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.

About This Blog

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. 

To reach me, leave a comment after a post, OR email me at susiemonday@gmail.com 

 

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    Entries in imovie (1)

    Friday
    Jul302010

    Scale and Kids

    Nothing like a creative project with kids to keep you on your toes. I've been hacking my way around imovie putting some of their collaborative work together. If I figure out how to do so, I'll post the results on the blog somehow! This big project involves these 7 to 9 year olds in some projects that give them the experience of seeing their ideas become part of something larger than they could do alone -- and also puts adults in the picture as the facilitators and technical experts to help their ideas grow into projects that might -- at the moment -- be beyond the abilities of the kids to do on their own.

    Why is this important? It looks like the grownups are doing all or most of the work -- but what happens is that with the kids in the driving seat --and as the initiators of the ideas -- they get to really experience the aha of seeing something little grow into something bigger than life. This kind of powerful experience early in one's creative life can be what makes that creative path worth the obstacles ahead. At least that's how it worked for me!

    And the cool thing is, the kids really do feel ownership! It's "their" work, even if the matt knives have been in the grownups' hands; even if the movie editing was mostly done by me in the wee hours after the kids went home.

    "Think Like a Pro" is the name of this new program, and part of the aim, too, is to help kids see how different professionals approach creative work. The program is also a trial run on what we hope will be the  next chapter for our soon to be launched afterschool curriculum in Dallas with Big Thought. Now, the challenge is how to scale it up -- how to train others to take on the commitment to making kids' ideas shine.