the art and business of Surface Pattern Design

I think I shall still be signing up for classes when I'm 103. I really LOVE how easy it is on the internet! Tomarrow (This is not spelled wrong. This is an old way of spelling this word; just look in any good dictionary!) I start a 4 week class: module 1 of the Art and Business of Surface Design and Pattern with Beth Nichols and Rachael Taylor.

I am absolutely blown away by the other people in the class! People from England, Australia, Canada, Sweden, SOUTH AFRICA! ESTONIA and more! I've gone from knowing no one else who was an artist to knowing artists from around the world!

(I wish I could figure out how to put a button for this class in my sidebar)

A Hero's Journey for Artists

Starting out on a new journey

The Hero's Art Journey by Mira Reisberg looks to be exciting, fun, and just what the doctor ordered! As Artists, we ARE on a hero's journey. We have left the safety of accepting the Status Quo and are exploring new territory, testing our limits, learning to trust our intuition, facing our demons.

Especially facing our demons. And they do come up! I think the Hero's Art Journey will give us tools to handle the demons as well as techniques to expand our art.

Art in a New Economy #2

New Life in the Forest

I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it!
I wrote and submitted an article for the Vashon Loop, a local newspaper, to let people know about my show coming up at PSCCU (Pugest Sound Cooperative Credit Union) and about the silk painting class I am offering in September!

This is the article:

Art in a New Economy

            We are in a time of change. Oil is running out, and increasingly our quest for oil damages the environment. Everytime I go to the grocery store, the prices are higher. The climate is changing. Old ways of doing business don’t always work anymore, and the traditional way of putting profit first has damaged our environment, our culture, and now our economy.

            These are turbulent times. For many, these are harsh times. Where can we stand, with the ground shifting beneath us?

            During World War 1, when he was asked what he would do for the war effort, the Impressionist painter Monet said, “I will paint”.  Monet’s paintings of the pond, the gardens, the bridge at Giverney, offer the soul a place to rest. His paintings still turn our eyes toward beauty, toward that which is good in the world.

            This is where I choose to stand: in Beauty, in Compassion, in Trust. Will you join me?

                                                Suzanna Leigh

                                                www.suzannaleigh.net

A Stand for Beauty; Life in the Puget Sound

            Paintings on silk by suzanna leigh

            Opening at PSCCU Sept 2

            Reception 6:30-8:30

Silk Painting Class series September 11, 18, 25

            Sundays 1pm-4pm

            Suzanna’s Studio 20733 87^th Ave SW

            For more information: 206 463 5255

 (darn this text box, would not do what it was supposed to do!)

Print Making and Dragon Painting

Allyssa is painting an airplane and sun on mylar, using watercolor paints, to print on wet paper.









This child is glazing his dragon, trusting that the colors he chose will fire close to what he is expecting. They look nothing like the teacher told him they will! I can't wait to see what it looks like fired!

Painting on Silk with Elders

Working with elders is a little like working with children. They have a clear vision of what they want to create, but their fine motor skills don't don't quite match their vision. Their fingers don't quite go where they want them to.

Even so, look at the beauty they created on silk today! And they did have fun!


I'm off to Portland, Oregon, to learn how to market my work in a new way. ... to learn a new way of thinking about marketing. I may or may not be able to post something on Friday.

Dragon Lore: Practice dragons with First Graders

Dragon Models

We made some fantastic Dragons today!

I was surprised how much first graders know about dragons--and what they didn't know. Very few had heard about St George and the dragon, or were familiar with dragons as maiden eating pests, but many knew about wise Chinese dragons, as well as many modern dragon stories that I don't know.

Children could describe many kinds of dragons; dragons that live in water, those that have wings, the many that are serpent like. They knew that not all dragons have legs, not all spit fire (some spit ice!), many spit poison.

I gave the children plastic modeling clay and three ways to make the dragon body: starting with a ball, a cylnder (snake), or a pancake shape. I showed them ways to individualize their dragons by pulling out long necks or legs, making fins for the water dragons, adding horns, drawing on scales, etc. We found the pancake shape was best for making sea dragons with fins.

Here are some of the results:

Making the eyes on a Sea Dragon

Check out the nest, complete with eggs!

This Dragon has 4 wings!

This Week in the Studio

new paintings on silk--in progress-- for show
 at the Vashon Tea Shop
opening February 4th

Here's some more stuff I'm working on, which is why the tutorial I promised is taking so long. I do expect to have the tutorial ready for you by Monday!

Making prints with the print making class
 I'm teaching through Family Link
photo by Dusti Kimmel

Angel Print

 I sent this little water color angel to some folks I know who are having a really rough time right now.  The caption was, "May you be cared for as though held in the arms of an angel."

 I loved her so much, I made some mono-prints of her.




One of my favorite printing techniques uses watercolor paint and mylar. I use frosted mylar, and just paint the image in reverse. Most Windsor Newton watercolor paints work just fine, but a few colors are based on dyes rather than on pigment, and don't transfer to the paper well.




I will be teaching this technique in my print class, so I needed to try out all my colors.



They all worked!



Using my baby press, I printed the images on 90# watercolor paper that had been soaked in water for about 20 minutes.

The next step is to print the lines over the images with an intaglio plate made with a ball point pen on mat board.

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The Value of Art

The studio ready for guests!

I've been eavesdropping on a conversation among arts organization managers and producers, on a blog by Diane Ragsdale. These people struggle to help non-profit arts organizations, theaters, museums, stay financially afloat, by persuading politicians to fund them. Their arguments for public funding must prove the value of the arts, and what is the value?

The value of art is a question artists struggle with constantly, wether we are trying to price a painting or trying to discover and develop our market. We know it is a human need. We know that art speaks to us, that it inspires and brings joy to the viewer. That it can broaden our understanding and build community. We know that life can be pretty drab without it.

Alan S. Brown has done some research on the effect of art on communities and individuals. He finds that potential effects of art (galleries, studios, and performances) include:

• Personal development can include self-actualization, improved social skills, the ability to think critically, health and wellness, and others.
• Among the economic and social benefits are tolerance, civic pride, economic impact, harm avoidance, and more.
• In terms of human interaction, benefits can include more satisfying relationships, family cohesion, teamwork skills, and others.
• Regarding communal meaning, the presentation outlines benefits such as community engagement, political dialogue, the transfer of values and ideals, a sense of belonging, and more.
• The imprint of the arts experience can include social bonding, aesthetic growth, intellectual stimulation, emotional resonance, and others.

But how do we know these "potential" effects have happened? And how do we put a price tag on it? How do we even judge what is "good" art and what is not? And what  makes one piece of art better quality than another?

Teaching Artist eclass with Laura Hamor

Wish Fish

I'm on the road to making my dreams come true!

I'm taking Laura Hamor's ecourse on teaching art in schools, museums, and libraries. The first assignment: being clear on what I want. I drew and decorated these fish and wrote my wishes on them. I will hang them in my studio window.

Here is what I wrote:
On the top fish
I am doing artist residencies in schools all over the state, the Northwest, and beyond!
I am teaching in schools, museums, and libraries all over the Northwest
I am making a good living as an artist and writer
On the bottom fish
I am deepening Children's and adults' understanding of themselves and the world around them through art and story
I am giving children and adults tools to create their  lives in Beauty and Compassion

Monday, I made another step in the direction of these wishes: I contacted Family Link, our school district's interface with home-schooling families, and proposed some classes for home-schooling children. The classes were well received by the first gate keeper. Next the proposals need to go to the teachers working in this program and the parents. Classes will be taught in the winter quarter and in the spring.

Art in the Schools: Monster Friends and Dragons

I have so loved working with the children in the schools, doing art and using art in an integrated curriculum! While I wasn't accepted on the Washington State Arts Commission teaching artist roster, I was accepted on the Vashon Artists in the Schools Roster. I guess it's good to start locally.

 The year before last, I worked with first and second graders on creating their own monster friends inspired by photos I took in Thailand of mythical creatures adorning palaces, temples, and parks. The banner we made with the silk squares was auctioned off to raise money for the school.

Last year I did a project with third graders around the Hundred Family Coat, from a Chinese folk tale about a boy and a golden pheonix who rescue the sun. We made a Coat of Many Strengths; each child identified a strength of theirs and created a design for it. We used fabric markers to put the designs on silk squares, which were then sewn onto a coat. Just like the coat made with little scraps of cloth donated by the people of the village to the boy in the story, our coat respresented how all the children's strengths combined to make the class room communty.



This year, I have been talking with some teachers I know and have worked with about doing something around Dragons, as a paid artist in residence through Vashon Artists in the Schools. I am excited!

Planting my flag

Here is something from Mark Silver that has got me thinking :

"The lesson I want to encourage in all of us is to take a stand for what you believe in, and make a radical statement about it in your business." (plant your flag)

"By taking a stand, you become a firm foundation, something people can count on. Many of you are providing products and services that help people in the storms of their life. If you plant your flag, then people know they can trust you when the storm is raging, and they’ll come to you for shelter."

"So, here’s a challenge: plant your flag, and hit your audience with the truth. Speak something strong- something that you know you can stand behind 100%, but have been afraid to speak because you don’t know how it will be received. Do it for your heart, in service to Source. Your business will be stronger for it."

 What flag will I plant? I think it has to do with the place of art in education, in learning, in visioning who we are and how we want to live. I believe that:

Creating art and viewing art is about changing lives. It runs deeper than school testing can discover. It is more powerful than status or logic or ... or money. It can bring us joy, move us to tears, open our hearts and minds to new insights, new understanding. It can change our lives!


What is your flag?

The Teaching Artist Roster

Well, I did not get accepted. I did not prove to the panel at the Washington State Arts Commission that I am a "teaching artist". I had a very informative phone interview with Lisa at WSAC, to go over my application for the "Teaching Artist Roster" so that I could find out where I fell short.

To be honest, I have some reservations about this program, whether it is right for me. Whether the art taught by "teaching artists" in public schools is the kind of art I want to teach. I like to teach the kind of things that are not easily assessed; the focus of the WSAC is to provide a roster of teachers who can create lessons to teach specific, simple, easily assessed outcomes. Like techniques and vocabulary. Vocabulary? To assess for that sounds like a written test to me, not an art project.

So, I'm struggling with this at the moment. I love teaching children art, doing art projects with them that expand their knowledge of other cultures and of themselves. I detest vocabulary tests as part of an art project. That's too much focus on "the head, slightly to one side", as Sir Ken Robinson would say.

education and creativity

I don't generally post videos, as I don't have much time or patience to watch them, but art and education are very much on my mind lately. As an artist and a teacher, I'm very much interested in how creativity is treated in the public school system.
Here are some quotes from Sir Ken Robinson on this video which made an impact on me:
        Education systems all over the world have the same hierarchy of academic subjects taught..... We start to educate them (children) progressively from the waist up, and then we focus on their heads. and slightly to one side.
          (Looking at education, one would have to conclude that) the out put, the purpose, is to produce university professors. University professors live almost entirely in their heads...... their bodies exist just to carry their heads around.
        Our education system has stripmined our minds the way we've strip mined the earth for a particular commodity.

Teaching Artist--thinking it through part 1

Surrounded on all sides by an un-juried show of island artists of all ages and abilities, Beverly Nadius facilitated a discussion on art and community at the Valise Gallery on Vashon. It got me thinking about art education and what that means to me. I looked up some art organizations sites, like ArtEd, Artists Trust, Art Alliance, and Americans for the Arts.

When I applied to be on the Washinton State Arts Commission Teaching Artist Roster, I was struck by how structured art education has become. I am so concerned that art, like every other discipline taught in public schools, will have the sponteniety sucked out of it, that it will become simply teaching technical skills that can be tested and measured. I was encouraged when I read this on the ARTed Washington website:

"We believe that the goal of education should not be to teach our children a series of simple, repeatable skills.

Education should light a fire under them, inspire them to unearth new truths, challenge them with huge, seemingly unanswerable questions, and dazzle them with the possibilities that today’s world offers them. Incorporating the arts into daily teaching accomplishes all of these things."

When I read further that as part of their mission : "To accomplish this, we:
• raise public awareness of the importance of creativity and imagination in school and in life " (and 6 other bullet points)

I decided to join.

Teaching Artist

After a year of feeling cowed by the application process to (this is a mouthful) get on the Washington State Arts Commission Roster for Teaching Artists, I've finally completed the application!

3:30 pm yesterday I picked up the printer ink (can you believe every ink color cartridge was kaput?) and I'm ready to print out the application. AARRGG!! My printer suddenly stopped working!! What happened to the Gods taking a step toward me? They aren't supposed to BLOCK me!!

3:45 figured out the printer problem
4:30 mailed the applications a whole 24 hours before the deadline! I think that's a first for me!

Quote for the day:
Joseph Campbell
I have found that you do have only to take that one step toward the gods and they will then take ten steps toward you. That step, the heroic first step of the journey, is out of, or over the edge of, your boundaries, and it often must be taken before you know that you will be supported.