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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.
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Excelling
the Work of Heaven |
by
Kate Lingley |
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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.
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2007
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Craft Show |
by
Pat Worrell |
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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.
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Hans
Christensen
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by
Robin Updike |
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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.
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Anime
Cosplay in America
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by
Patrick R. Benesh-Liu |
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A Fantastic Regalia
Most of us recognize craft as it is made by professional artists, whether
modern interpreters pushing the genre; the less experienced who might
sell their wares at a local fair; or ethnic craftspeople producing their
traditional work for culture and profit. However, for a specific, younger
segment of the population, their association with craft is much different,
and in many cases direct and personal: the art of costume play, better
known as cosplay. Photographs by Patrick R. Benesh-Liu.
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Linda
Kindler Priest |
by
Carl Little |
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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.
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The
Daphne Farago Collection
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by
Carolyn L. E. Benesh |
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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.
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Carol
Cassidy |
by
Susan Kunimatsu |
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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.
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San
Diego State University |
by
Jill A. DeDominicis |
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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.
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