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Cover Feature: Excelling the Work of Heaven

2007 Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. Hans Christensen Abstract Compositions. Anime Cosplay in America A Fantastic Regalia. Linda Kindler Priest A Classic Menagerie. The Daphne Farago Collection Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Carol Cassidy Reweaving a Laotian Tradition. San Diego State University Studio Arts in Metals and Fiber. Exhibition Craft in America: Expanding Traditions. Exhibition Journey to the Copper Age. Venue SOFA Chicago. Artist Statement Fred Tate. Artist Statement Laura Bowker. Marketplace Shipwreck Beads.

Personal Adornment from China
A poem by the Yuan dynasty calligrapher, painter and poet Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322) provides the title for Excelling the Work of Heaven: Personal Adornment from China, an exhibition opening at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Art Gallery. The poem is a double quatrain addressed to the fireworks-masters who engineered elaborate fireworks displays to celebrate festive occasions in China at the time. Describing the spectacle of light and sound that they created, Zhao wrote that “Among men, there is an art which excels the work of heaven.” In the seven hundred years since, his words have been immortalized as a proverb describing human skill of such marvelous refinement that it seemed to rival the work of creation itself. To “excel the work of heaven” is to produce work of such virtuosity that it seems to transcend common materials and ordinary techniques, giving rise to wonders. Photographs by Wayne Kawamoto.

Autumn sparks a series of craft festivals aimed at shoppers in a holiday spending mood. One show has risen to the top, and remained there for thirty-one years. What does it take to be the premiere fall fine craft show year after year? The answer in one word: innovation. If there is one aspect craft enthusiasts and artists alike can depend on, it is that there is always something new at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. Photographs courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

Abstract Compositions
Once spending a Colorado winter living in a teepee, Hans Christensen has been a ski instructor for paraplegic and quadriplegic skiers. He hikes, enjoys river rafting and cycling and in his free time likes to rebuild Volkswagens. He is also skilled with a sewing machine, having taught himself to sew some years ago when he needed a new ski parka but could not find one to fit his lanky frame. He says the ski jacket, his first sewing project, was a great success and he still has it around somewhere. For a while in the 1990s he supported himself by sewing parkas and bicycle bags. Sounds like a typical resume for an artist whose graceful, one-of-a-kind, handpainted women’s silk jackets routinely are juried into such prestigious craft shows as the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore. Right? Well, no; but then there is little about Christensen that follows a predictable script. Photographs by Hans Christensen.

A Classic Menagerie
ln a one-person show of her work at the celebrated St. Botolph Club in Boston in 2001, Linda Kindler Priest displayed nearly fifty pieces. The exhibition covered the breadth of her work in jewelry design, including all manner of creatures, from egret and elephant to wasp and flying fish, plus an assortment of flower pieces (including a jimsonweed brooch that is an homage to painter Georgia O’Keeffe). Brooches, chokers, earrings, and bracelets in fourteen and eighteen karat gold incorporated a wide range of precious and semiprecious stones, from pearls and tourmaline to malachite and diamonds. Photographs by Gordon Bernstein.

Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The realization slowly sinks in after viewing the Daphne Farago Collection of jewelry, recently donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, that contemporary jewelry has indeed come “a long way baby.” With an exhibition of works by approximately one hundred sixteen artists, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has taken the first big step in acknowledging just that with Farago’s gift from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Photographs courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Reweaving a Laotian Tradition
Off a side street in Vientiane, the dusty capital of Laos, behind an iron gate in an aging colonial house, is an oasis of color and light. Sheer striped silk refracts translucent jewel tones. Black and white waves flow across ikat-dyed silk. Mythical creatures drawn in fine silk light up an iridescent sky. These scenes are taking shape thread by thread on dozens of hand looms, yet there is no thud and clatter of wood on wood. The weavers work with fibers so gossamer there is only the quiet swish of the bamboo reed and the murmur of their voices. Hands manipulate the threads and shuttles faster than the eye can see. The scarves and shawls of Lao Textiles are diaphanous ghosts of a weaving tradition come back to life. Photographs by Ellen Kaplowitz and the Lao Textiles archives.

Studio Arts in Metals and Fiber
“We believe that the free expression of the arts is essential to any society’s growth and transformation,” Arthur Ollman, director of the School of Art, Design and Art History at San Diego State University, states on the school’s website. The school promotes intellectual and creative growth within three main areas: studio art, including applied design disciplines of metals, fiber, ceramics, and furniture; multimedia, interior and graphic design; and art history. Students are urged to take a range of classes to expand their artistic vocabulary. Photographs courtesy of San Diego State University.