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Turtle Moon Studios:

This was our front door mural from 1992 to 2008.	Susan Shie: Outsider Diary Art Quilt Painter	Enter James Acord's Leather

Visit James Acord's Leather

The rest of this site, Turtle Moon Studios, is Susan Shie's site for her drawings, outsider art quilts and paintings.

Contact us

| Classes | | Gallery | | Green Quilts | |Links |
| Resume | | Stuff to Buy | |Turtle Trax Diary |
| Visit James Acord's Leather

Find Susan Shie, James Acord, Turtle Moon Studios, and Turtle Art Camp by spotting this big garage door mural at our house. This is the mural I painted on our garage door in Fall, 2008, to replace the aging mural on the front door. It's my Personal Landscape with Jimmy and me, Gretchen, Mike, and Eva, President Obama, and the Statue of Liberty, and all of our and GEM's cats, and a little St Quilta the Comforter (my mother, Marie Shie) down in the bottom left corner, sending out Peace vibes. Its message is "Power to the People: Heal the Earth with Unity and Kindness." You can see more images and read my statement about this huge painting here.

Making my piece that's in Quilt National '21 right now.  I got to make a wonderful video interview with artist and quilt art interviewer par excellence, Lisa Walton last Fall, 2021:
Lisa Walton's Quilt Stories interview with me, filmed in Oct, 2020, about making my "Annie and John: 7 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot" art qu

Fine Art America print-on-demand artwork on prints and functional art, that you might just need to order there, of my art images!!!!

I have a Fine Art America shop, so you can buy all kinds of things, with my artwork printed on them.  Even wild stuff like phone cases and beach towels!  Prints on paper, mugs, tote bags, pillows, you name it!  Go to my Fine Art America shop's main page.  See what I've got there. And when I finallly get some free time, I promise to add a lot of newer drawings to it!  

Quilt National Friends and Family Workshop with Susan Shie:

by Ohio Arts Council Riffe Gallery
I taught this in-person class on Feb 12, 2022, at the Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, during their Quilt National '21 Exhibition.  I would love to teach a freehand drawing class for your group, either in person or Zoom, for any length of time, from a half day to a weeklong class.  Please contact me about it.

My next Lucky Drawing class will be LD 167 from April 2 to May 1, 2023, with its soft opening, in the evening of Sunday, April 2. Please read all about it at the link above. Then go to the Facebook promotional page for this class, where you can sign up by clicking "going," on that FB event page, before contacting me about how you're paying and when you plan to pay for the class. Please contact me now, any time, if you have questions, or if you want to sign up for this next online class. I'm taking students for it now. You don't have to pay when you register, but when it's convenient for you.

It's time to sign up for my next online freehand drawing class! Please read the in-depth detailed info on the page here on my site (which also includes the supply list about 2/3 way down the very-long page), and contact me, if you want to sign up for the next class: Lucky Drawing 167, April 2 to May 2 2023, with its Sunday, Feb 19th evening soft opening. The next class after this one will be Lucky Drawing 167 Apr 2 to May 1, 2023.

I've made a promotional Facebook event page about Lucky Drawing 167, where you can read about the class and sign up by clicking "going" on that page. If you're interested, but not sure whether you can attend, then click "interested."

I have a very nontraditional approach to drawing, NOT AT ALL about me giving you step-by-step instructions and rules. Very different from classic drawing training, in its personal exploration of ideas and techniques. I make up themes for each of us to use or alter or not use, and we all discuss the drawings we post to the private Facebook classroom. I never suggest how you should draw or make changes to YOUR work. We never do harsh critique.  All is positive feedback. All work is done freehand, based on your ability to stop judging your artmaking, so you can really enjoy drawing and therefore, be happier.  THAT is the goal.  Plus, you'll have a bunch of new women friends, drawing "beside" you in the class.  Beginning drawing students are welcome, as well as all other skill level women artists. Please read all about this class coming up. Let's see what YOUR own natural style of drawing looks like!

Most of the artists I know quit freehand drawing sometime during their childhood, when they decided that it was too scary!  Others' well-meant judgment was too discouraging.  So it's good to get back to it now, when I can help you get over your fear of doing freehand work. And if you draw really well now, but haven't been inspired or structured enough to draw on your own, this class is for you, too. So let me know, if you want to join us for LD 167's four-week session. Read the information about my classes, and then sign up on FB, at my promotional page. Just call or text, email, or FB message me to ask me about the class! Class fee is $155 - $165, depending on your payment method.

Notes: As a student in my classes, there is NEVER a specific time of day or day of the week, when you have to be there, to fully participate. WE all have different schedules, so come to class when you can and when you feel like it. I'm there a lot, but that's because it's my job as the teacher. You can have all the flexitime you need and want!

All my class sessions softly open on a Sunday night, and they end a month later, on a Monday at midnight your time. But you can be there any time of day or night, any day of the class. Each 30-day class session has a soft opening after 9 PM eastern time, on that first Sunday night, but you don't have to show up in the online classroom that night, if you can't, or just don't want to.  But it's fun to see everyone putting up their new selfie photos in their new personal albums, and greeting each other, old students and new and me! 

Please read the in-depth detailed info page here on my website (which also includes the supply list about 2/3 way down the page), register by clicking "going" on my FB event page for this class and contact me by phone or text, if you want to talk with me about the class!  I hope you can join us!  I'm sure you'll love drawing in your own natural way, after the years when you didn't draw!  Please join us!

Turtle Art Camps:

Study on an intimate level with me, Susan Shie. Through my Turtle Art Camps, I've been helping people find their instinctive and joyful aritist's voice in classes in my home and studios since 1994. Study drawing and painting with regular drawing tools and watercolor, in a new format for these camps, in which we work in large, hardbound sketchbooks all week, making TAC the in-person form of my online Lucky Drawing classes! I no longer teach classes about working on cloth, anywhere. I teach freehand drawing. Each Turtle Art Camp can have up to four adult students, who live and work in Jimmy and my home and studios in Wooster, Ohio.

This photo is of the front view of our house, back in the 1990s, when my parents lived with us., when the crabapple trees are blooming in the Moon Garden. (The Moon Garden has a cement turtle in it, too, since this is Turtle Moon Studios.)  That's my father at his blue car, getting ready to open the door for my mother.  <3

My Turtle Art Camps are still on hold:

Note:  All 2020 to 2023 Turtle Art Camp weeks were canceled, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  I'm sorry!  I might try to get back to them next year! But my online Lucky Drawing classes are going strong!  It's the same class in freehand drawing, but online instead of in my home and studio!I coordinate my camps at home, so that they're in the breaks between my online Lucky Drawing classes. And all my classes anywhere are all about freehand drawing now. I don't teach any other media or processes now.

FEES: The weeklong Turtle Art Camp fee is $1,000, with an add-on service fee, if you use PayPal. The camp fee includes transportation from and back to the airport, art supplies for the class, room and partial meals, and tuition. When you send me a $500 deposit check, I'll put you on the class list. You'll pay me the rest when you're here in camp. There's a lot more information about fees, flight times coordination, etc, on the Turtle Art Camp page, so please read the full information about Turtle Art Camp, before you contact me to sign up for a camp. You will find lots of pictures there and full explanation of what to expect in this class program / art biospheric experience! Thank you!

Susan Shie:  all classes:

My current classes, NOT effected by Covid-19, are my Lucky Drawing online classes. These are 30-day sessions, with 12 day breaks in between them. Many students take them repeatedly, like how we stay with a yoga or piano teacher. I began teaching freehand drawing online in January, 2015, over 9 years ago now.

Turtle Art Camps.  All canceled in 2020 through 2023, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Looking forward to maybe something in 2024, but I just don’t know yet.

The Turtle Art Camps are weeklong, live-in sessions at my home studio in Wooster Ohio, throughout the year, every year since 1994. I'm now teaching my Lucky Drawing classes in person at these camps. I no longer offer any painting on cloth or sewing. It's all about freehand drawing in large sketchbooks, all week. We haven't had camps here since Covid began in early 2020. I'm hoping to have one or two in 2024. But it looks bad to me yet!

Private art classes in my home.  Canceled, due to Covid, in 2020, and still cancelled in 2023, due to Coronavirus pandemic. I'm hoping to start again in 2024, maybe.

I'd love come give my slide lecture and drawing demo and/or Lucky Drawing class at your guild, school, art workshop, college, museum, etc, via Zoom or in person. I gave a Zoom presentation for SAQA on Oct 22, 2021, and another Zoom class for The Quilt Alliance on Sept 14, 2022, and I really enjoyed doing those programs, and I'd love to teach for your group!

My Classes and Lectures, recent and upcoming:

"Quilters Take a Moment," a Zoom program for the Quilt Alliance, that was about how I work and document my processes.  This presentation included a slide show, a demo of how I draw, and a group exercise, in which all of us drew together, trying my "Library Time" method of bring ideas and images up from our inner thinking.  My part of this symposium was on Sept 14, 2022, from 1 - 3 PM.

In person lecture and class at the Quilt National '21 exhibition at the Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH. February 12, 2022.

Zoom presentation for SAQA, Long slide lecture and drawing demo.  Studio Art Quilt Associates. October 22, 2021.

Hiatus from in-person teaching began with Covid-19 pandemic.

Austin Area Quilt Guild. Class March 29-31, 2019. Lecture April 1, 2019.

Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh. Lecture June 15, Class June 16, 2018.

Online Lucky Drawing Classes in a private FB group classroom, year round, as 30-day sessions, with 12-day breaks in between sessions.  Started online teaching in January, 2015 and have taught these month-long classes continuously since then.

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If you want me to come teach for your group, visit my Class Descriptions page to see all the classes I offer. Then, just contact me. I need to update this page to include Zoom presentations of my art quilts and drawings, and classes in freehand drawing.

Above is a picture of Libby laying on my lap, as I sew the hand worked border edge on the "David Wax Museum."

My "Guenveur and Madeleine: 5 of Potholders (coins) in the Kitchen Tarot," my newest art quilt,  60"h x 63"w, made from 4-30 to 8-3, 2022.

Above is a detail of the second art quilt I made in 2022: "Guenveur: 5 of Potholders (coins) in the Kitchen Tarot."  60 "h x 63"w. Made from 4-30-22 to 8-3-22. 

This quilt is about Guenveur Burnell and Madeleine Albright, who died 4 days apart last year.  I knew and greatly admired Guenveur, and didn't know, but greatly admired Madeleine.  They were both such wise and caring women, that I wanted to tell their stories together in this piece.  They are accompanied by the Statue of Liberty and the Statue of Freedom (who lives on top of the Capitol Dome.)  And by Guenveur's cat Sixto.  They were, indeed, two extremely feisty women!

When you go to the page for this piece, you'll find many large detail images after my artist's statement about making it. I post many details, so you can read what I write on my quilts more easily. 

And now I can do what I've been waiting for: starting a new art quilt, finally!!!!!!!!  I hope you will go to my Gallery index and see many large artworks I've made, posted mostly by year.  Thanks!

Private student art lessons in my home.

When we're not having to quarantine, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I teach in person, teaching adult students at other places I travel to, and at my weeklong Turtle Art Camps at my home and studio, I also give private and small group art lessons in my home, for drawing and painting with students of all ages. The focus is on drawing from life,  and your imagination. Read all about my private drawing lessons in my home studio. I also began teaching drawing classes online, beginning in January, 2015. Sign up for my next Lucky Drawing class!

Above: This is an ink and watercolor drawing I made while working with a local art student in my home, during a recent lesson. We each worked in our sketchbooks, drawing the still life of my Fiesta Ware for two hours.

This detail below is from my 2003 piece "Peace Cupboard," probably my very favorite small piece that I've ever made, and it's the most intensely hand stitched and beaded piece I've ever done. It's in my Small Works Gallery, and I will eventually add more of my best small works from over my career, including both older and new artworks there.

Watch my 2010 solo exhibition video from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. This video was made by Andrew Galli:

Susan Shie price formulas for my work.

Visit my Turtle Moon Studios page on Facebook, visit my personal page on Facebook.

The Quilt Alliance is reorganizing recorded interviews it did earlier, with over 1,200 QSOS interviews archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. By the end of 2020, you will be able to listen to this historic collection online thanks to donors like Martha Sielman, who sponsored Susan Shie’s 2008 interview, one of 32 audio recordings and transcripts already posted to the new QSOS website. Karen Musgrave interviews Susan Shie, discussing her 2008 piece: "The Potluck / World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot." Listen to this interview with Susan Shie, made on 5-18-2009, on the new QSOS website. There are still 855 interviews which need sponsors at only $25/interview. Each interview will have photos of the quilt being discussed, as well as both audio and written forms of the conversation.Susan Shie's earlier interview with QSOS's Karen Musgrave can be accessed, but still needs a sponsor to covert it to the new QSOS Quilt Alliance website. For now, you can view the Shie interview about her 2006 piece, "Wilma (Peace Voodoo)," with the interview made on 10-1-2006, here. Amy Milne, who coordinates the reworking of the interviews, wrote to me: Your 2006 interview is, like most of the interviews in the collection, in progress. The 2008 interview is on the new QSOS website--which includes playable and searchable audio and summary indexes for each of the 32 interviews now moved to this site. The rest of the interviews (1,160+) are on the Quilt Alliance site. Some of the interviews on the QA site are featured in a gallery (like yours, which allows for a direct link), but most are displayed via the original archive. Not ideal). Thank you for sharing your interviews--the more people who know about this incredibly valuable collection the better. And we still have 855 interviews to find sponsors for. All the best. You can also view my art quilt "The Potluck / World: Card #21 in the Kitchen Tarot," 2008, here. And my 2005 quilt "Wilma/ Peace Voodoo" here. Both pages in my site's galleries have long artist's statements with their photos and information.

Watch the slideshow for my episode #1013 of The Quilt Show, which premiered on June 24, 2012. You must be a paid member of The Quilt Show to see the actual hour-long episode of their interview with me, but you can see the video trailer for free. You can view my "Soft Paintings" project on The Quilt Show's Projects page, if you're a paid member. You can click a button to become a member, from that page.

Susan Shie Teacher of the Year 2008 award from Professional Quilter Magazine.

Susan Shie Artist's Statement 2023.

Lisa Walton's Quilt Stories interview with me on You Tube, filmed in Oct, 2020, about making my "Annie and John: 7 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot" art quilt.

Video of Susan Shie's solo exhibition interview at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. Video made by Andrew Galli. August, 2010.

My Turtle Trax Diary: Was my first diary writing online, starting in 1997. then I moved over to writing in my blog, but for many years now, you can find my new writings on my facebook pages: Susan Shie and Susan Shie Turtle Moon Studios.

Here's a detail from my "Pressure Cooker / Tower" piece, which was in Quilt National '07 and on the cover of the Quilt National book. Read about it and lots of news since February, 07 to July, 07 in my Turtle Trax Diary for July 31, 2007.

Diary entries, back to August 27, 1997, are found in the Turtle Trax Diary Index.

Archive of the GREEN QUILTS Project, which ended in 2004. Read the online newsletter on the GREEN QUILTS page, which leads to diary style update pages. The GREEN QUILTS Project officially ended in May, 2004. You can read all about this in the last update page. A deep thank you to everyone who contributed to the project over its 15 years, especially to Robin Schwalb and Michele Merges Martens, my GREEN QUILTS co-organizers.

Turtle Moon Studios:

Outsider Art Quilts and Paintings
Susan Shie

Contact me

| Classes | | Gallery | | Green Quilts | |Links |
| Resume | | Stuff to Buy | |Turtle Trax Diary |
| Visit Jimmy's Leather Studio

Web site created by Susan Shie and Jan Cabral ©1997. All subsequent web site work ©Susan Shie 1997 - 2023.

This page last updated by Susan Shie, March 8, 2023, International Women's Day.