Terry Grant - Portland, OR

1. How do you describe yourself? I am an artist, graphic designer, wife, mother, grandmother. I am quiet, but speak when I have something to say, and I usually do! Love my family, love my friends, love doing art, love my life.

2. What is your creative process? I plan in my head as I am falling asleep each night, then the ideas that are still there when I wake up may become a quick sketch, either by hand or computer. It all ends up in Illustrator eventually, where I make a simple line drawing of my composition that I print at full size. (I tape a lot of sheets of paper together) I use this as my guide, but am apt to make changes as I work. Pulling the fabrics to find what works is my favorite part. I use a lot of commercial fabrics, but often— well almost always—alter them in some way to suit my needs.

3. What's your style? Most of my work is representational, but definitely abstracted rather than attempting photo realism. My work is graphic and incorporates rich color and strong line elements.

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? I have been an artist all my life—quilter for at least 30 years—fiber artist about 20 years.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? I often listen to music. As a Baby Boomer, child of the '60s, I listen to the music of that generation—The Beatles, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Joanie Mitchell, etc.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? Draw and look at art. A trip to the Portland Art Museum or downtown galleries always gets my creative brain percolating.

7. Do you teach? I used to teach and am seriously considering doing it again. My favorite part of teaching is learning all the things my students teach me. It never fails and it is amazing.

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? I am really interested in making silver jewelry. I have taken a couple classes, but have yet to get myself set up to work on my own.

9. How do you balance your family life and art? When my children were home and small I worked on art after they went to bed. Sometimes late into the night. I am glad I don't have to do that anymore. I have a very supportive husband and family and I have learned to make time for my art.

10. What is the best part about what you do? Two things: Working alone and "in the zone" and then sharing what I do with my artist friends. A more recent "good thing" has been writing about what I do. I have been writing my blog for nearly 5 years, written magazine articles and am currently finishing up work on a collaborative book.

www.andsewitgoes.blogspot.com
Etsy shop: www.terrygrant.etsy.com

Virginia Spiegel - Byron, IL

1. How do you describe yourself? As an artist who is also a writer, poet, adventurer/traveler, and landscape gardener.

2. What is your creative process? I work very intuitively after exhaustively researching a topic. I think and read a great deal about topics of interest to me. When I am ready to begin work on a new series or artwork, I endeavor to not THINK, but to FEEL and to directly translate that to my artwork. I definitely have something specific I am talking about in each artwork and usually write a one sentence statement of intent before beginning an artwork or series. But I endeavor to bring enough mystery to the artwork that viewers may bring their own experience to their response/interpretation.

3. What's your style? I work almost exclusively as an abstract artist, but do occasionally work figuratively. I "make" all my materials for art quilts from white fabric by painting (with many tools including brushes, stamps, and brayers) and screen printing. It is a very meditative process and integral to the type of art quilts I produce. A very common response to my artwork is that no photo ever conveys the depth and complexity apparent upon personal viewing.

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? About twelve years.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? No. When I am doing hand work I listen to the "Great Lectures" series on topics unrelated to art or to my academic background. Recent topics have been about the Civil War, music, American history, and economics.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? Fill the well. One way I do this by switching art forms. If I have been working exclusively in art quilts, I work on mixed-media collage or sculpture (with wax), paint on stretched canvas, or make an artist book. Additionally I usually am away from the computer and my studio from long stretches during the summer months for travel, adventures in the Boundary Waters, family events, and landscape gardening. These months are crucial to my artistic production and development as they are a space for me to think about my art and its trajectory in a subconscious way. I have a general and long-standing goal of reading five books per week (undergraduate English majors learn to read very fast). I read widely and eclectically with occasional bouts of vertical depth on one subject or with one author. I also read about and look at a lot of art outside of the art quilt world. I also find writing, photography, and making poems to be activities that are self-perpetuating in terms of inspiration and integral to the creation of my art quilts.

7. Do you teach? I used to teach, but found it severely limited my studio time. I am an
artist who needs a lot of time for process -- thinking, experimenting and creating.

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? No, but I appreciate that I can switch among many forms that I like to do and are all very different in approach and concept. I have learned that while I appreciate many art forms, the media I have the most affinity for are fiber, in all its forms, and paint. They both seem very warm and alive media to me.

9. How do you balance your family life and art? I am learning to limit computer time to the bare minimum and to decline, with regret, opportunities that do not directly align with my current artistic goals and intent.

10. What is the best part about what you do? The freedom to choose what I do and to be the sole arbiter of its worth.

My new book - "Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life"
". . . wise insights into living a genuine life as a person and as an
artist. The photos of nature and art dazzle, inspire, and soothe the soul."
http://bit.ly/7RMmrS

Desiree Habicht - Riverside, CA

1. How do you describe yourself?

A true type A personality, multiple projects going at one time, never satisfied with the last, always looking forward to the next.

2. What is your creative process? I keep many sketch journals and sketch almost everyday, I also have a bigger sketchbook by my bedside that I can draw out ideas. If I get an idea suddenly for a quilt or for a fabric I will write it on my dry erase board until I have time to get back to it.

3. What's your style? I don't like being categorized or put into a box as an artist but I would have to say I am a pictoralist mostly but I know my artwork will continue to develop and change.

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? I started quilt making in 2001 and soon jumped into making art quilts when I entered a challenge in a guild.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? Sometimes, but often I am so focused in that creative zone that I am happy to just have the quiet.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? Jump over to something else, gardening, going to museums, dive into some books, visit with other artists all can be very motivating and encouraging. If all that fails I just force myself to keep going.

7. Do you teach? I do teach occasionally, I am trying to do more of it. I think my favorite part is seeing the excitement in the whole creative process in the faces of others.

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? Always, you never know what door will open next and where it will lead.

9. How do you balance your family life and art? I find this to be the biggest challenge, it takes time to do any interest and if its a business requires more time and energy. Like most other working women, I struggle with how to fit so much in when there are only 24 hours in a day!

10. What is the best part about what you do? It's this whole creative journey I am on and the wonderful people I am meeting along the way.

Susie Monday - Pipe Creek, TX

1. How do you describe yourself? I'm an artist and teacher. And lover of all things colorful, quirky and sublime. I cook, I read, I eat well, I dance, I walk, I love my life!

2. What is your creative process? I have a very ingrained and deliberate creative process, one that I've essentially used since I was 12 years old. First I settle on a notion of something I want to say, explore or examine in a piece of work. I first collect ideas, visually, verbally, in reality and virtually, taking digital pictures, journaling and sketching, piling up fabric and colors and images. Then I play around with what I have, playing with scale, composition and story-telling. Then I produce, editing and polishing and working technically to do what needs to be done, and then I start all over again!

3. What's your style? My style is somewhere between expressive, narrative and abstract, but not non-objective. Surface design and a wild variety of materials, recycled and reclaimed

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? I've been a serious, professional fiber artist for about 12 years now, but I've been fascinated with and worked with fabric, pattern and color all my life, since I could hold a pair of scissors.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? No music usually, I am the world's least auditory person. I do sometimes like to work with mindless TV on because it occupies an otherwise over critical part of my brain chatter. I can pay attention on that level to the tube, and the inner critique lets me alone.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? I am rarely blocked creatively, but sometimes I am over-committed and over-involved with other-than making art. To get back in the studio, I usually have to find a deadline to meet or invent one!

7. Do you teach? Yes What’s your favorite part about teaching? I teach lots of different things, both at my home/studio in the Texas Hill Country (my El Cielo Workshop retreats), at the Southwest School of Art and Craft and Majestic Ranch, around and about at guilds and conferences and shows, but the common thread, I hope, is an interesting mix of creative process and surface design techniques. I also teach in an International Program at a local community college where my students are Spanish speaking teachers from 5 different Central American countries. There, I teach cognitive psychology theory and practice as one of a team, and technical skills these teachers can use in their rural schools -- like bookmaking, using recycled materials in toys and games, etc. It's a really incredible program..

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? Always. I am really getting tempted to take up painting after not touching a canvas since graduating with a BA in studio art in 1970. Also I am always working on something arty around the house.

9. How do you balance your family life and art? It helps to live where I do, and how I do. I drive 20 minutes to an hour to get to any stores, so that keeps me home and/or in the studio unless I am teaching outside of El Cielo. I don't have children and I do have a woman partner, and both those choices make it a bit easier to balance home life and art work. My partner is also a teacher and artist (college teacher, videographer, producer and writer), so we both value our creative time alone and together. I am traveling more this year to teach and that is a new challenge for both of us --finding balance, ways to work on my art when on the road, and how to keep having fun together, too. When I play, I play! When I work, I get it done, really trying not to waste time or fritter my studio time away.

10. What is the best part about what you do? The best part of what I do is getting to do it all and getting to do it my way. No one can tell me how to get my work done, or how to get my life done. I love the part of teaching that is sharing and helping others to reach into creative directions that they haven't tried before, to take themselves seriously as artists and makers -- I truly believe we are on this earth to do our best and most creative work, no matter what field its in, and I try to empower others to do so. My work as an artist is what makes my teaching authentic, if I didn't do my own creative work I don't know how I could be a teacher.

Yvonne Porcella - Modesto, CA

1. How do you describe yourself? artist, author, teacher, lecturer, advocate for art quilting, founder of SAQA, board member for non-profit quilt organizations, quilt museum advocate, wonderful person, cancer survivor, grateful, very active in my spiritual life.

2. What is your creative process? I just go for it in most quilt designs. I have also done small sketches and enlarged those to size for my quilts made with applique over a full size cartoon.

3. What's your style? I only made one whole cloth quilt, my first attempts at a baby quilt gift. I have done all styles of quiltmaking except traditional or classic. Only quilt made for a bed was a commission for Jim Henson, all my quilts are made for the wall.

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? Do I have to tell you how long?
My work was published in many books and magazines probably before you were born.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? I like silence. If I had to listen to music it would be classical and opera.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? Make something, anything!

7. Do you teach? Yes. What’s your favorite part about teaching? I love meeting students, showing the path to making their own work. I also like to lecture on many subjects, wearable art, history of art quilts, personal journey.

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? Oh yea, I know there are more quilts in my future, just can't wait until they appear. I was an oil painter in the past, if I had to pick an area of improvement it probably would be in improving drawing skills and mastering photoshop.

9. How do you balance your family life and art? They balance me. When I first started making fiber art, I used each interruption by family or life as an opportunity to re-evaluate the
work when I had the chance to return to my work space. When my children were old enough to enjoy a trip with me they were invited to see that Mom was indeed working while away from home.

10. What is the best part about what you do? The only thing I don't like to do is paperwork. Traveling and meeting people is the best part, making new friends is a gift.

Gerrie Congdon - Portland, OR

1. How do you describe yourself? An energetic, red headed fiber artist and wife, mom and grandma who loves her life and feels blessed to have found this creative outlet post retirement.

2. What is your creative process? I usually get a visual in my mind. Perhaps I see something that sparks my imagination. Sometimes, it is a word that I want to translate. I create my own fabric with dye, paint and discharge. Sometimes, I create the cloth for a specific piece and sometimes the cloth dictates the art. Because I do not want to cut into the fabric until I know a design will work, I often print photos of the fabric and cut it up to work out the design. Sometimes I do a sketch.

3. What's your style? I definitely love to work abstract. However, as I said before, surface design of cloth is an integral part of my work.

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? Then I retired in 1999, I discovered Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson. The first show that I watched was with Katy Pasquini Masopaust. I was in awe of what she did with fabric. I got hooked. I started with a few traditional quilts, but I quickly moved on to art quilts. I formed an art quilt group in Santa Rosa, CA where I lived at the time and we called ourselves The Pointless Sisters.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? For some reason, I work better with the tv on in the background. I don't really pay too much attention, but the noise of people talking seems to stimulate my right brain.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? I make small art quilts out of scraps. I really love doing this. I also look at art, not art quilts, to see how painters and sculptors and mixed media artists express themselves in their work.

7. Do you teach? No, I have been asked to teach, but at my age, I do not want to give up time that can be spent in my studio.

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? I would really like to have my work juried into one of the BIG shows, like Quilt National, Visions or Art Quilt Elements. A girl can dream!!

9. How do you balance your family life and art? I am so blessed to have a very supportive partner in my husband, Steve. We are both retired. He knows that I hate house work. I love to cook and make art. He does every thing else. I love making time in my schedule to spend with my grandchildren. We moved to Portland so that we can be a part of their lives.

10. What is the best part about what you do? Being in the zone and having the cloth and the ideas flow. The satisfaction of looking at a piece of art that I have created and knowing that it is successful. The incredible group of friends that I have gathered who share my passion and support and sustain me.

Gerrie Congdon in Portland, OR

Visit my blog at http://www.gericondesigns.com/weblog/

Paula Chung - Zepher Cove, NV

1. How do you describe yourself? I'm a young person in an older body. I feel there is so much to learn, especially in the art world, and so little time. I am basically an obsessive person, concentrating on a few things too much, or accumulating items, as silks, dyes and paints. I take things way too seriously, but enjoy the sense of relief when I can step away. I admire those that live life easily or well. I tend to make things harder and make living a more difficult process.

2. What is your creative process? I study nature, it's form, color, line. I photograph subjects that I find interesting or have a message, then work directly on that photograph to create my designs.

3. What's your style? I do abstract and pictorial appliqued pieces.

4. How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist? I have been using the present process for about 5 years, but have been an art quilter for about 8 years. I had started traditional quilting in the 1970s, but lost interest in it shortly after that.

5. Do you listen to music when you make art? what kind? I listen to classical music or jazz.

6. What do you do when you are blocked creatively? When I'm blocked, I go back to nature and study. Sometimes, I take a detour, studying new artists or learning new techniques, then try to use that knowledge and skill to another project.

7. Do you teach? No.

8. Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do? Always. One goal I have is to meld my study of painting with my fiber art. The painting experience does inform my art, especially in the use of color, but I'd like to see the two be incorporated somehow.

9. How do you balance your family life and art? Since we have no children, balancing my family life is easier than for most artists. My husband and I are retired, pursuing our passions. I do tend to be obsessive and work very long hours and that does create some tension. My husband has grown to understand that part of my personality. But I tend to lose track of time, or try to squeeze in too much in too little time, and I'm learning to monitor that better.

10. What is the best part about what you do? The best part of creating art is the planning--that big moment when you have an inspiration. Then the process of making that inspiration into something tangible. As humans, we are always trying to escape. When we're creating, we get lost in the moment, where nothing else exists. The creating is what all artists live for, to be in that timeless euphoria.

visit Paula's website in the right column