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Voices
Voices
In each issue, we ask members of the craft community to answer a question. This time we asked if current events shape their work. ...
Voices
Absolutely. I write about craft, collect contemporary craft
and antiques, socialize with craft artists and collectors, take workshops in metal, fibers or clay, and lecture on the history of craft. I am more a "thinker" than a "maker" (in the words of John Ruskin) when it comes to craft: my current passion is drawing connections between the Arts and Crafts movement and today's green design/sustainability movement. But it
is the crafts community-artists, collectors, curators, students and scholars-that sustains me. -Beverly K. Brandt, professor, School of Design Innovation,
Arizona State University, Tempe
I am so completely on the fence between two ...
Voices
My family roots are in southern Appalachia. I love past folk pottery from North Carolina, where potters worked intuitively with readily available materials. You gathered your clay from the nearby creek and you crushed up recycled glass to make an alkaline glaze. Robust pots were made for daily use by the local community. The result was simple beauty that is discovered through use. That has had a huge influence on my own approach to materials and process.~Kent Harris, potter and co-owner of Blue Sage Pottery & Art Gallery, Amarillo, TX
My "heritage" is probably the typical young Army-brat experience. I spent a lot ...
Voices
Early on in my career I remember asking a fellow writer how he did artist profiles so quickly-we were writing for a weekly arts publication with a heavy workload and short turnaround. He replied, "Quick and dirty! It's not brain surgery!" Not helpful. Most of the mentors I've had in my 25 years of professional writing have been the people I've interviewed, whose lives and art have engaged me so that I've wanted to hone my skills to share their stories.-Gussie Fauntleroy, writer, Crestone, CO
I am fortunate to be a mentor and to have been mentored by others. During ...
Wide World of Craft
Featuring Over 20 Photographs Not Seen in Print! ...
Voices
We are finding that people place a high priority on education in time of recession. Our 12-week and 9-month courses are running at full capacity, and the shorter summer workshops are down only slightly against last year. We seem to be weathering the storm in relative safety.—Peter Korn, executive director, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport, Maine
We are continuing to show only the very best work, and we have not curtailed our rather ambitious exhibition schedule. We’ve been through economic downturns before and this one, though it has felt somewhat deeper, now seems to be turning around. San Francisco ...
Voices
The most difficult part is coming up with new designs. I’m always contemplating how a shape will come out and striving for something different. Traditional forms were passed down to me from my ancestors, and I wanted to introduce my own designs that no one had ever done before. So this has always been a challenge for me.—Mary Jackson, sweetgrass basket weaver, Charleston, SC
I’m working on a project that requires reading interviews and oral histories. In the past, I have conducted many interviews and a number of oral histories with artists, and reading others at this task reminds me ...
Voices
Paul Chan’s exhibition “My laws are my whores,” at the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, perhaps because it countered my expectations. I’d seen Chan’s work a few times, and I was expecting an incredibly visual, somewhat poetic exhibition. Portraits of Supreme Court justices greeted viewers at the Ren, high on the entrance wall, and on the other side of the wall was a projection of vibrating naked bodies in sexual and tortuous postures. It was a tough show, formally commanding and disturbing in a thought-provoking way. —Anne Wilson, artist, professor at the School of the Art Institute ...
Voices
I traveled to Chicago in July 2004 with my 12-year-old son, and we stumbled upon the opening day of Millennium Park. The place was jammed with humanity. The two main public sculptures—Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate and Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain—were being loved to death by hordes of enthusiastic kids, teens and adults. Kapoor’s sculpture was mostly polished, but a lot of exposed welds were still rough, so I got a sense of how much work went into generating the soon-to-be-seamless form. At the Plensa fountain, businessmen were taking off their shoes and wading in the water. Both pieces are models ...
Voices
While I have a website, I don't have high expectations of sales from it. Having a site, driving traffic to it and selling through it are different tasks. I find its cachet of professionalism useful. The Internet also offers me immediate information and communication. My use of it for my business has diminished during my tenure as president of the Furniture Society, but it has grown by an order of magnitude in my daily work schedule. I'd be lost without it. ...
Voices
As a Midwesterner, I like the move. I know Minneapolis has a thriving art culture. A New York address does have a certain mystique, but I'm sure rent will be less in Minneapolis. My advice: Get snow tires.-Michael Bauermeister, wood sculptor, Augusta, MO
The move to the Plains, a little closer to the quotidian, might stimulate the ACC redefine its mission and to shed the conceit that craft is art. Craft has become precious--the petting zoo of curators, dealers, makers and collectors. I'm hoping that Minneapolis will do something to reweave craft into life on Earth.-Glenn Gordon, writer, St. ...
Voices
To celebrate the Renwick's 40th anniversary in 2012, we are mounting a major travelling exhibition, Craft Futures: 40 Under 40, which will showcase the work of 40 artists born since 1972. I plan to spend the next year running away from any and all preconceptions about what constitutes the best American craft, and searching out new methods, new materials, new attitudes and new people to illustrate emerging trends in the field. It's going to be an adventure! ~Nicholas R. Bell, curator of contemporary craft and decorative arts, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Recently in my ...
Voices
Besides the tree, with its ancient trunk and expansive limbs, the element in nature that most captivates my interest is the ocean. Is the ocean crafted? I don't know. With transparency and depth, color, and reflection, the ocean seems to craft itself. The way the sea carves out the shore, or the way ocean and sky meld at the horizon evince elements of craft - a keen sense for putting things together. When I see and feel the porous surface of the ocean's chameleon skin, I remember the infinite potential within my own evolving self.~Michelle Joan Wilkinson, director of ...
Voices
In each issue, we ask members of the craft community to answer a question. For the April/May 2011, we asked, "Who's work are you admiring now?"
The movement, grace, and delicate forms solidify my continued admiration for the work of [ceramic artist] Jennifer McCurdy. Each piece tells a story of simplicity and of a natural existence. I appreciate her unique expression; to me, that should be the goal of every artist. Other artists that continue to capture my admiration are [sculptural ceramist] Ron Artman, for the sense of fire and warmth that ...
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