Carolyn Ryan - Thousand Oaks, CA

1. What do you call yourself - art wise?  Mixed media artist
2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? I turn out my studio lights, light two candles, and look through favorite art books such as The German Expressionists, Kathe Kollwitz woodcut artist, and California Painters.
 3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? I would put more of my pieces on my walls, give a gift occasionally to a friend, and donate significant pieces to nonprofit offices.
 4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? Yes, but I sit down in my studio and sketch/watercolor several ideas at once instead of stopping to sketch during the day.
5. Where can people see your other work this year? I currently have a piece, “Summer Peach Dreams” at The Gateway Center for the Arts, DeBray, FL, in the Volusia Wrapped in Fiber SAQA exhibit. I also have two woodcuts in the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery, Newbury Park, CA open juried show.
6. Do you teach? where? I teach my mono printing and woodcut techniques informally, but have not taught art classes.
7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? Kathe Kollwitz, a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor (1867-1945), created artwork that consistently explored raw emotion and pathos. She gave voice to thousands of the struggling poor in Europe through mass printings of her dynamic woodcuts.
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? I have a five-year plan which includes submitting work to Visions, continuing to enter out-of-state exhibits and fine art gallery shows, and having a solo show.
9. Describe your studio workspace. I now have two funky studios: Indoors, I sew and sketch in my upstairs magic kingdom, and in my outdoor studio I do painting and mono printing and other fun, messy stuff.
10. What 3 tools could you not live without? Janome sewing machine, sharp-point scissors and digital camera.
11. What drives you to make the work that you do? The longing for visual substantiation of my inner theater.
12. How do you balance your life? I’ve spent so many years “balancing” that I now strive for creative chaos. I am most energized when I allow daily time for family, friends, personal reflection and artwork.

http://www.carolynryanart.com/

Jamie and Leslie teach at Festival in Cincinnati!

Festival in Cincinnati - Here's the sign on the door outside our classroom...pretty cool!  A dream of ours to teach at Festival.  More photos on both of our personal blogs Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison's blog

The collaborative painting begins with a playlist of eclectic music in the background.  When the music stops, everyone changes places, so you are not painting in the same spot the entire time.  The students painted 2 different canvases.

No painting experience necessary in this class.  Canvas is getting a little more detail

In all the classes we have taught with the painted canvas, this is the first class to add words.  Canvas #2

More details and it is coming together!

I love this!

Our students!

Cutting up the canvas, and having the students select a section from each canvas, face down, so it would be a surprise as to what they got.

Students had the option of saving one section for a future project, and cut up the other one to create art cards, postcards, ATC's and cover a journal.  We will be teaching this class at Festival in Long Beach also!

Scenes from our "Musical Chairs Painted Canvas" Class in Cincy

"Musical Chairs:  A Painted Canvas Adventure" is a collaborative painting endeavor on primed canvas.

The students painted, switched positions, and painted over the work of others in the class.  Two canvases were set up and the students switched back and forth.  The first half of the day was spent on the paintings.  After the lunch break both canvases were divided and each student got a portion of each one.

These pieces were subsequently fashioned into journal covers, art cards, postcards, ATCs (artist trading cards), and more.  We played music and had a fantastic time!

Here is the progression of one of the canvases:

the artists pose in front of one of the painted canvases.

Beautiful!

Afternoon:

We gathered around a table and spent the afternoon creating

lovely pieces of art with the painted canvas, markers, etc.

This class is such a joy for Jamie and I to teach!

If you are planning to come to Costa Mesa to CREATE!, we will be teaching it there.

Please join us!

Beneath the Surface at Festival in Cincinnati

The show floor from the sky walk.  Beneath the Surface was on the other side of the vendors - see top of photograph

Show open and people viewing the exhibit

Beneath the Surface at Festival in Cincinnati;  the exhibit was across from the SAQA Exhibit and next to the Festival Theatre.  These photos were taken before the show was open.

This was a horseshoe configuration for this part of the exhibit

Another view

Another view

The other side.  The exhibit was well received and every time that Leslie and I went on the floor to check things out, we enjoyed interacting with everyone about the exhibit.  Our last hurrah for BTS!  Thank you to all of the artists in Beneath the Surface!

Sarah Ann Smith - Hope, Maine

1.  What do you call yourself - art wise?   Quilter.  Art quilter.  Textile artist.  Interrupted by life!
 2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?  Don't know that I've had a slump per se.  Usually I am just too busy with life interfering with art or too tired.  That means I have a surplus of ideas and never enough time, so I just pick whatever quilt is hollering most loudly inside my head and let that one out next.
 3.  If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art?   Make more!   Give some of it away... I would love to do a "quilt mural" project for the local middle school (first panel is done), the continuation of "Be Inspired, No. 1" into a series of six quilts with people and places from around the world.
 4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?   Yes.  I'm not as diligent as I would like---it's that lack of time thing.  But I have learned how useful they can be, am constantly inspired by my friend Kathy Daniels' journals, so am trying to develop my own better "noodling around" habits.
 5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc
My book (ThreadWork Unraveled), my blog (www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog) and website, in my classes, the 2010-11 Quilting Arts Gifts issue, and whatever shows I get in (as long as I remember to apply in time).
 6.  Do you teach?  where?   Have paycheck will travel--yes, I definitely teach!  I prefer to teach places where I don't have to fly---detest airports--will gladly drive 2-3 days each way instead!  But I've been all over, and would love to go more places even if it involves an airplane.  Australia or Hawaii anyone?  My current bookings are on my website at http://www.sarahannsmith.com/schedule.php.
 7.  Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?
Vincent Van Gogh - COLOR! Henri Matisse - exuberance and line; Auguste Rodin - passion and form; The artisans of the Sutton Hoo burial grounds (UK--in the British Museum) - design and ornament;  Edward Steichen - The Family of Man book/exhibit; grew up poring over the photographs and still do; The 8th grade neighbor girl who made the apron for my Barbie when I was 6--that got me started with sewing!
 8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?   IQA-Houston, again I hope...And if I ever make work I think suitable, Visions and Quilts=Art=Quilts, or if I can afford shipping the UK's Festival of quilts and the Tokyo show.
 9.  Describe your studio workspace.   In progress.  We moved in February 2011, so at the moment most of the boxes are unpacked, but I still need to paint the floor (I have a large semi-unfinished space in the basement) and get some closet doors made before I can really settle in.  Despite only having four small windows near the ceiling joists (space is semi-finished, we spray painted the joists and under-floor white so it would look more ceiling-like), I installed good lights with daylight bulbs so it is bright and cheery.  I'll have a 22 foot closet made by putting up design wall panels as sliding doors on one wall for the detritus of art and teaching (file cabinet, teaching items, books for sale, art supplies and stored quilts  inside--don't like working with too much visual clutter).  I hope to have a reading area, and my beloved Hoosier will be my desk.  I may even get to add a sit-down mid-arm machine this year....
10.  What 3 tools could you not live without?   MistyFuse. My Janome 7700 sewing machine.  Digital camera!
11.  What drives you to make the work that you do?  I can't NOT make my quilts--it would be like asking me to stop loving my kids and hubby or do without oxygen.  Just can't be done!  I love to make things with my hands...to make something from inside my head become real.  There are so many things I want to learn how to do in terms of creating the image, both conceiving it and then physically making it.
12.  How do you balance your life?   Balance?  does *any*one have balance? (Picture Sarah ready to teeter off a rope while tossing a thousand items up in the air.)  I seem to lurch from one urgent thing to another, hoping I haven't forgotten something important.  I know the insanity will slow down eventually, but right now I just try to make sure the family gets everything they need, and that I can still make enough art to keep myself sane!

Author of bestseller ThreadWork Unraveled
website: http://www.sarahannsmith.com
blog: http://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog
e-mail: sarah@sarahannsmith

Jane LaFazio - San Diego, CA

1.  What do you call yourself - art wise?  A mixed media artist. Then I elaborate, stating that I paint watercolor, work in collage and make art quilts.
2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?   Just walk in the door to my studio. There’s always an unfinished project to get my attention, or a book or magazine open to some technique I want to try.
3.  If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art?   Same as I do now, sell it, write about, enter it in juried exhibitions.
4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?   Yes, I sketch and watercolor the details of my life.
5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc
Big news is my brand new DVD “Art Journaling to Art ~Drawing, Watercolor, and More Techniques for the Mixed-Media Artist with Jane LaFazio” from Interweave. I’m also in Quilting Arts magazine this year. My quilt “Eucalyptus Zen” from Dinner at Eight’s Edges exhibition was juried into Quilt Visions 2010: No Boundaries this year, and now is in “San Diego Art Institute 51st Annual International Exhibition.”
 6.  Do you teach?  where?  I’m teaching a lot this summer! at CREATE in Southern California and Chicago;  a retreat Utah, Art Unraveled in Phoenix; Art & Soul in Portland; wet felting in Idyllwild, California…My teaching schedule is here and I’d love to see you in one of my workshops! Oh, and join me in Italy in 2012!
7.  Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?  Danny Gregory 
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?   Hmm. Good question. I’m not a setting goals type of person. I just work hard, doing what I love, and I usually say ‘yes’ to opportunities that will either, a)make me happy,  b) make me happy AND earn some money, c) make me happy AND advance my art career.   I guess shows aren’t on my radar (other than Dinner at Eight exhibitions!). I’d love to teach at Penland, or John C Campbell…
9.  Describe your studio workspace.  A dedicated space for my artwork in my home. Probably measures 10x12’ and is full of supplies, artwork, and artwork in progress, a tv. Definitely a working studio, rarely clean enough for company.
10.  What 3 tools could you not live without?   Needle, variegated perle cotton embroidery thread size 12, and scissors.
11.  What drives you to make the work that you do?   I don’t know. I just love to make things.
12.  How do you balance your life?   A loving, supportive husband helps a lot. I’m organized, I  prioritize. I try to include play in my life. I do yoga. There are times when I’m ridiculously busy and over committed, and I try to prepare in advance, and then just be in the moment, enjoy the experience for what it is, and most importantly, include some laughter in whatever I’m doing.

http://JaneVille.blogspot.com
http://www.JaneLaFazio.com
co-rep SAQA SoCaL/So Nev
http://saqasocal.blogspot.com/

Susie Monday - Pipe Creek, TX

1.  What do you call yourself - art wise?   Artist. Fiber Artist. Textile artist. Artist who makes quilts for the wall. Depending on who asks.
2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?   Usually I wait it out for a while, believing in compassion for myself at this age, and with the experience of knowing that slumps really don't last forever. In those instances I try to feed my imagination with a trip to a thrift store to look for textiles, or a trip to the library for new books. Now that I have a computer-linked TV I might watch a documentary or film about an artist. But when a slump looks like it is taking serious hold I make myself pull out fabric and pile it on the design table, auditioning colors for something working out of one of my ongoing series.
 3.  If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art?   With just a bit more security in the financial realm I would enter more juried exhibitions -- especially non-art-quilt ones. And if money way REALLY no issue, I'd take on some giant-scaled art collaborative projects, pay a slew of assistants to do all the drudgery parts of the process, make some enormous art quilts/installations for non-profits or schools (with the participation of those within them) and see where that led us!
 4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?   I do on-and-off. Right now is "sort of on," but not daily. I do use sketchbooks and journals to inspire new projects when I think I don't have any ideas. My piece for this exhibit was taken directly from a collage that I had tucked away in a sketchbook -- I rarely work from sketches or paper designs, but when I do, the work comes from an old sketchbook or journal, rarely a current one.
 5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc.  In my studio, at the Twig Bookstore in San Antonio (a small ongoing exhibit/sale).
 6.  Do you teach?  where?   I teach weekend retreats at my home/studio, El Cielo, which is on the top of a ridge northwest of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country. I also teach at the Southwest School of Art and around the country at conferences, guilds and shows, but I confess that this year I have been less active as a fiber arts teacher, since I have been working quite a bit for an international program based at Alamo Colleges. Through that program I teach creative workshops to Central American teachers who are the U.S. to add to their abilities to teach in their rural schools back home, as well as teaching art workshops to Central American Youth Ambassadors and their Texas hosts.
 7.  Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?   I am still looking at Matisse. His paper cutouts, use of color, amazing spirit as a lifelong artist all inspire me, and have since I was in high school.
 8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?  Quilt National. But I've never had the courage to enter!
 9.  Describe your studio workspace.  I have the studio of my dreams. For years I worked in a dusty, un-air conditioned crumbling shed/garage. When we moved to the country about 5 years ago we landed in a big house with a separate studio/apartment and 2-car garage. It's large enough for me to use for teaching, but not so large that I don't have to keep it cleaned up. And there is a 20-mile view outside the doorway, and a 10 second commute to the kitchen.
10.  What 3 tools could you not live without?  The Bernina; cheap scissors that I don't have to worry about and toss when they get dull; fusible web.
11.  What drives you to make the work that you do?  A respect for creativity and our human right and responsibility to live in its realm. A profound love of color and texture and shape that is part of my birthright. The desire to tell stories about life and living my life through potent, powerful images.
12.  How do you balance your life?  On tip-toe. Teetering this way and that. With the support of my partner. By living away from a lot of distractions. 

http://susiemonday.squarespace.com