I love it when things come full circle.  I was reading a Studio Art Quilt Associates Friday e-Blast newsletter, which had a link to an article in the NYT about the 20 best books on business for artists. Let’s face it:  as an artist, we’d rather make art and not think about business.  But if you don’t, you may not be able to afford to stay an artist.  Book number 6 on the list is Art Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist by Lisa Congdon, whom I first came to know about because her mom,  Gerrie Congdon, is a textile artist and SAS Member.  Find Gerrie’s artwork here.  Find Lisa’s website (and further links to her Etsy, Instagram, FB and other social media presence) here.   Full circle!

Art Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist by Lisa Congdon.  Since she actually DID what she is talking about in this book, I believe her.  I also love that each chapter has an interview with an incredibly successful artist–from a very wide range of places and backgrounds and media–talking about things that pertain both to the chapter where they are included but also to life as a working artist no matter what.

I WISH I had had this book when I started out!   I was able to borrow it on interlibrary loan, but given the modest price, if you are anywhere near the start of your career, just buy it. Here’s the Table of Contents to give you an idea of the scope of this small but mighty book:

Table of contents for Art, Inc. by Lisa Congdon, available on Amazon both in print as a Kindle book. 

I was actually delighted as I read through the first four chapters to say “check!  Done that!”  BUT I wish I had known about all this when I began.  I have learned a lot from other quilt artists, first on the QuiltArt listserv, then on Facebook as many of us migrated to social media, and then more from my peers in SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates).  But I felt validated that someone who took The Big Leap into being a full time professional artist was saying to do what I had done.   But the book also helped me now when I feel like I am sorta mid-career.  What do I do now, how can I better market my work and myself?  What goals do I have and how can I achieve them?  The chapters on selling, exhibiting, licensing and managing workload were GREAT.

As I was reading I thought…OK, let’s buckle down and start making a cohesive group of works–perhaps 12-20–for a themed exhibit of my work, then market it…..   So I now have a daunting goal, but I also have a goal–a specific thing I want to do.  Will I make it happen?  Who knows, but the only way to find out is to try.  And I can use some of the guidance in the latter half of this book to help me find out how to get from where I am to where I want to be.  You can’t ask much more from a book than that!

So, I am going to get a few smaller projects done, get ready to teach at International Quilt Festival in Houston again this fall, but while I’m working on those I’m going to start mapping out that series of works, thinking about how I want to present them, create them, and then get going!

The season is coming soon for the SAQA / Studio Art Quilt Associates annual fundraising auction:  bidding begins September 15th.  To learn more about the auction, go here. For my first Dream Collection, I chose Five Circles and a Line. Here are Five more Circles, with a Grid:

Karen Hansen’s Celebration, part of the SAQA 2018 Benefit Auction.  I love the play of the curved red against the starkness of the black and white.  http://www.saqa.com/auction-viewdetail.php?ID=3666

Lynn Koolish, Black on White #7. I’m usually not one for abstracts, but I love the spontaneity of the line…reminds me of a portrait Lyric Kinard did of her daughter one year that is one of my favorite art quilts ever. http://www.saqa.com/auction-viewdetail.php?ID=3887

Laura Jaszowski, Sturgeon Moon. LOVE the color, the calm, the thin clouds drifting in the sky. http://www.saqa.com/auction-viewdetail.php?ID=4002

Patricia Gaska, Blue Moon. Another abstract-meets-representational quilt (and yes, I recognize and have that striped fabric LOL). I wonder if I have an abstract trying to happen in my brain? http://www.saqa.com/auction-viewdetail.php?ID=3773

Martha Wolfe, Koi. Perfection in the quilting. Perfection in the complex simplicity. http://www.saqa.com/auction-viewdetail.php?ID=3727

Alicia Merrett, Somerset Village Green. This NEEDED to be in a collection. What better spot than as a colorful counterpoint to the circles? http://www.saqa.com/auction-viewdetail.php?ID=3966

Will you bid on one of these?  Will I?

Interested in trying your hand at art quilts? Not sure where to start? This class has proved a perennial favorite at IQF Houston (and elsewhere)–sign up soon!

Yes, registration is OPEN for classes for International Quilt Festival Houston 2018, including my four classes.  I’ll recap my four classes (well, three full day classes and the Machine Quilting Forum). My first class, Birch Pond Season,  is already covered here.  Today, I’ll share about Collage the Garden, one of my newest classes and proving to be one of the most popular.  I hope to see some of you in it!

This workshop is all about how I –and now YOU– can create imagery from a photograph to create your own fused, collaged art quilt.  In Houston, this workshop is offered as a one-day class.  I’ll provide photos to teach you how to use a photo to map out your shapes and values, then you will start (and maybe finish?) creating the pink water lily or the orange tiger lily.  For this outing in Houston, you will be bringing and fusing up your own fabrics (or bring them pre-fused–I prefer Mistyfuse and will have it available in class–it has the lightest weight and softest hand of any of the fusibles).  This is a no-sewing class, but we will talk about how to quilt your fused artwork when you get home.

Collage the Garden: I’ll teach you “how did she do that” so that you can create your own art from your own photos

Detail of the Pink Water Lily

Here’s the Tiger Lily option fused in batiks

And the tiger lily done in hand-dyes….it’s the same but different. What fabrics will you choose?

You can see the supply list here.

Click on this link to sign up for Class 339 and spend Wednesday playing with me!   Class ends at five–just in time for IQA member preview opening at 5 (and general public preview at 7).

In other venues, a guild can book this workshop over to two or three days to allow students to bring in their own photographs and begin work on their own artwork with Sarah to help guide them.  The workshop can be booked in conjunction with Quilting the Garden:  Thread-Coloring the Flower to create a three-to-five day workshop.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

The season is coming soon for the SAQA / Studio Art Quilt Associates annual fundraising auction:  bidding begins September 15th.  To learn more about the auction, go here. For my first collection, I chose Five Circles and a Line.

Lune Rouge by Gerrie Congdon. This quilt just about jumped off the screen at me. Although I have never been an abstracts person, I have always loved circles. The hand stitching and combination of red-orange and blue is wonderful!

Susan Else is a master at what she does and her stellar work always goes quickly. “Chorus” reminded me of what I called the “Sleepy Hollow dog bark” growing up. Each evening, around 9:30 to 10 pm, a dog would start barking in our little valley called Sleepy Hollow (in San Anselmo, California). The next dog would hear, then the next. Pretty soon, dogs all up and down Butterfield Road would be barking–I’d open the car windows and listen as I went home.

Lorraine Roy’s tree quilts have inspired me for years. Her series of tree rings with imagery is inspiring and it is all I can do NOT to copy they general idea!

Judith Content, best known for her shibori dyeing and kimono-shaped art quilts, is having fun here with these 3-D chocolate truffles.

Again, I’m not much of an abstract person, but I love the motion and spontaneity in Sherri Lipman McCauley’s piece Subtle Circles. The careful use of blue and black/gray in different weight lines and values (light/dark) is just right.

And I had to add Sarah Entsminger’s perfect line–her recent work has really spoken to me. I love the simplicity and perfection, the minimalism with lots of quilting, the careful use of dyed fabric with ideal placement of value and line…just SWOON!

Stay tuned for a few more collections in the coming weeks.  Which pieces would you bid on, budget permitting?   If I ever win a Mega-Millions (which would of course require me to buy a ticket or two first), I vow here and now to buy a couple SAQA Auction pieces each year!   As it is, I save my pennies and every couple of years hope one of the ones I want most lasts until I can afford it!

Interested in trying your hand at art quilts? Not sure where to start? This class has proved a perennial favorite at IQF Houston (and elsewhere)–sign up soon!  

Yes, registration is OPEN for classes for International Quilt Festival Houston 2018, including my four classes.  Over the next week, I’ll recap my four classes (well, three full day classes and the Machine Quilting Forum).  I hope to see some of you  in those classes!

On Tuesday, the day between Quilt Market (open to the trade only) and Quilt Festival (open to anyone who pays admission), I’ll be teaching Birch Pond Seasons.  The wonderful thing about this workshop is that you can bring a photo of your own favorite pond or hills and morph my pattern into your special place!   The class is always full or almost full–I’m hoping that with it scheduled on Tuesday I’ll be able to entice some Market-goers to stay over for a workshop.

Here’s the summer version:

Summer version

And autumn:

Autumn at Birch Pond

You’ll learn basics of fusing, working from a pattern without having to cut a bazillion pattern pieces, working a bit more free-form and improvisationally, how to “strip fuse,” fusing easy-melt fabrics like synthetic sheers, fabric selection, and time-permitting in the afternoon we’ll talk about quilting.  The class includes a kit fee that covers handouts, pattern sheet, a full package of white Mistyfuse, and a few tidbits.  You bring a range of fabrics but not a ton of any one fabric (maybe a fat quarter for sky and half that for the pond)…a range of fabrics is more important than a lot of any one thing.

Here is a blogpost about students taking this class some years ago.  This post will give you a feel for the class.

If you click here to get to my classes page, scroll down to Birch Pond Seasons class and you can click on the link for the PDF Class supply list, too.

Sign up before it fills!  If you have questions, just leave a comment or contact me via the Contact page (link up top).  Here’s the link to IQF enrollment   again.  See you there!