Susie Monday
Pomegranate Cross
24" h x 20" w x 1.5"d
Detail photo below
To visit Susie's website, click here.
Art quilt mounted on wooden frame. Original fabrics: dyed and screen-printed; photo transfer, machine and hand stitching.
What grabs me are conversations between color and texture, and the drama of
pattern in everything I see around me: the wind in the cedar trees below my
windows, the Guatemalan and Mexican textiles in my studio drawers, the
angels who come to me as I work. I make art quilts and art cloth, stacking up
short stashes of the latter in order to make the former.
My art quilts tell the spiritual and metaphysical stories that are unfolding in my
life and the lives I observe of other women around me. These goddesses,
saints and angels are less about religion than they are about everyday
occurrences: our hopes, dreams, frustrations, foundations and the resources
we call upon in the secret spaces of the heart.
I have come to this work after decades of artwork and other work. Like most
women, I didn't chart a linear path though life or career. As a young art student,
I sewed paper bags into installations. As an arts educator, I made banners,
flags and costumes with children as my audience, collaborators and inspiration.
As a newspaper journalist I practiced the art of storytelling and listening, in
words rather than images. As an exhibit designer, I filled space with layers of
meaning and experience. Throughout all these incarnations, I've had to be a
maker-- putting my hands on "stuff" and turning it into something new. I hope
the work I do now puts all those years to good use.
At this point in my artist's life, I want what I create to have consistency of style,
to share a personal vision, and to find a home on someone else's wall. I like
working within the world of fiber arts because that world, more than any other,
allows me the use of more of my interests and acquired skills: painting,
printmaking, embroidering, building, layering, embellishment and collage.
Techniques I incorporate include hand-dyeing, stenciling, stamping,
screenprinting, fusing, machine and hand embroidery and quilting. Rather than take a purist's approach, I will cut up and use anything that comes to eye --
recycled skirts from the thrift store share space with Indian silks, dye-printed
damask tablecloths, pieces of Oaxacan hiupils, baby clothes and designer
scarves. Nothing is sacred and everything is.
Working in fabric and working with these sacred women images bind me to
generations of other women, literally and figuratively. These are the
connections I honor and celebrate in both content and form.
Susie Monday has a degree in studio art from Trinity University in San Antonio,
and after living and working in the shadow of the Alamo for 35 years, retreated
to the Hill Country just four years ago where she now works and teaches in the
studio of her dreams. Her fiber art and surface design work has been deeply
encouraged by study with Jane Dunnewold, and expanded by her work with
Sue Benner, Arturo Sandival, Kerr Grawbowski and other great and generous
teachers in the fiber arts field. Susie serves on the board of directors of Fiber
Artists of San Antonio, is an active member of the Art Cloth Network, and also
participates in the work of SAQA and SDA.
She is on the faculty of the Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation in Boerne and at
the Southwest School of Art and Craft, and has also taught nationally at the
Textile Center in Minneapolis, at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and
other venues. Her work has been displayed and purchased for private and
public collections in the U.S., Israel, Great Britain, Italy, and Mexico.
Pomegranate Cross
Detail