Wednesday, May 28, 2014

HELP, I've Fallen and I...

Clay workers, you know those little plaster (?) stars with the metal points, so called stilts for supporting work in the kiln? They're the only kind of stilts I have. I don't usually use them unless I find I've needed to glaze the bottom of a piece and I don't want it to stick to the kiln shelf when the glaze melts.

I didn't think that those little metal points might not be strong enough for heavy pieces. It says right there in the product description in the catalogue, but you know, it's been years since I bought the little guys, and I just didn't think... so we know what happens next.



There was a big mother of a pot that actually, for unknown reasons, had its bottom sliver off partially in the bisque firing and therefore I thought, "let's glaze the bottom and then it will be stronger!" Brilliant. Give it two stilts and therefore 6 little puny metal points to balance on, and into the kiln it went with the golden globe and its stand, and the weird sculptural incense burner and holder I made for my son.

Yesterday working in the garden outside the studio during the glaze firing I heard a thump. Was it something in the studio that fell down (I hope, I hope) or did that sound come from the kiln? My dread increased as I saw all in its place in the studio.

This morning the kiln was cool enough to open and when I did, I saw fortunately nothing had exploded, but there was the big mother pot, leaning on and stuck to the globe stand and the incense holder. It snapped off the stand pretty well, but it took some prying to get it off the incense burner, and of course, the scars were left behind on all three objects.




The golden globe when lifted out of the kiln was found to have its stilt's little metal prongs totally collapsed and the plaster base stuck smack up against the glaze. With a hammer and spatula, I managed to separate the two, but ouch. There was a big "Owie" left behind.

And more pain: the stilts made for heavier objects are only sold by the gross. Over $150 to buy them on Amazon. But I bought them because I need them. Chalk it up as a lesson learned.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Way to Raisin Studio

dianthus

hosta



I have been working in the studio with clay again. Right now the kiln is doing a glaze firing, so I can take some time to look around me.











Baptisia




To get back and forth to my studio I walk through part of my south garden, the one area that has significant sunshine instead of shade. From inside the studio I can look from my work table and get a view down this narrow stretch.












peony





My garden is in late spring blossom and leaf. The giant hosta's impressively proportioned, crenelated leaves have unfurled just recently. And all the perennials heed the calendar and bloom at their traditional times.






columbine




There is an ancient peony that was here before we came, making it, at the minimum 30 years old.  It always seems to rain shortly after they bloom, the blossoms fill with water, and they droop their heavy heads enough to crease their stems and get their petals muddy.








I don't always stop to look when I am charging in or out of the studio, at least not at every floral inhabitant of the garden. I rarely take time to sit on the bench I built in front of the honeysuckle trellis while I am in work mode. Yet, I have to say, the path that takes me these days to my work place is the most enjoyable commute I have ever had.



Wednesday, May 21, 2014

A Sculpture Garden in East Hampton, Dahling


Last post was about a visit to a place in the infamous East Hampton, Long Island, New York where an equally infamous artist once lived, but later that same day my traveling partner, Sue and I dropped in to see Longhouse Reserve, a sculpture garden not far from town.
Eric Fischl's,  "Tumbling Woman"










It was a pretty nice nice day to be out scuffling along the meandering paths into the various garden rooms. Meeting a vivid pair of Baltimore Orioles and seeing blossoming plums and other trees and flowers was an aesthetic experience by itself. Yet around every bend there was usually a manmade object: a sculpture, a chair, a bench, a pool, a stone wall, lots of things, practically jammed into the environment at Longhouse.












Sue identified a DeKooning sculpture at a distance, but I thought it was a monstrous pile of black metal, and I didn't believe her. On closer inspection it sure enough was a DeKooning. No picture taken of that one however.

Instead I photographed this startling installation by Yue Minju.



Contemporary Chinese Warriors, 2002



It was weird seeing the black figures in the distance, and weirder still to come closer and see their enigmatic expressions. Are they laughing, screaming, crying? Why are they holding their ears? We pondered this and concluded that the artist was making a political statement about Chinese society. It seemed to me it was not a happy statement about life in China.



Study in Heightened Perspective,
by Jack Lenor Larsen, founder of Longhouse


An allee lined with azaleas in bud and bright red, painted posts led to a round globe-like pot at the end, like an offering at an altar. The pot was by Toshiko Takaezu. As with many of her works the opening at the top was small, and apparently this had been sealed by Longhouse with something like tar, perhaps to keep the rain out. There was a grouping of large forms elsewhere on the grounds which I forgot to photograph, mainly because I am not that interested in her work. Here I was more thrilled by the red posts and the azaleas, imagining them blooming and all red too.








Sea Anemone, 2002




This sculpture by Tamiko Kawata  mounted on a tree at
first appeared to be growing there like a lichen or cluster of mushrooms, but when I came close I saw that it was entirely made of rusting safety pins.



















The snake like form and suspended sausage-y form are also by Kawata and of the same material. Patience must have guided this artist's hand to take a tiny material and create something in scale with a tree.







I love stone sculpture and have done a little myself. This assembly of stone figures appealed to me for its simplification of form and textural quality. I think they look wonderful outside in a natural environment. See first picture in this post  for another view of these sculptures.










Mimbres, 1998


10 Bronze Stacks (partial view)


Next, the giant of modern American ceramics, (so I made his photo LARGE) Peter Voulkos. A circular gathering of enigmatically titled monoliths surround an earthen mound. Each is different, but they bear similar qualities. I could tell instantly that they were by Voulkos. Who else can manipulate slabs of clay with such apparent ease? These are bronze, but I assume cast from clay originals.






Fly's Eye Dome, 1998




Last, and certainly not least, is this structure made of fiberglass 33 feet in diameter. John Kuhtik produced it using Buckminster Fuller's drawing for a dome that was never made.












Inside and in the center were piled many brightly covered pillows. It was a perfect place to take a rest and look up at the sky, which we did, until it was time to hit the gift shop and go back to our B&B for cocktails.


Cheers, Dahling!








Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in LI

A view towards the sea at the Pollock Krasner House

A weekend trip to the Hamptons included plentiful art experiences. Today's post is the Pollock Krasner House and Studio.






An amazing storyteller was our tour guide at the East Hampton museum that was once the home and studio of the artists Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock.

The house looks a lot better now than when Lee and Jackson put a down payment on it of $2k borrowed from Peggy Guggenheim.




Our animated tour guide in the studio building


Let me just say that their stories are fascinating and tragic, Pollock's alcoholism and early death in an automobile accident being the most well known part.

Lee abandoned for a time her own artistic ambitions after seeing Jackson's work. She thought he was the most original artist of their time and introduced him to a less than enthusiastic patron, Peggy Guggenheim.

In addition to admiring Jackson's work, Lee fell in love with him. She was not aware of his problem with alcohol.






The studio was an old barn on the property that was moved because it was blocking the view of the water. Inside, Pollock painted his famous large drip paintings with canvas spread on the floor, and the traces of that process are clearly evident in the space.

After his death, Krasner painted there, but used the walls to work on. Marks from her paintbrushes are still there too.

floor in the studio with slippered feet



Lee Krasner's story was less known to me, but I was impressed with her strong commitment to art that enabled her to leap the distance from daughter of an immigrant Orthodox Jewish family to art school and success in the NY art world.




Cemetery in East Hampton 











Lee first chose the smaller stone for her husband's grave marker, but thought it wasn't appropriate for an artist of his stature and she chose the boulder pictured behind it. When she died, many years later, the original stone was placed over her grave.

I have been thinking about these two people often since being there. I think the physical site where they lived still exudes a trace of their powerful auras. 













Tuesday, May 13, 2014

CoRE Puts Its Best Foot Forward

CoRE Group

Eight delightful people, all very different, gathered with friends and family to celebrate our collaboration on the theme of "CORE." Here we are framed by my textile wall hangings.  Exhibit is up through the month of May.

Thomas Sweet Cafe, Rt 206, Rocky Hill, NJ.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

A Drama in Twelve Words

In the art group's press release, one is misquoted, the rival pounces.


page from my Sketchbook Project, "How to Draw Good As Me"

This was a challenge from the Sketchbook Project: write a drama in twelve words.
#CA12worddrama
http://www.sketchbookproject.com