Christmas Parties

I really wanted to write a Christmas post, but couldn't find something that I thought was good and decorative arts related to write about. I searched for ornaments that might be nice and convey the feeling of the season, but found nothing. Then I decided to go with fashion. Clothes never let me down, and I'm always happy to look at pretty things that I can never own or really wear.

I found the Christian Dior dress that is above on the Met Museum website under the heading "Classicism in Modern Dress." I love Dior, and think that his designs really epitomize what we now consider "classic" lines in women's clothing. Wouldn't this be lovely for your holiday parties? Not sure what holiday parties I have that I would wear this to, but I would love to sweep in and dance around with my full dance card dangling from my wrist. Maybe I've had too much eggnog.

Merry Christmas!

Photo from Metropolitan Museum

Artist Crush

Last entry I talked about Lynda Watson and her amazing Landscape Neckpiece that I so deeply covet. Today, while doing some editing, I came across her again and had to stop to look her up online to learn more. Turns out, she's still making jewelry and has a great website. My favorite upon first glance was the Maui Birthdays bracelet (above) in her metal jewelry section. She also does felt jewelry now! While I'm not sure I'm old enough to wear felt jewelry or clothing, I might be able to wear some of her creations.

I'm also in love with her Prague Celebrations brooch. I love a good brooch, and this one looks like it would go perfectly with every single outfit I have. Her work is quite amazing, intricate, and highly skilled. I also like that she's kept up with trends in jewelry and her work, while retaining a classic feel, has moved from the bulky intricacies of the late 1960s to cleaner lines and imagery more fitting for today. Plus, it seems like she gets to do some good traveling, based on the names of her pieces.

Her resume is impressive, and she has work at the Renwick here in DC! Feel free to contact her and order something for me!

Photo credit: Lynda Watson Art

Finishing my thesis

I'm about three pages away from being done with the first full draft of my thesis. So naturally I'm going to write a blog post. No one can tell me I'm not a fantastic procrastinator.

This will be short because I do want to get back to that, but I just wanted to share this amazing necklace I found while looking for thesis images. It's a necklace by Lynda Watson. (Apparently she got married between the time of OBJECTS: USA and today because now she's Lynda Watson-Abbott.) It's called Landscape Neckpiece and I absolutely love it. I really like bold, funky, chunky, handmade jewelry and this just called to me. If it weren't in the Museum of Art and Design, I would seek it out and probably just stare at it since I could never afford it. If you go to its page on the museum website you can zoom in on different details and see all the amazing little intricacies in it. Just astounding. Wouldn't you want to wear it?

The Global Africa Project

This past week I went to New York do do some thesis research at the Museum of Art and Design. Their mission, as stated on their website, is to "[collect, display, and interpret] objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design." An early leader in the push to promote and preserve studio craft, the Museum of Art and Design remains a leader in sharing innovation in traditional methods and materials.

While there, I went through their exhibition, The Global Africa Project. An amazing collection of work, it features artists exploring what it means to be African around the world. Some of the works are funny, some are quite somber, some are innovative, some are functional, and some just left me standing with my mouth open, staring at the concept and craftsmanship. The statement for the exhibition on the website states that it "actively challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic or identity..." The website features selected works from the exhibition, but if you are in New York, or get the chance to go before May 15th, 2011, go see this.

One of the ones I found most intriguing was Kim Schmahmann's Apart-Hate: A People Divider. Through a variety of media, the artist interprets the growth of apartheid in South Africa and the laws and their years are represented in the boxes falling in the left corner. The back of the work (not pictured) is also an example of the brilliant technical work this artist is capable of with woods, veneers, and metals. I stared at this work for a long time, absorbing its message as well as its beauty.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures, and I had trouble taking pictures from the museum's website, so please, go look for yourself and find your favorite piece.

Dead or Alive?

My roommate and I play this "game" wherein we try and determine if people we're studying are Dead or Alive. It's not quite as morbid or strange as it might sound, but when you study and write about people born in the 1920s and '30s, its quite possible that they may no longer be with us on earth. The game really got started when we were without internet for two weeks in February because of the Great Snow of 2010. (I abhor the portmanteaus created to describe this massive meteorological event.) Fortunately, the internet in our apartment was restored and is very handy in helping us figure who is dead and who is alive.

Recently, I was happy to discover that Richard Shaw (a ceramicist I am researching for my thesis) is still alive and working! I love trompe l'oeil, and his is whimsical and fun. A Funk potter from California, Shaw always seems happy and like he is having fun with his work. As someone who was trained that functionality is the number one goal in making a ceramic work, I am excited when I see people using clay in fun and non-functional ways. His current work (above) is funny and technically amazing. The piece pictured is called "Rejected Lover Teapot" and while I feel a little bad for the guy on the edge of the plate, it also makes me laugh. See more of Shaw's great work here.

Photo from Shaw's website.

I can retain information!

One of my fears as I get older (yes, because I'm so old now...) is that I can't remember things. I've always been a little on the scatterbrained side--walking into rooms and not remembering why, being easily distracted by shiny objects--those sorts of things. Sometimes I worry about it more than others because I'm in a field where memory is incredibly important and being able to recall facts about who made what when is one of the cornerstones to the art history field. So, I was incredibly happy when I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this past week and was able to rattle off names of makers as I wandered through the decorative arts galleries.

Hmmm... that looks like Knox silver (it was). That's a Royal Worcester plate. That's a Greene and Greene chair. That looks like Hannah Barlow. And it was Hannah Barlow! From Doulton Lambeth Art Pottery. I was pretty excited to remember this because I just learned about Hannah Barlow and her sisters this semester in my ceramics class. They were just decorators, not makers, because this was before the movement toward the potter being an all-in-one. Hannah, as you can see above, had a very sketch-book like style of decorating. She incised the clay, using it much more like a canvas than a vessel. The result are well-executed, warm, happy animals in a variety of scenes. Her work is friendly to me. Something I would like in my home to remind me of nature. And that's probably exactly why it was popular in its heyday.

And in case you were wondering, I was in Minneapolis to visit the new headquarters of the American Craft Council and their library to do research for my thesis. The new headquarters are quite lovely, in a fantastic old beer brewery building, and everyone was very friendly. I highly recommend a visit.

Collage Art

I've written a lot about ceramics lately, mainly because I was feeling guilty for writing about all that furniture I loved. (Furniture I've loved so much that I put the Panton Chair on my Amazon Wish List.) Often, when looking for inspiration about blog posts, or doing general research, I look at the V & A website and the Met's website. These two have some of the best online images and searchable databases for those doing research, or just interested in the visual arts.

Now that I cleared that up, I stumbled across this painting (above) by Romare Bearden when scanning through the Met's Timeline. I really enjoy the timeline because it shows you what was happening in the geo-political world when different works were being made. I've always really enjoyed Romare Bearden. I actually discovered him on a trip to the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, when they had a small gallery with his works. He was from Charlotte, but later moved to Harlem where he became a part of the Harlem Renaissance.

He often uses bright colors and collage elements to form his compositions. According to the timeline, he was inspired by jazz and worked to include the same musical ideas in his work. This painting, "The Block," was done in 1971. He wanted to show the vibrancy and life of a Harlem city block. Many of his works focus on home, family, tradition, and daily life. Take a look at the page for the painting to read more about Bearden, his work, and to see details of this happy piece.

Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art