In the Studio this Week

On the table and in the air at El Cielo Studio, January 16 to 21

Clean and organize for the next two Artist Journey/Artist Journal workshops. We all need a clean well-ordered vessel to fill with ideas. What's inspiring the first one? Dave Evans and Bill Burnett: Designing Your Life; How to Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life.

Tape an informal video introduction for Art on the iPad, next session starts this week. (It's not too late to join in.)
Pay attention to comfort and self care in the studio. (See this month's newsletter for more on that). And here, too.
Slow stitch on a piece I am "remaking" for Dinner@Eight submission this year (I can't share the piece, but you can see the outtakes in the photo below).
Celebrate selling a tryptich of Borderlands art (the pieces in the last post) for a friend's new apartment. And I get to keep the work and enjoy it until July when she's ready for it.
Check my actions and practices against my BIG GOALS -- part of what I've worked on this past year during Lisa Call's Master Class.

In progress detail. This is a piece of an art quilt I made for the same curators' exhibit in 2011 for The Space Between. It's being rebirthed. Iterations, Iterations. The quilt had faded a bit because I didn't have the chops on inkjet printing (yet) so it's now just compost for the next idea.

Pitter Patterns

The second installment of pattern inspiration blogs this month. If you didn't get the newsletter that started it off, follow this link!

Here's a great collection from creative bug, a website/blog/newsfeed devoted to all things design. One of the featured artists is Hope Little -- her geometric animals (right) could inspire an amazing pieced quilt! 

Another animal pattern inspiration comes from National Geographic -- a great source of photos and images for art.

Puffer fish pattern

To make a black and white abstracted pattern from any photograph, take a look at what these apps can do with that photo above

And finally, a few animal print patterns that could inspire thermofax designs, screen printing or even a hand cut stencil!

If you'd like to know more about editing photos with iPad special effects apps, consider taking my Art on the iPad online course! Or take my workshop at Quilt Nebraska this summer!

Retreat into Advancing

The Artist Journey/Artist Journal workshop this past weekend was extraordinary. I can even say that without feeling toady or too very blustery, because the proof was in the participation. I loved the structure, but if it hadn't been for the participants' generosity, openness, vulnerability and willingness to listen, share and step outside of their comfort zones, the whole affair would have fallen flat. We meditated, we played, we soulfully shared, we made art tools and mantras to get us into the studio and out of our critic zone. This was about seeing the year ahead with out scary deadlines, with lovely life lines and paths forward. And, of course we ate both well and with wicked treats reserved for such events. (Linda always reminds me that the Catholic Church learned long ago that if you are going to put people on a spiritual retreat, you'd better advance the feasting to make it all even out.)

Here is what one participant wrote to a friend afterwards. She copied me (and also gave me permission to share what she wrote):

It was Extraordinary!  Big food for the soul.  Lots of exciting art making.  This one was about thinking through in summary  ... Where are you in your life and in your art ?   .....  What calls you now? ....  What do you have to do to to answer that call?  .... and last laying out a specific action that you will do right away, as a result of your work in this workshop, toward that goal.      We voiced it and made it into art, more than writing it in a journal.   Susie asked us questions that gave us a path to our answers. Almost everyone was pulled or pushed by some very strong need or desire to move forward in some specific part of our lives, to make a change, to heal something or  work through something .... to grow.  

And then she gave us projects to make art.....  and more projects to make art...  and as we just kept making art.....you could see what was pushing, pulling, or calling to us, because it just showed up. And it kept showing up.  Then at the end, after we had already put the big questions in our lives out there, both in our words and in our work,  she transitioned us to another place ..... with playful abstract work.

I truly don't know how she got that much out of us in such short time, that much quantity and depth, because it always felt easy and relaxed.  She even prioritized time 1st thing in the morning in the studio for us to meditate, with a guided meditation before we began the artistic journey and work. She is a  powerful teacher.... I think maybe she has magic.

And if all that is not enough.... She brought in another fun artist - teacher from Ft. Worth who joined us for the whole workshop and then taught us to make great prints with two different methods...wood block and beautiful colors of hot wax (encaustic).  Collaboratively we designed and carved a big wood block, and then each made a print from it for ourselves. Individually we made beautiful colorful prints that were always a surprise as they had their way with the melting wax that we laid out as a design.      

 It was Big, deep and wide and great.

Now that made me dance, inside and out! I think she said better than I've ever said what it is I hope a workshop here at El Cielo is like. The time is precious and renewing for us all, teacher most definitely first on the list. 

We walked into unknown territory and also stalked along making the path ahead clearer and more comfortable, with meditations on what holds us back, what feeds us best and who we need to take along on the journey.

I don't do these workshops alone, in more than one sense of the word. I really call upon the things I have found meaningful, and especially, what turns up when I pay attention around the first of the year to start planning this annual even. MINDFULNESS kept turning up -- and so, that is both my word for the year, and became the keynote strand for the workshop.

Here are some of the resources, the mentors, the writers and wise ones whom we called upon this year:

Brene Brown's work on vulnerability and shame

Eric Maisel's planning process and keys to understanding the dimensions of an artist life, from his book 

Making Your Creative Mark

Frederick Franck's "The Zen of Seeing"

Martha Beck's How to Set Powerful Goals

"Breathing Room," an  article by Marilyn Paul (as recommended by Alyson Stanfield)

Meditation site and apps by Headspace

Junanne Peck brought in wood carving tools, and an encaustic hot plate for more fun!

And, thanks to Pat Schulz, we have the moon overhead! to remember too. 

Junanne Peck, a wonderful Ft. Worth printmaker who is co-teaching summer art camp with me again, is sending more pictures and I'll post some more later. I always seem to forget to shoot images when I am deep into the flow of these events. She brought wood to carve, encaustic hot plate and more -- plus her own ideas and participatory genius. Junanne is an AKUA inks demo artist.

If you want to be part of the next El Cielo experience, here's the schedule as it stands now:

The Huipil Reimagined 

Feb. 27-March 1 and repeating May 1-3

El Cielo Studio, Pipe Creek

Weekend retreat with optional Friday night potluck. 

Participants will design and print fabrics and other textiles, construct a simple garment based on the traditional huipil of Mayan and other indigenous women of Latin America, reinterpreting the story telling and cultural identity of the garment as a personal work of art. We’ll be doing a variety of surface design techniques, stitching, fabric collage, photo transfers and more. $200 includes most supplies. Accommodations on site. REPEATS May 1 - 3. 

IPad Art Studio

Monthly

Each month I'll be hosting a guided iPad tablet creativity studio session at the Cabin in San Antonio, 539 Senisa, near Woodlawn Lake. These sessions, limited to 7 participants each session, will allow for individual consultation, critique, technical problem solving, app recommendations and more as you work on your own iPad, digital and print projects, including eBooks, collage work, Spoonflower digital print designs, photo editing, photo books, etc. When you sign up, send me an email with what you hope to accomplish so I can prepare a bit! Or just call at the last minute and see if there is space available.  Each 4 hour block of time (you can stay as long or short a time as you wish) runs from 12 noon to 4 pm on the third Monday of each month. The cost for this guide-on-the-side and personal coaching is just $40 per session. February 16, March 16, and April 20. No reservation fee, but do send an email if you can!

iPad Art Basics

Friday, January 30

The best art, editing and organization apps to start with -- and a world of tips and tricks that will take you from FB or reading on the tablet to a whole lot more -- digital printing, improving photos, making simple (and complex) photo collages and start-up sketching tools. This is a simplified version of the iPad Art Adventure that I have been teaching (by request from folks who thought that one would be too advanced!) This 6 hour workshop includes several chapters of my soon-to-be-published eBook on the subject to take home for further study..  9:30 am to 2:30 pm with a lunch break (bring your own or walk down the block for soup or tacos). 539 Senisa near Woodlawn Lake. Fee, including supplies other than app purchases:  $80

iPad Painting and Drawing

Friday, March 27

The best apps for sketchbooks, travel journals, drawing and “painting” explored in depth with both demo and projects to work on during the workshop (including art prints using an inkjet printer). Bring an assortment of photos that you like, and take still life shots at the workshop then transform them with a variety of apps in a personalized workflow. This 6 hour workshop includes more chapters from my soon-to-be-published eBook to take home for further study. 9:30 am to 2:30 pm with a lunch break (bring your own or walk down the block for soup or tacos). 539 Senisa near Woodlawn Lake. Fee, including supplies other than app purchases:  $80

Shape to Symbol to Stamp to Scarves

Saturday, March 28

9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Invent a personal logo or symbol after playing around with shape designs and experiments. Move from there to carving, cutting and stenciling on silk with fabric friendly inks and paints to make a personal statement in your attire this summer. You’ll explore creative combination, personal imagery and composition — and even a bit of up-to-date woodcarving and AKUA soy-based printing inks. Fee, including most supplies: $80

iPad Collage and Digital Design for Fabric Online Printing

Thursday, April 30, 9:30-3:30

San Antonio

Experiment with some of the wonderful collage apps on the iPad — cut and paste (virtually), as well as layering, grid designs and free form combining of art images, preexisting and new shape collections, famous art image vocabularies, and more. We’ll also do a walk-through on how to take an idea from iPad to Spoonflower, on the iPad and/or your laptop. $80 fee. App list sent ahead of time.

Summer Camp is Filling Fast

This will be year two for Summer Art Camp at The Camp at Capilla Peak, near Mountainair, New Mexico. Last year, we had a blast (and Linda and I were wed, that was a once-in-a-lifetime 21-year courtship event!), but this summer promises just as  much fun.

Two sessions are scheduled (the second depending on the first one filling -- which is just about the case as of this week) with the workshops repeating from Junanne Peck of Ft. Worth and me, Susie Monday, of Pipe Creek. Yes, Texans hoping to escape the heat! The Camp at Capilla Peak is intentionally a kind of summer kids camp for grownups. The accommodations are simple, the food is great (and we do serve wine and beer if you so indulge) Most of the supplies and amenities are furnished and we are a short 90 minute drive from the Albuquerque SunPort.

Send me an email through the contact page of this website (or my susie monday at that g mail address) and I'll tell you what accommodations are still open, and how to register. 

Summer Camp in New Mexico

It’s on! The dates for the second (and third) Summer Art Camp at Capilla Peak will be June 25 through June 30 (four full days of workshops) and a second session, July 5 through July 10. 

The heart of the experience is full four days of creativity with new techniques in surface design and mixed media, iPad art, encaustic and printmaking, as well as all the fun of summer camp with s’mores around the camp fire, walks in the pines, a hayride on Capilla Mountain, and area field trips. My classes will concentrate on collage, both virtual and tactile-- bring a laptop or tablet to match touch with tech, if you wish. Guest artist Junanne Peck returns to lead encaustic and printmaking sessions.

After our first successful and sold-out camp last summer, we know the space and the situation. We’ll be adding a catered meal and a dinner out in Mountainair , the nearby mountain village, plus allow a bit more free time for participants. (And, we have a better handle on the cost of doing this right!) We appreciate the generosity of my cousins Erik and Judyth Rigler in providing the camp venue, as well as a lot of the extras — and that makes this one of the most affordable multi-day summer art camps being offered. 

Art Camp Workshops

Collage Studios with Susie Monday

Each workshop day, Susie will teach one paper/fabric/mixed media collage technique, using small canvases as the support, and one session using the iPad or other tablet to create collage designs that can be printed on fabric or on quality paper. 

From iPad to Art If you’ve ever wanted to design fabric, wallpaper or small art quilts with your iPad, the hi-tech sessions will take you from start to finish using a variety of collage and photo filter apps, and the camp fee includes a copy of Susie’s soon-to-be-published iPad for Artists ebook. 

Inner Nature/Outer Nature The mixed media sessions will include using paper and fabric with fusible webbing and polymer medium to design small paper/cloth art work inspired by the natural setting of the camp and its environs and your musings, creative insights and interests. Techniques will include using glazing paints, textured paints, image transfers and polymer medium collage. 

Printmaking and Encaustic Studios with Junanne Peck

Akua demonstration artist Junanne Peck, from Ft. Worth, will be running two workshops as well: “Monotype and the Spontaneous Mark” and “Hot Wax Cool Art.” (You can see how these will fit with Susie’s workshops; you’ll end up with really neat projects, as well as new skills!)

Hot Wax, Cool Art   This introductory workshop in encaustic painting will teach participants to paint in the ancient, non-toxic medium of beeswax-based paint. Each workshop features basic core information, including the history of encaustic, health and safety, and the fundamentals techniques of painting and fusing. The workshop will cover the following painting techniques: how to create depth and transparency, texture or ultra-smooth surfaces, transfer of drawings, stencils, and collage. (Complete details to come with registration).

Monotype and the Spontaneous Mark Monotypes are one-of-a-kind prints using simple techniques. The classes will provide a basic introduction to the use of the etching press with the introduction of the pin press in creating multi-layered monotypes. Artists will produce a printing plate from an original drawing or design and will become familiar with printmaking processes, tools, and techniques using non-toxic waterbased Akua inks. Drypoint and stencils will be explored. Emphasis will be on color, visual texture, line and composition.

Mark making is a term used to describe the different lines, patterns, and textures we create in an artwork. We will work with encaustics and printmaking and often in combination.

SUPPLIES and CREATURE COMFORTS

Most art supplies are provided, as well as towels, pillows and sheets. We have some blankets, but if your luggage permits, bring a blanket or sleeping bag. 

Art Supplies: Sketchbook and favorite pens, pencils, markers and watercolors (if you have them); digital camera, iPad or other tablet if you wish to use it,. For fun: games, examples of your artwork (photos are fine), snacks to share if you wish, sweater or sweatshirt for cool evenings, musical instruments, bikes, yoga mat, etc.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Hayride to New Canyon Campground, Art Session on the Mountain, and Tailgate Barbecue Supper

Nightly campfires with S’Mores, as weather permits

Field trip to Quarai, Colonial-era mission ruins, for sketching and photography

Nature walks with local expert

Bikes for on-site and nearby excursions (bring your own if you are driving to camp). Please bring your own helmet.

Evening talks, demos and other activities

Morning yoga and/or guided meditation

CAMP FEE

We are limited to 11 to 18 participants per session, so the experience is personalized, communal and participatory. Camp fee for 4 full days of art classes and studio work sessions (as well as nature walks, bike rides, hayride and all the camp extras) is $250 per person, plus art supply fee of $20. If a non-artist spouse or friend wants to attend and share your cabin or room, discount their fee by $25.00. All activities are optional, of course!

ACCOMMODATIONS
Accommodations, including most meals (one lunch and one supper will be off site and not included in the fee) start at $250 per person, with supplements for solo cabins, or barn accommodations near the bathrooms.  Meals, including vegetarian and gluten free options are simple but delicious. Our camp hosts sponsor nightly S’Mores, weather permitting. Wine, beer and non alcoholic beverages are included, but if you are fussy about vintage or brand, or like something harder, bring your own. Wifi is available at the Main Cabin, and cell phone reception is good on the property. (let me know you are interested and I'll send you the accommodation list and registration form).

If you would like more privacy, the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair is about 15-20 minutes from the camp. They have shared bath “Cowboy Rooms” and rooms with private bathrooms. Call 505-847-2888 for current prices and reservations. The hotel website is http://www.shafferhotel.com. If you do stay at the hotel, meals provided at the camp will be available for $200 per person.

TRANSPORTATION

We will organize carpools for those flying into Albuquerque Sunport on the opening and closing dates, or you can rent a car and have more flexibility with your schedule. You are welcome to drive to The Camp, located about 90 minutes south of Albuquerque. Driving directions will be provided upon registration. Transportation fee: $20 round trip.

REGISTRATION

Email me for a registration and fee sheet, and choose your accommodations. Send with a $50 non-refundable deposit. The rest of the fee will be due on May 15, 2015. If we do not fill the session you request, we will return your deposit in full. 

Fearless Sketching

If you've been waiting for the right moment to take a "pain-free, no-critic-zone" drawing class, this might be the workshop for you. I've had a cancelation due to one participant's planned move (she was coming in from afar!) so there is space available for one fearless sketcher on April 12-14 (Friday night potluck optional).

We'll do big and little sketches, drawing from life, some invisible drawings, lots of fun exercises that get your hand and pen in action. Some participants will bring iPads and use those, but it's not necessary, just an option.

There is a catch -- the only bed available is either a cot sized (though comfortable) bed in the studio (includes private bathroom) or a spot on the sleeping porch. The fee includes all meals and most supplies -- you'll need to bring a large sized sketch pad or loose paper and your favorite drawing implements -- and food to share at one pot-luck meal. Generally folk arrive here on Friday about 4, the "formal" workshop runs from Saturday at 9 to Sunday at 3, with lots of fun, conversation, time in the hottub and pool, walking in the hills and stargazing in between. 

If you are interested, send me an email -- contact list on the sidebar -- or leave a comment so I can get back to you. These are pictures from the last Fearless Sketching workshop, and some of the results. My friend artist Sarah Jones will co-lead this one with me. 

The workshop fee is $185 -- views into the Hill Country, infinite and free!

Sketching on the sleeping porch.

Hand studies, two exercises

The sleeping porch.

More Text on the Surface -- Online!

 

My Joggles course MORE TEXT ON TEXTILES starts tomorrow. There is still time to get in on the fun, the supplies for the first class are things you will have at hand! And you can order the rest from Barbara at Joggles -- makes it easy! In addition to very specific instructions and pdfs of the lessons that you can download and keep on hand, there is an online forum during the course for questions and conversation. I will also bring up the various topics here on the blog, with some additional inspiration from other artists during the 4-weekly lesson series. Although this is a continuation of TEXT ON TEXTILES, this class does not require that as a prerequisite and you can take the two in any order. 

The tuition is only $45 and I think offers a really nice round up of creative approaches to getting text onto your art cloth or art quilt, with some interesting twists and turns. You can be upfront and obvious or subtle and secretive, posting your message in secret code or billboard boldness. Use a quote or just a fragment of your own journals or sketchbooks!

There is even a SAQA exhibit that you can enter with your text-centric work (if you make a quilt quickly) called TEXT MESSAGES, judged by Lesley Riley.

 

Here's the course outline from the Joggles catalog:

This class is scheduled to begin on February 19, 2013. Add to your technique toolbox with interesting and “open-ended” ways to add words, letters and text designs to your art.  This process-oriented course is organized around a set of exercises, rather than presenting one project -- you’ll be able to use these ideas and approaches in work for wall pieces, art-to-wear, art journals and other mixed media work. Full of photos and examples, each weekly pdf workbook takes you through one or two new techniques, including making word stamps from craft foam, an easy way to cut original fabric letters to fuse or appliqué, sun-printed and mono-printed words and letters, and using soy wax with textile paint to add words to fabric.  Susie will also offer a “bonus” fifth lesson that illustrates her process in making a small art quilt using the techniques taught in this course. This course is a continuation of Text on Textiles, but the lessons are not sequential and not dependent upon participation in the first course.  Lesson 1 -- Learn to cut free-form fabric letters in a variety of styles, inspired by the work of Corita Kent. Start with paper (these can be used in mixed media and journal work) and move onto fused fabric, felt and other materials, too.  Lesson 2 -- Make your own word and letter stamps from craft foam and recycled materials. Learn how to easily reverse your words and letters as you design, then make stamps with craft foam, string, cardboard scraps and other recycled materials.  Lesson 3 -- Sun-printing with textile paints is a fun and easy way to make original fabrics for your art quilts, bed quilts, art-to-wear and other projects. And, given a hot sunny day, you’ll see how easy and versatile a technique it is.  Lesson 4 -- Soy wax is a non-toxic, easy to wash out process that requires no solvents or special equipment other than a wax-dedicated electric fry pan (preferred) or a microwave oven. You’ll learn ways to make lovely fabrics that have a minimal change of hand when done, so they are great for all kinds of quilt and wearable applications.  BONUS Lesson 5 -- See how Susie adds up some of these techniques to make a small art class. Use her approach and see what you can do!  Curious to know how online classes work? Go here to read all of the details: www.joggles.com/classdetails.htm  The supply list will be sent to all students one week before the class starts. Once you buy this class you will receive an email order confirmation, but you will not hear from us again until the supply list is sent.  A high speed connection to the internet is recommended for all students. In order to participate in online classes at joggles you are expected to have basic computer and internet skills. You need to be able to browse the internet, know how to download and save a document to your computer's hard drive, and understand how to open and save email attachments. It is your responsibility to learn these skills before the class begins. Please be certain you are comfortable with all of these skills. Class fees will not be refunded once the class has begun.

 

Rainbow Printing Revisited

I love to make Rainbow Prints. This is my go-to method for making one-of-a-kind versions of iconic images, saints and sinners, angels and other visitors to the design table when I want something specifically matching a color scheme or a one-of-a-kind version of one of my silkscreens or thermofaxes. Over the years, I have featured this technique in workshops, in a Quilting Arts issue, in a DVD (see below) and on many of my textile paintings and altars.

My lovely lightweight Airbook has one difficiency, it doesn't have a big memory. So I tend to have to juggle info and files and the go-to stuff I am working with on and off of external drives. And, (I don't suppose you will be surprised) I don't exactly have a uniform file naming or file storage system in place. SOmehow, I don't think this chore is going to come to the top of the list anytime soon,

So I just find myself on the occasional morning like this doing copying and deleting -- and the good thing is that I surprise myself with all the treasures that I have forgotten! So, before I banish some of these pdfs to the external drive, I thought I would share them here on the blog. 

First, here's a pdf of the "short version" of how to make Rainbow Prints --my term for multicolored screen prints made with watersoluble crayons.

 I'll keep this pdf on the computer for another week, so act quickly if you want a copy via email -- just send a request to me on the comment form on the sidebar. I'll also put you on my monthly mailing list for other notices, unless you tell me PDF only, please.

If this tickles your fancy and you need or would enjoy more information and examples, you can see a video promo on Quilting Arts website or right here

and you can also order the DVD if you decide a full-fledged video workshop is just the ticket to success.

Paying Attention

The just-past post covered a lot of territory. As I take on this new expanded adventure of art out into the world, it's a good idea to think about my story, and what I bring to the table. (Perhaps you should do so, too! Post a link in the comments to your blog about your creative path and we'll see where this takes us...)

Where does my story as an artist begin? With paying attention.

Paying attention, this skill, like any other, needs focus, practice and to be honored within the environment (culture) of its practice. Fortunately from my childhood, I had mentors, parents and teachers who gave me that skill and fostered it's development.

First, a family who loved nature and beauty: Birdwatching was the usual activity on any trip; a geology pick was always in the back seat; composition books for note-taking are STILL a Christmas stocking standard. We looked at plants and creeks on Sunday afternoon drives as we searched for farmland (soon thereafter purchased with the GI Bill). My chemist father shared his love of observation and my intellegent stay-at-home mom nurtured beauty in the everyday life; both of them honored the skill of paying attention and modeled it to us four.

The concepts in The Missing Alphabet speak to my second set of lessons in paying attention. When 12, I was enrolled in a Children's Theatre at Baylor University, part of the department of drama headed by legendary regional director Paul Baker (he also headed the Dallas Theatre and worked with Frank Lloyd Wright on the design of that forward-thinking structure on Turtle Creek). His wife Kitty, and the young woman who became my mentor for decades, Jearnine Wagner, had started a children's program based on the same principles and ideas that were at the heart of the college drama program. These were: that each of us is creative and has a unique story to tell in our art and that all art/perception and creative thinking can be discerned through a vocabulary of form: line, color, shape, movement, light, rhythm, space, sound and texture. These perceptual/sensory tools could be harnessed by the artist (no matter his or her genre or field) as tools for telling that unique story. These, called by Baker "the elements of form," have moved into our missing alphabet book as "the sensory alphabet," a change of language that helps us explain to parents and educators that these are not just "art" words.

I've been able to take these perceptual and creative tools into my life in so many ways, I use them daily as "screens" for my thinking and inventing and imagination. They are the tools that I teach to the participants in many of my workshops, retreats and courses. I find them invaluable in defining and critiquing, in helping other artists find their own strong suits, their own voices and their best ways of working, simply by asking them to pay attention to these perceptual elements in their lives and work. The Missing Alphabet, while its a book targeted at parents, is still a useful resource for emerging artists who would like some specific information about the sensory alphabet, as well as lots of activity ideas that have no expriration date according to age!

Art school introduced me to another set of tools for paying attention, principally, that of drawing. I am not a natural "drawer." In fact, as a young woman (and even in art school) I pretty much decided I could never be a "real' artist because my drawings in junior high and high school never measured up to the cpaturing of reality that I expected as artist should be able to achieve. And though my college drawing classes at Trinity University were dully attended, I still never really fell in love with drawing until much later -- like a couple of years ago.

Paired with the sensory alphabet, some simple ways to approach the blank page have helped  me to get over my fear of drawing and to actually treasure the time I can carve out to pay attention through drawing.* I have a new group of "drawing" mentors, in real life, my friend and artist Sarah Jones, in the digital and print world, the work and writing of John Berger . 

That's why I am looking forward to the next Fearless Sketching workshop here at El Cielo. It's scheduled for April 12-14, costs $180. There is still room for a couple more participants, so if you are interested, send me a note through the comments or on the contact form on the sidebar to the right. 

Shaping Symbols into Art Quilts

Would you like to transform some surface design fun into a small art quilt? In just one day, at my Wednesday Quilt Festival workshop (#330 in the catalog), you'll take a journey from shape to quilt composition -- with original fabrics, fused and ready to stitch. The date is October 31, 2013, starting at 9, lunch 12-2, finishing at 5.

I'm offering a full day and full of fun with these ideas: Master design skills with free-form patterns, cut-paper shapes, and original stamps as you explore personal imagery and iconic symbols. Learn to simplify photos for original quilts, printing and more using a computer or iPad, and also just by hand-and-eye. One of your designs will be made into a thermofax screen and mailed to you later. You'll layout a small quilt, with critique and assistance, with lots of custom fabrics on hand from my stash to use for your project.

The advance workshop registration for Festival is over, but there is lots of room in this one if you want to register onsite. Just go to the George Brown Convention Center in Houston. The workshop fee is $65 for the full day event! Plus the supply fee of $25 for printer inks, copier paper and card stock, erasers, craft foam, mounting block, textile inks, thermofax mailed to student after Festival. 

More info about Festival this year:

International Quilt Festival Houston 2012

November 1-4, 2012
George R. Brown Convention Center
Houston, Texas

Hours:
Wed., Oct 31 (Preview Night): 7-10 p.m. 
Thurs., Nov. 1-Sat., Nov. 3: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 4: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Ticket prices:
$12 daily adult
$9 seniors & students
Children 10 and under free.
$12 Preview Night (includes one free additional day)
$42 Full Show Pass (includes Preview Night)

The pre-enrollment deadline was Friday, September 28th. Onsite enrollment will be available to sign up for classes, lectures & events. The onsite enrollment hours are as follows:

Sunday, October 28 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Monday, October 29 7:30am – 6:30pm
Tuesday, October 30 7:30am – 5:30pm
Wednesday, October 31 7:30am – 8:30pm
Thursday, November 1 7:30am - 5:30pm
Friday, November 2 7:30am – 6:30pm
Saturday, November 3 7:30am – 3:30pm
Sunday, November 4 8:30am – 10:00am

Screen Printing Free Form Letters

This blog post is intended as a bonus for those enrolled in my More Text on Textiles online course that started on Joggles today. 

Now, it's not too late to join in the fun, so if you are interested in this 4-week, PDF based course (with an online forum during the next 6 weeks), head on over to this link for enrollment info --http://www.joggles.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=75_1235&products_id=24165

It's an affordable way to get your feet wet with putting words, quotations, pithy comments and other thoughts (yours and others) on your art quilts, art cloth, wearable art or mixed media pieces.

Using letter forms for screenprinting stencils is another way to use your cut letters. P.S. This post assumes you have a basic knowlege of screenprinting. If not, go to this site to see a demo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogKeYH2wEE. This is a demo that takes you through the entire process, making your own screen. You can purchase them ready-made at many art supply stores. This demo shows all kinds of stencils, and you will be using your cut letters as the stencil. YOU don't need a clamped frame, I just move my small screen over the fabric. 

Because these letters will be used as a one time stencil, then thrown away, I usually just use old newspaper or sheets of newsprint, or recycled copy paper. Newspaper is really great because it is really thin and adheres to the screen and wet ink really well.

Any thin flat paper will work, but if you want a reusable stencil, cut your letters with contact paper (backing side up, the sticky side goes against the back of the screen).

 You can use any clean silkscreen for your tool. Occasionally I even use one with defects or blocked areas, for a distressed kind of print.

 Free-hand cut your word or words from your choice of paper (instructions are in the first lesson of More Text on Textiles). Then use small folds of masking tape (one or two per letter only), and tape your letters on the back (bottom) of the screen. Your words should read correctly through the screen unless you are intentionally reversing them. This is a great time to teach yourself to cut serif letters or letters that enlarge some iconic type (like those used by Corita Kent in her work).

Screenprint onto ironed flat fabric with thickened dye (see the Dharma catalog for easy instructions and supplies), textile screen printing ink, or other inks. Use a padded surface under your fabric.

Use your word as a repeat, or as a one-time print. When finished wipe down the screen, remove the letters and wash. Let textile ink prints dry, then iron to set. Thickened dye prints need to be batched, as with any dye painted fabrics.

 

New Workshop Schedule

The new (and somewhat revised) schedule is out and about. Here's a copy:

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, hot tub and pool time,  and strolls down the country roads. The fee for each workshop retreat is $175 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. 

Susie has taught creative process and art techniques to adults and children for more than 30 years. Her art is in private and public collections around the world.

TEXT ON  TEXTILES

ONLINE course at JOGGLES.com

JUNE 15-JULY 14 includes 4 fully-illustrated weekly lessons, plus a bonus week, $45

Have you ever wanted to incorporate a favorite word, poem or quote into an art quilt, garment, art doll or other textile project -- going beyond simply writing or embroidering the text? This all new surface design/mixed media class will give you a set of process tools for making text and words an integral part of artfully designed fabrics that you can use in a wide variety of projects. Learn soy wax lettering, freeform cut letters, sunprinting and more.

JUNE 15-17

Optional potluck 

Friday night

FROM SCRIBBLE TO SYMBOL; PERSONAL MARK-MAKING 

In this workshop, start with simple sketches and doodles and end the weekend with an arsenal of new surface design tricks and tools.   Explore doodles and scribbles as sources of  uniques and personal imagery that will give your art quilts, wearable art, or mixed media work personal depth and layers of meaning. take a favorite symbol -- for example a heart, star, spiral, circle -- and by taking it (and yourself) through a series of creative generative exercises, you’ll make something new and different to incorporate into your design, composition and surface design. Tools and techniques explored include paper lamination on fabric, large scale “mark-making” rollers and monoprinting.

JULY 6-8 

CHANGE OF DATE

Optional potluck 

Friday night

KITCHEN ALTAR   WORKSHOP

Embrace your inner goddess of summertime. Design and make a small art quilt “altar” for kitchen or dining room with tools and materials that depend on heat, sunlight and passionate delight: 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 relative, heroine, angel or other meaningful design as the centerpiece for the altar. (Altar frame, $12 supply fee).

AUGUST 17-19 

NATURE INSPIRED 

SURFACE DESIGN

Optional potluck 

Friday night

Let late summer colors, shapes and even heat inspire your surface design. The weather is perfect for dyeing, dye-painting and soy wax! Sketching from nature, and from collected natural objects (don’t worry, you can do it), we’ll design one-of-a-kind fabrics, silk scarves and mixed media pieces.

SEPTEMBER 7-9

FEARLESS SKETCHING

Face your fears of drawing head on, as Susie takes you on a sketch and draw adventure, with no failures allowed. You’ll try different approaches, learn so me classic tips and tricks, and find out how drawing is a learned skill, not something you had to master as a 6th grader who “couldn’t draw horse like your best friend.”

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT SUSIE’S CLASSES & WORKSHOPS:

“ The exercises we did this weekend were freeing on the one hand, but will also help me focus.”

 “This workshop was a fabulous, uplifting, nurturing environment to create in. The journaling was particularly helpful, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.”

“Thank you for creating such a fun, yummy, comfortable, and inspirational experience...”

Explore Your Inner Team

A spot (or two) in my Archetypes workshop this coming weekend just opened up. Here's the scoop:

Calling All Archetypes

March 23-25 (Friday night optional)

Explore the inner team that keeps you going, makes a difference, inspires your best --- and sometimes holds you back. With journaling, fabric printing, collage and mixed media techniques galore, you'll explore the inside-operators that are part of your life story: empress, playful child, journeyer, pilgrim, maker... who knows who will come out to visit? Create a unique fiber art quilt altar to one of the archetypes. Learning fusing techniques and how to make a small art quilt "altar" stretched on a frame. Suitable for all levels.

Cost is $185, including $10 supply fee for altar frame. One private bedroom is still available, with two beds and private bath -- shared it's $15 each, single occupancy, $30. (Includes both nights.) Also a free sofa or sleeping porch bed is available. Most supplies are included.

We'll start on Friday night with optional journaling exercises, then begin at 9 am on Saturday. The workshop usually ends about 3 on Sunday.

Email me with the contact form on the sidebar if you are interested.

Below are two photos from previous workshop, the first is Julia's altar in progress, the second, Martha's.

 

Onward to Festival -- Save the Dates

I've received my contract for teaching at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in October, 2012. It's an honor to be among the 100 quilt/art/mixed media instructors selected to teach this year -- I've been off the roster for two years, and just squeeked in with my application this year!

So if you are planning to attend and want to take one of my workshops, here are the relevant dates:

Wednesday, October 31, full day workshop, Shaping Symbols into Art Quilts

"Master design skills with free-form patterns, cut-paper shapes, and original stamps as you explore personal imagery and iconic symbols. Simplify photos for original quilts, printing and more. Thermofax screen mailed later."   

I'll tell you more about this as the time approaches, but the picture above provides a bit of info, too. 

Sunday, November 4, Inspiration is in the Cards, half day workshop 9-noon.

"What inspires you? Create a one-of-a-kind card deck to spark creativity, take you out of your creative rut, move you into art-making and imagination. Collage and design your way to a new studio ritual with a variety of mixed media techniques."

This one is part of my annual agenda in the January Artist's Journey workshop (usually), but its a fun way to make a mixed media deck using collage, paint, paper and an inkjet copier.

In between, I'm on the circuit of the Mixed Media Miscellany, 2-4 on Thursday, the Friday Sampler, 10-noon and Saturday Sampler, 10-noon, with stamping and inkjet transfer demos.

Hope to see you there! And if you know someone who is planning on attending and taking classes this year, please reccommend these if you think they would suit. I'm looking forward to the wild, wacky, inspiring, overwhelming experience of festival, and I think everyone in our community of textile artists deserves the experience at least once in a lifetime. It's our tribe.

Two Weekends for Play and Passion

Not to mention: pears, peaches, pool (cool), plenty, and well, just lots of fun.

Coming up: July's Play Art and Attention and August's El Cielo Workshop will be hot-as-lava, fired-up with spirit and full of heat-based artcloth techniques that take advantage of the weather, the countryside and the grand vistas to inspire a new perspective on life, the artist's path and your place on the road.

First, we'll put play to the work of imagination and inspiration, with a variety of surface design techniques and creative exercises that open up possibilities for all kinds of new mixed media on paper and fabric. AND, we'll take a mid-year look at your annual art goals, how to reinvigorate your artistic studio focus, and set up some targets to hit with intention. Play and focus come together with a bit of yoga, some time in nature, and your hands in a zappy happy mix of new and fun materials.

In August, spend a couple of days exploring heat related techniques: textile paint sun-printing, rusting (afterall, a slow oxidation -- or burning -- process) and kitchen utensil and vegetable printing. We'll put your new fabrics together in a small art quilt art  Kitchen Altar, using a wooden frame and stitched work. Enjoy an August retreat from city's heat -- sure South Texas and the Hill Country are hot even up here in on the ridge, but it's always 10 degrees cooler at night than in the asphalt-ribboned city (and there's the pool, too). 

We'll be taking advantage of the  heat, with dye processes, using batik on fabric and to create screen-printing and more. Use the heat of the season to ignite your creative imagination, enjoy a convivial time with other artists and feast on the bounty of the season (some of it from El Cielo's own new veggie garden). 

If you're interested in making artcloth like the ones you see here

PLAY, ART AND ATTENTION

July 29-31

Making time to play with odd-ball materials; learning to focus upon artful tasks at hand -- sounds like opposite sides of the coin? At this exploratory and full-of-play weekend, we’ll explore the relationship between the time, play, art and focus. Where does time management intersect with open-hearted fun? Expect bubbles, playdough, sparklers, jello, yoga and seeing the world from new angles and attitudes. 

BURNING WOMAN WORKSHOP

August 19-21

Embrace your inner goddess of summertime. Design and make a small art quilt “altar” for kitchen or dining room with tools and materials that depend on heat, sunlight and passionate delight: 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, angel or other meaningful design as the centerpiece for the altar. 

For more information, email me with the contact form on the sidebar. 

From Photo to Fabric

Time is running out to register for the next Photo to Fabric workshop at the Southwest School of Art:

The workshop is Saturday and Sunday, June 18-19 from 10 am to 4 pm. We'll be working both with digital media and with photos as a design inspiration for paint, stamps, color palettes and composition.

Class Sessions: 2

Maximum: 10

Location: Surface Design Studio | Navarro

Take your favorite photos and use them in original fabric art - both directly printed on your own fabric and as inspiration for a fabric collage to stitch later. Bring an assortment of photos, print or digital (on disk or flash drive) to the first class in order to select those that work best with each technique. You'll learn to make two different kinds of photo prints on fabric using an inkjet printer, and also enlarge, simplify and transfer a photograph to a larger wall fabric art quilt format, for later quilting or stitch work at home. Please see SSA website for a materials list. Bring a lunch each day.

Spring and Summer Workshops at El Cielo Studios

Here is a link to a downloadable pdf brochure with the dates and topics for new workshops at El Cielo Studios.

files.me.com/susiemonday/rvq162

  It's my pleasure to share my home and studio and a nurturing environment for your creative journey -- and the  workshop is less than what you'd spend for a bed-and-breakfast weekend alone! I hope to see you sometime this spring or summer for a weekend of inspiring and creative work and play here in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.

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 workshop retreat is $175 for a 2-day event with discount for early enrollment. Comfortable accommodations (double and single rooms with baths and shared bath rooms) and meals are available from $15 - $30 per workshop. Most supplies included. Call 210-643-2128 or econtact me through the email form on the sidebar of this blog.

Sign up early (at least 30 days in advance with a $25 deposit) for a $15 ndiscount on the $175 fee. Workshops generally start with an optional Friday night potluck and fun activity or two, then continue through 3-4 pm on Sunday afternoon. Most supplies included.

MARKMAKING, MAKING YOUR MARK

May 13-15

Markmaking can be what distinguishes one person's work on paper or fabric from another's - their personal style. Using color, line, shape, rhythm and textures, students will explore traditional and new media as well as techniques for personal markmaking. Techniques to be covered include deconstructed screenprinting, stamping, using paint sticks and monoprinting with gelatin plates. No matter what your experience level, you'll gain confidence in working with layered media and find your strongest media for the marks that make your work unmistakably your own. 

UFO WORKSHOP

June 3-5

UFO, “unfinished fiber object.” Bring along work that needs finishing, needs one more layer, needs some concentrated time and attention (or work that’s stuck for need of constructive critique). Enjoy the resources of the studio and the advice and support of peers. We’ll customize the techniques to the tasks at hand.

PLAY, ART AND ATTENTION

July 29-31

Making time to play with odd-ball materials; learning to focus upon artful tasks at hand -- sounds like opposite sides of the coin? At this exploratory and full-of-play weekend, we’ll explore the relationship between the time, play, art and focus. Where does time management intersect with open-hearted fun? Expect bubbles, playdough, sparklers, jello, yoga and seeing the world from new angles and attitudes. 

BURNING WOMAN WORKSHOP

August 19-21

Embrace your inner goddess of summertime. Design and make a small art quilt “altar” for kitchen or dining room with tools and materials that depend on heat, sunlight and passionate delight: 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, angel or other meaningful design as the centerpiece for the altar. (This workshop has an additional $12 fee per person for the altar boxes that the quilts are stretched upon.)

OTHER CLASSES 

This spring and summer I also will be teaching occasionally at the Southwest School of Art: June 18-19 - From Photo to Fiber (using various techniques to design art quilts from photographs), August 1-5, mornings, New World Kids: for parents wishing to nurture creativity in their children.

I am also teaching a course for teachers: Fiber Arts for the Classroom at Southwest School of Art on July 23-24 (The wrong date is in the SSA catalog, I had to change the date after it was printed.)

 OTHER POSSIBILITIES:

Flying or driving in from afar for one of these weekends? Or just want some solo supported work time in the studio? Add one or two days of instruction in the studio for learning techniques that you are interested in. Each custom designed workshop and night’s lodging and meals costs $225 per person. Limit, 2 artists per session Many of Susie’s workshops go on the road! Please write for available dates and fees.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY: 

“A workshop at Susie’s is always money well spent.  I learned techniques I have read about but never tried ... I also now feel confident that I can make art quilts!”

“This workshop was a fabulous, uplifting, nurturing environment to create in. The journaling was particularly helpful, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.”

“This weekend was totally awesome! I am humbled by Susie’s talents, her teaching abilities and her hospitality. I will come back as often as possible.”

Sitting and staring

Today, I'm reminded of the baseboall great Satchel Page's oft quoted," Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I  just sits." An unexpected delay of a work-related appointment has given me the gift of a hitherto unplanned afternoon. Yes, the studio needs a good sort. The garden is (perhaps riskily) calling for seeds. I have really been planning to go through and file all the piles of receipts and GET MYSELF ORGANIZED for the new year (hardly new anymore, you might note). 

But I find myself sitting and looking out into damp, gray between-winter-and-spring air and light and I just sit.

Sometimes its good to sit.

The creative life is full of adventure (even if it only shows up on the inside of your eyeballs.) When one is a self-employed artist, there is the ever present tension between amking art and making a living and it takes a lot of juggling to keep it together sometimes. I, like many of us, simply like action, I live at full-speed-ahead.

And then I sit.

You (I) need both. You (I) must let minutes wash over us when we can. Remind ourselves that time is finite; in 100 years (unless Singularity DOES come to pass, or the Mayan calendar ends us all in a bang) everyone you know and everyone you don't know who is walking around here on earth will be gone. And so, no matter how important it all seems, it is just a drop in the bucket when you look at the big picture. So let the drops fall where they may for a few hours. Sit. think. or just sit.

One thing I am thinking about is some of the thought about romance that I am reading in Barbara Lazear Ascher's wonderful book Isn't it Romantic; Finding the magic in everyday life. Here's a quote to ponder as you sit today:

"The romantic has to believe the bread crumbs were left as a trail, that the dots will make a whole....Faith doesn't require answers but a trust that if we dare reach out a hand another one, unforeseen will receive it. That we will be made whole. The ulitmate romance. Exactly as Michelangelo painted it in the center of the Sistine Chapel ceiling."

And Yes. I am puttering around in the studio today and making some progress on the annual clean, sort and toss that I force myself to do in order to avoid a manditory appearance on some reality show or another devoted to hoarding. But I am doing so very, very softly. Like the air and the gray heavy skies. Like the seeds underground waiting for the next increment of warmth. Reminding myself to think a bit about the spiraling fossil of an ammonite once alive, then dead, buried turned to stone, washed up again on a different shore.

(P.S. Speaking of nature, the next El Cielo studio retreat/workshop is almost full-to-the-brim. If you are thinking about attending  send me an email through the contact form on the sidebar. $160 if you pay before March 1. Potluck on Friday night through Sunday afternoon, most supplies included.)

View from home and El Cielo Studio.

NATURE-INSPIRED SURFACE DESIGN

March 25-27

Find color, shape, form and inspired design for new surface design tools at this spring-is-sprung weekend in the blooming Texas Hill Country. We’ll do sun prints, leaf-inspired thermofaxes and screenprinting with dye, flour paste resist and more.

Art with CAYA -- Youth Ambassadors

 

The week flew by with work at Bamberger Ranch and then at Southwest School of Art with the CAYA group, Texas host kids and families and the year-long residency group of SEED teachers. On this post, we just wanted to share some of the graphic and visual forms we worked on -- you can see more photos of the various aspects of the program, and the kids at work, on the Posterous SEED blog, if you're interested.

This is what I love about these graphic forms, and why I think they work as collaborative art projects:

First,  limit the palette in use  to some degree -- kraft paper brown, black, white and red  construction paper were the choices here (We loosen up on these color restrictions as the day goes on, figuring that the repetition will hold the general design together).

In the projects, we emphasize cutting over drawing or sketching. First, its less intimidating for kids who don't think they are good artists. Secondly, it keeps things simple and strong and bold. Black cutout letters and shapes are the bones for any little fussy stuff on top!

The t-shirts start with cutout "logos' for air, earth and water. Each kid makes a logo. I gang them together reduce each to a grid that will fit on a thermofax and the kids get to print their own shirts. Then, with colored fabric markers, each one can individualize and personalize his or her design. Again, the black ink on white shirt holds the whole design together.

The "dream towers" included collage work (each person cutout  a large word that described a personal dream, then collaged it with magazine pictures), a few notan designs, etc. Again, the color palette holds it together. I used the model of the Eames "house of cards" as patterns for the large foam board cards. These notch together with slits and make relatively stable and sturdy set/exhibit pieces that can be easily stored, recycled with new images with a new group, and infinitely rearranged. Since our final exhibit and presentation was in a gallery where we could not attach anything to the walls, these towers provided display space for work -- and they could be quickly assembled and disassembled and moved easily in the van or even a passenger car backseat!

The black foam  board cards were just taped into triangles (for stability) and stacked on top of each other. Kid wrote their recipes and remedies and cures for issues facing their world on these with chalk -- again, the boards can be wiped clean and reused. The blackboard form was fun, gave shape to the thinking and message, and was un-intimidating since if one made a mistake you could erase and do it again. And I love the black and white with the other forms.

The mask forms are simple paper bag masks using limited colors and mostly cut out shapes and forms. The kids (each in their group of either water, earth or air) chose a creature or element to personify as a mask and to "speak" for -- their assignment was to be a voice for those without words -- the animals, plants and elements of nature that depend upon survival with our solutions for the difficult problems facing the environment and our stewardship of the world, our partnership with the rest of the world. We used recycled packing materials from our lunches and other meals in these, as well.

After years  (and years) of doing collaborative (and quickly produced) art forms with kids and adults with all kinds of content, I do have my bag of tricks and approaches that help with visual strength and form, but still give everyone the sense of personal contribution and expression. I think that providing a few "rules" in terms of setting a strong format, limiting materials, and structuring the work experience all add up in the end.

Bookmaking with the Maestros/Maestras

We're doing another round of book-making here at Palo Alto with the international program scholarship teachers in Group 4. Everyone is writing and illustrating with photo collages their own "me books," as models and to take back to their schools as examples when they return to the classroom. The creativity is exciting -- and everyone is enthralled withusing copiers and photo printers -- technology not necessarily at hand back at home. But, as the digital world gets broader, as tools become more accessible, these teachers will return with the knowledge and experiences to dream with their students. And, the basic book-making and writing and illustration exercises can be done with low-tech supplies and tools, too.

 

Chihuly Tower Artarama

The Chihuly Fiesta Tower is back after being un-installed for library renovations at the Central Library in San Antonio. We're putting on a little mini-version of the citywide celebration that led up to the tower's installation. If you'd like to participate (or volunteer helping kids make some color, shape and light-related art -- no glass-blowing possible here!) please just show up -- or drop me a line on the contact form. Hope to see you there. 

Welcome back, Fiesta Tower!

 In October 2009, Dale Chihuly’s colorful glass sculpture, Fiesta Tower, was disassembled from its display location in the Central Library and placed in secure storage during roof work and replacement of the Central Library’s skylights located directly over the tower.

Now the Fiesta Tower has been reinstalled and the Central Library’s second-floor atrium will shortly reopen. To celebrate the Fiesta Tower’s homecoming, the San Antonio Public Library will host a family craft event from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 23, in the second-floor atrium at the Central Library, 600 Soledad.

During the come-and-go event, local artist Susie Monday will guide participants in creating their own Chihuly-style works of art. The event is free and open to the public. One hour of free parking is available in the library parking garage with validated ticket.

A gift of the Russell Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts through a grant to the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, the Fiesta Tower was originally installed in the Central Library in 2003 as part of the celebration of the San Antonio Public Library’s 100^th anniversary.