentation (Scroll down to see the embedded video) proves that he is working from the spirit that drives all of us who make art.

First, here are the links to an animation of the Metamophosis of the Cube

The background of the animation of
Metamophosis of the Cube even has its own little artfull story:

Watching the animation, you'll probably notice the old page of cyrillic text in the background. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it gives something onto which the folding objects can cast shadows. Second, it is in some sense the basis for our work. The page is from a Russian book on Convex Polyhedra by the famous Russian geometer A. D. Aleksandrov. In particular, the theorem underneath the folding cube characterizes what “polyhedral metrics” can be folded into convex polyhedra.

Advice to artists: When Alyson B. Stanfield puts out a call for photographs, answer the call. If you're lucky and have the right work to share, you may find yourself featured in a magazine article, such as this one in June's issue of Art Calendar!

This is the second time an article by Alyson has used one of my photos to illustrate her advice, and, I assure you, the exposure is welcome. And of course, as a fan and occassional student in Art Biz Coach workshops, the advice is always worth reading. This article about public speaking for artists includes the following tip (buy the magazine to read more and to catch the rest of the details!) Alyson writes:

"Provide a call to action.

When you conclude, don't forget why you're there....Suggesting a next step to your audience provides both closure and a transition for continuingyour relationship with them."

Believe me, I learned several good new approaches to include in my next artist's talk from the article, and I suspect you will as well!

Escape Velocity, 2009.

19" by 26.5" by 2.5' Textile on wooden frame

$400

Here's a preview of some of my new work that will be shown at FiberArt Space though June 15, with the artists' reception tonight starting at 5:30. The 8" by 8" by 1.5" pieces are a new format for me, inspired by a desire to make some smaller work that relate to larger pieces. These little satellites are $85 -- I hope they'll find good homes! If you are interested in any of the pieces in this preview (just a few of the 24 pieces I have on display), please contact the gallery.

Fiber Artspace
1414 S. Alamo St. # 103
San Antonio, TX 78210

210-633-6959

Located in the Blue Star Art Complex
In the Armon Art Suite of Galleries

They will be happy to arrange shipping. If you want to see more, email me and I'll try to have an album link up on my website by early next week.

Above top: Letting Go 2, Letting Go 1, each 8" by 8" by 1.5"

Above, lower: Dream Tree with Spines, 8" by 8" by 1.5"

(I think) Please describe these if you wish to purchase one of these, I realize now I didn't put the numbers on the photo titles!

Dream house with Spines, 2009 SOLD

8" by 8" by 1.5"

$85

Pomegranate, 2009 SOLD

8"by 8" by 1.5"

$85

This last piece has an unusual history and technique in its making: I love pomegranates and often feature them in my work. They have both real and symbolic beauty and are, to me, a symbol of the fertility of creativity. This was a photoshopped image of a pomegranate that I photographed in Monte Vista, an area near my old university (Trinity University in San Antonio) when I walked there last fall. The tree was a full bushy shrub with many fruit and it was just luscious. When I worked on the photo, I enhanced and saturated the colors to make the image move from real to magical. I printed the image on several materials, including this plastic packing material -- (perhaps its Tyvak, but I am not sure as it was a recycled bit found on the run). Then, last fall when teaching at the International Quilt Festival in Houston (where I'll be teaching and lecturing this fall, too) I had used all the fabric I brought for demonstrating a polychrome method of screenprinting with water-soluble crayons -- This scrap of an image fell out of the box of supplies (I'd actually taken it for a different demo) and the rest is history -- that's the swirly designs. 'Course, in making this piece, I added more fabric, screenprinted the squiggles and the wheel symbol and did some machine and hand stitching to finish the embellished image, floating there in its magical mystical presence!

If you'd like to know the checkered past for any of these other pieces, or any of the art on my website or blog elsewhere, please leave a question in the comments. Everything has a story.

P.S. Here's a complete list of my work that's in the exhibit. Any questions, send me an email with the contact box in the sidebar,.

a) Title: Escape Velocity
Size: 19” by 26.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $400

b) Title:Escape Velocity, 2
Size: 12” by 12” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $115

c) Title:Dream Tree with Spines
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

d) Title: Dream House with Spines
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

e) Title:Escape
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

f Title: Dream House with Spines, 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

g) Title: ”I’m Out of Here”
Size: 19” by 26.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $400

h) Title:Escape
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

i) Title:Dream House with Spines, 3
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

j) Title: Pomegranate: Fertile Earth
Size: 19” by 26.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $350

k) Title: Earth Niche, 1
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

l) Title:Earth Niche, 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

m) Title: Pomegranate 1
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

n) Title: Pomegranate 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

o) Title:Fig Leaf
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

p) Title: Rose Grotto
Size: 12” by 16” by 3.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$200

q) Title: El Cielo Dream, 2
Size: 19” by 17.5” by 2.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price: $350

r) Title: El Cielo Dream, 3
Size: 12” by 12” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$110

s) Title:Letting Go, 1
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

t) Title: Letting Go, 2
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

u) Title:Letting Go, 3
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

v) Title:Letting Go, 4
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile on wooden frame
Retail Price:$85

W) Title:Michael of a Thousand Eyes
Size: 8” by 8” by 1.5”
Media: Textile , art quilt
Retail Price $750

I've been playing around with notan expanded squares for years, ever since Jane Dunnewold of Art Cloth Studios showed our class the Japanese exercise. Her explaination is on the tutorial section of the Art Cloth Studios website, so you can go there and get the instructions straight from my source.

As Jane writes, so eloquently (as she always does),

Both symmetrical (the same all around) and asymmetrical (different on each side) designs can be achieved through the use of the expanded square concept. In order for the exercise to be completed successfully, there must be a feeling of balance in the design created. A symmetrical design can still be heavy, ponderous, or boring. If the design is working, it will be interesting and will feel balanced on all four sides. Test this idea by turning your paper as you study a completed design. Does it measure up when rotated and studied? Is it interesting from all directions?

There are many other notan exercises, all of them derived from what is considered a kind of visual meditation sometimes by its practitioners.This example is even simpler in execution. Simply cut a square apart in any way you wish, with the object being to reassemble it with white space in between, making again a pleasing and intriguing balance of white and black, light and dark.

I also like to play with the shapes in multiples, enlarging and reducing them on the copier, then reassembling into a rhythmic shape composition.

These exercises are a neverending source of inspiration for stamps, whole cloth quilts, applique, stencils, screen-printing and other graphic applications to fiber arts. I'd love to see your examples! Like snowflakes, there never seem to be two alike! Here's another site with examples too, from Princeton Online.

And here's a wonderful extension of the discipline into maskmaking by a class at San Jose.

By the way, there is room for one more shape-minded person in June's The Shape of the Matter workshop at El Cielo Studio. We'll be doing notan and lot's of other shape exercises in design, using shape as the structural bones for an art quilt, and more. If you're interested, send me a message via the contact box on the sidebar. Dates are June 26 - 28. For further info, see the workshop page.

And, if you're not overwhelmed with opportunities yet, you can find more shape exercises in our new book -- yes, it's for parents, but each set of activities includes a page for the grownup investigators, too.
Here's the exercises in the Shape section -- plus a whole slew of others that didn't make it into the book. I'd love to hear your ideas, too.

Shape investigations to do on your own:

Explore your home as though it were a museum. What kinds of shapes have you collected, consciously or unconsciously? Make an arrangement of disparate objects that share a shapely characteristic on a bookshelf or windowsill. What would the catalog of these shapes say about you?

As you drive through your neighborhood notice the shapes of buildings, homes, stores and other structures. Do the shapes that you see serve as clues to architectural eras, the history of the street? If yours is a new neighborhood, what historical styles have the builders called upon for inspiration? Shapes of windows, doors, rooflines and facades are your best clues.

Cut or tear shapes from colored paper and collage them to solid colored cards for interesting personal note paper.

Enroll in a ceramics class at a local art center or continuing education department of a local college or university. Or for self-guided exploration buy a 50-pound box of ceramic sculpture clay from a local supplier.

Watch a dance or mime performance (live or recorded) with an eye for shape, how the performers use their bodies and each other to create shapes in space. Some troupes and artists to look for: Mummenschanz (on the web at www.mummenschanz.com), Martha Graham -- who else?


Take a walk along a creek bed or river and visually collect the shapes you see in stones and water.

Dip into Georges Perec’s 1978 Life A User’s Manual, a non-linear novel that uses writing constraints – rules that the writer has imposed on the content and structure of the book – much in the way a visual artist uses shape in the composition of a painting.

Write a haiku each morning for a week about the weather outside your window. (How do constraints of syllable count shape your thoughts?)

Think about how your clothing affects your silhouette as you dress for work or play. Make an effort to wear something that changes your shape and pay attention to its effect.

Collect a specific shape (circles or cones, for example) or specifically shaped objects (manholes, terracotta vases, interesting doors) by photographing throughout a day, a week, a month. Post your collection on a photography website, such as Flickr, to share it with others.

Carve simple shapes using a craft knife into the side of an art gum or white artist’s eraser. Make shape patterns and grids using black stamp pad ink on white paper. Enlarge and reduce and repeat shape patterns using a copier. Can these inspire a quilt or other art project?

I've spent most of the past two weeks in a storm of productivity -- and I'm quite happy with all the work I've gotten done, if not a bit chagrined that it seems to take deadlines to get me into this heat of energy in the studio. The show is a three-person show at the newly relocated FiberArt Space and Suchil Coffman organized the theme and put all of us in action.

I've a whole slew of new work -- but it's also old. The theme called me to revisit some small paintings that I had made sometime, I think, in the 1980s. The pieces were made from dreams and some untangling personal work that I did in the 1980s, reclaiming some old stories and rewriting my own past and some painful memories with compassion.  I made new textile pieces from a couple of these paintings, and made some photo copier prints from them, then reshaped them into some new small 8" by 8" by 1.5" pieces.

I also made some small new pieces from photo prints made of details from earlier work -- hands that were part of larger pieces,  turning them into a small series called "Letting Go." And also made some small companion "satellite" works to accompany a larger altar piece now retitled and reworked, "Pomegranate: Fertile Earth."

I won't post the new work (other than these little teaser details) until the show opens, but once the reception is over, I'll put some of these new pieces here on the blog and on the website. If you can't make it to the exhibit, maybe you'll find a piece that needs to be in your collection here on the web. I will, of course, pay FiberArt Space their commission for any work sold as a result of this exhibition!

Here's the latest correspondence we've received from the San Antonio Arts Education Task Force. Hopefully this will move the organization and the city forward!

This past fall, at the behest of the Office of Cultural Affairs, Paula Owen, Jon Hinojosa and I attended a conference sponsored by Americans for the Arts titled, “Knowledge Exchange: District-Wide Change in Arts Education.” The conference shared the impact and success of “Arts for All” http://tools.laartsed.org/default.aspx an arts education blueprint for the Los Angeles County region. The program in Los Angeles has been so successful, that we came back determined that it was a great model to learn from and potentially replicate. The SAAETF has done some good work and now is a good time to reconnect and move forward with a new focused direction and leadership. We have been informally discussing the logistics of how we can begin to reconvene and begin this important and rewarding endeavor.

The Office of Cultural Affairs is moving forward with an RFP process to find a non-profit organization that will be the fiscal agent responsible for the hiring of a full time Project Director. This individual will help us all create our own arts education blue print for San Antonio. Once the Project Director is selected, we will set a date for the SAAETF membership to re-connect and discuss our role to assist in strengthening the arts for all children in San Antonio.

I appreciate your patience and look forward to your support!

Isabel Romero

Fine Arts Teacher Specialist for Theatre and Art

SAAETF Chair

As a arts-in-ed professional, I know the need, the value and something of the politics of the business. I enjoy the occassional forays I make as a consultant back into the world of formal and informal  K-12 education, so it's with interest that I explored the LA county blueprint. Anyone out there in LA county had experience or interaction with this program?

I just realized I've not posted the new and revised dates for workshops this summer. Text on the Surface is all but full, as is The Shape of the Matter, but a couple more people could squeeze in if you're not too picky about where you sleep. If you're interested email me in the message block on the sidebar.

Workshops in fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media work

Nurture your creativity as you come away from a weekend with renewed energy, new materials and techniques in surface design applicable to fiber, ceramics, jewelry, painting and mixed media work. Susie Monday leads artists’ retreats and workshops throughout the year at her studio near Pipe Creek, Texas, about an hour from downtown San Antonio. El Cielo Studio workshops are designed with the needs of the participants in mind; free time is scheduled throughout the weekend for reading, reflection and personal work in the studio. You are welcome to bring projects in process for Susie’s critique and for peer feedback in an environment of trust and respect. You’ll share meals, poetry and stories, music and advice for living an artist’s life. Enjoy the 25-mile vistas from the deck and strolls down the country roads. A spa and pool, and large screen media room are also available to participants. The fee for each work- shop retreat is $160 for a 2- day event with discounts for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations are available from $15 - $30 per workshop. Most workshops offer a Friday night potluck option. Limited enrollment. Most supplies included. Call 210-643-2128 or email from the website comments on the sidebar.

TEXT ON THE SURFACE

May 22 - 24

In this workshop participants experiment with a number of different ways to use written language, letters and text on surface of fabric, for application in the making of art cloth, art quilts and art-to-wear. By putting ideas and personal vision/story into work, artists deepen their own expression of individual voice, using words that are important, using STORY in

a quite literal way,all can be part of that personal way of expression. Some familiar and some new techniques: sunprinting with foam letters, thermofax collage & printing, phototransfer print- ing with copier/printer, soy wax batik with text, mixed media collage. Participants will also see a wide variety of examples of the use of text in fiber and other con- temporary work, broadening their conceptual under- standing of using words in art. Optional Friday night pot luck, no additional fee.

NEW AT EL CIELO: THE SHAPE OF THE MATTER

June 17-19

How does an art quilt idea grow from a shape? Learn two-dimensional design skills though an investigation of paper-cut silhouettes, Japanese Notan ex- ercises, black ink drawings, stencil and silkscreen de- sign. Explore personal imagery, symbols and mean- ing as touchstones for de- signing for the decorative arts in fabric applicable to quilting, art cloth, garment design and embellishment, as well as learning techniques for simplifying and abstracting images to produce original designs on paper and fabric. Take home a journal quilt ready for stitching. Optional Friday night pot luck, no additional fee.


NEW AT EL CIELO THE KITCHEN ALTAR

July 17-19 and repeats August 21-23

This year’s “Burning Woman Workshop”!
Participants design and make a small art quilt “altar” for kitchen or dining room using sun-printing, vegetable prints, fusing, hand and machine stitching and “found” fabrics from attic, thrift store or kitchen closet. We will recycle napkins, tea towels and other like objects and design a thermofax featuring a meaningful symbol, favorite fruit, icon, saint, culinary heroine, an- gel or other meaningful de- sign as the centerpiece for the altar. These altars can be serious or sentimental, comic or universal – it’s up to the individual artist. (This workshop has an additional $12 fee per person for the altar boxes that the quilts are stretched upon.)


GIRLFRIENDS’ WEEKEND

Dates to be determined

Plan a weekend with your artist and should-be artist friends. Susie will design a custom weekend workshop with fiber, mixed media and creativity exercises with your interests and skill levels in mind. Possibilities: soy wax batik, art journals and hand-made books, art dolls and totems. This is the ultimate play date, with great food, the Texas Hill Country, a Saturday night rodeo or music outing (options, not in stone) and fun with “stuff.” Ttherapeutic massage services available from licensed masseuse. Minimum 4 friends, maximum, up to 8 depending on accommodation with shared rooms. The topics and techniques covered are up to you -- and any of the previous El Cielo Workshops can be adapted to your desires.

www.susiemonday.com