In a couple of weeks, it will be 10 years since I was hired to be a midwife to a new magazine with a cool name: Cloth Paper Scissors. As an editor and a writer for the magazine, and then as the editor of Cloth Paper Scissors Today, I have seen seedling art careers grow and blossom, trends come and go, and one magazine spin off many others, including Studios, PAGES, and I Heart Paper.
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| Cherie Haas takes over as Cloth Paper Scissors Today online editor March 24. |
Next week, another change will occur: Instead of me and my dog, Senghe, you will see the smiling face of Cherie Haas at the top of these posts. I am moving on to work with some of our new acquisitions in quilt, paper, and sew at F+W Media, and Cherie is going to become your new ambassador to all things to do with mixed media and collage.
Cherie was associate editor for The Artist’s Magazine for two years, and have been the online editor for ArtistsNetwork.com since early 2013. To help you get to know her, we held a little Q&A session:
CP: What is your art/craft background?
CH: It includes a little bit of everything. I studied art history as part of my BA, and loved learning about the symbolism of classical art. Having come from a rural high school, the college courses really opened my mind. There, I met and married an artist. I’ve dabbled with sketching and painting, and although I’m still looking for my niche, I love viewing the art of others. It amazes me what creative minds can do.
CP: What are your favorite artistic “haunts”?
CH: Up until we had children, it wasn’t uncommon for me to get up early on a Saturday morning with my husband and go to the Cincinnati Art Museum. We’d show up as soon as the doors opened, because it seemed so much better when it was very quiet, before the crowds began filling in the galleries. It was peaceful, and we felt alone with the sculptures and paintings.
Now that our children are a little older (boys–8 and 10), we occasionally take them to museums, and we sneak off for grown-up time at Summerfair, which is in Cincinnati each year. I also love viewing the art that hangs at local coffee shops, where I often meet with friends.
CP: Do you have an art/craft guilty pleasure?
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| Cherie’s not afraid to take chances and have fun, so she’ll fit in well here. |
CH:
My guilty pleasure is Zentangle, all the way. It fulfills a need that I have to draw, even though I don’t have much of a technical background in drawing. It gives me just enough structure to make me pleased with the results, but enough freedom to be abstract. In addition to feeling good with having created a drawing, I really love being in the moment of creating any kind of art, be it Zentangle, a mosaic, a crocheted piece, etc. And when I look at someone else’s art, I consider the time and concentration that they put into it as well.
CP: What (or who) inspires you, creatively?
CH: It’s tempting to say simply that I’m inspired by nature, but that’s very common. Specifically, trees inspire me to no end, and I’m in constant awe of them. Eggs have the same effect for some reason.
As far as people go, I’m a big fan of Georgia O’Keeffe and Matisse. Locally, I find motivation from the artists that I’ve come into contact daily via ArtistsNetwork.com, as well as some of my friends who push their own boundaries and give it everything they’ve got.
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| Meet some of the Faces of Mixed Media in Cloth Paper Scissors March/April 2014. Art by (clockwise from top left): Julie Furness, Lisa Leong-Tsang, Soren Moller, Cam Elder, Shirley Vogelhuber, Ryan Hunter. |
CP:
If you were given the gift of a free weekend art retreat, what is the one art form/craft/technique you would like to learn more about?
CH: Oooh…I love to learn new things, but if I had to choose one craft, I’d go with art journaling. I think it’s really cool, and it’s also practical. Currently, my journals are only full of the black ink of my handwriting, and I’d love to bring some color and sketches to their pages to supplement the stories I’m putting into history for my family.
CP: If your ship was sinking and you could grab only one art supply before jumping into the lifeboat, what would it be?
CH: I’d have to grab my sketchbook, and then go caveman and figure out a way to make marks without a pen.
I just know you are going to enjoy Cherie and she is going to get a kick out of you, too. Because for sure, one thing has never changed in 10 years: the creativity and up-for-anything enthusiasm of our readers and the members of the Cloth Paper Scissors community.
Speaking of which, you will certainly want to get a copy of the March/April 2014 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors to see the results of the Faces of Mixed Media reader challenge, and more artwork, inspiration, and techniques.
P.S. What’s the most important thing Cherie should know about you, the artists of this community? Leave a comment below.