Inspiration at shows in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Boston

   Happy Holiday Season everyone.....
Before I'm off to share the holidays with family, I wanted to end the year
highlighting a few of the wonderful artists I encountered at my final two
shows: American Fine Craft Show Brooklyn  and CraftBoston along
with a trip to St. John the Devine cathedral to take in Xu Bing's 100
foot long phoenixes (shown above)

The Brooklyn show (Nov. 22-23) produced by American Art Marketing
at the Brooklyn museum was beautiful. Better attendance than last year.
Attendees were very enthusiastic and it has all the marks of growing
into the awesome show we know it can be.  The quality was excellent
and range of work exciting. This show is part of a new series of  AMA
shows with museum connections. Look for more of the series in 2015.

I really enjoyed talking to Zaliah Zalkin  about his  luminary vessels in
carved alabaster .

The beautiful vessels have a quiet spiritual presence

Infused occasionally with a sense of light humor.  Zaliah said 

he created the vessel below when his wife was pregnant:

Check out Zaliah Zalkin website: zaliahzalkind.com to learn
more about this second generation sculptor and his process.

On the funkier side - Barrie Rust  was there with his
Great Plains handmade musical instruments

What fun a band would be playing these:

One of my favorite artists/sculptors, Reina Mia Brill , was also
there adding funk and fun.. Reina took off a little time to
give birth to and begin the fun/creative challenge of raising
twins.  Now she's back with more energy than ever with an
added cool twist to her work  reflecting her situation as
an enthusiastic and occasionally crazed co-parent:

Valerie Gladstone of Brooklyn Dollworks  was there,too. It is rarer
and rarer to see dollmakers at these shows, so I was  glad to meet
Valerie and see her work.

The figure below was purchased by the same collector with whom
my Canoby, the canoe paddling librarian found a new home. I trust
they will get along famously.

As I mentioned above, I made it over to St. John the Devine to see
Xu Bing's amazing phoenixes after the show.  I missed them at
Mass MOCA....so didn't want to miss them this time.  They will be
there until the end of February...If you haven't had a chance to
experience them and learn the story behind their creation,
try to manage a trip to the upper West side of Manhattan. It's
definitely worth it!  The use of recycled materials from the Chinese
construction site is  masterful....look closely:

and the setting is spectacular:

If you can't make it to the cathedral, here is a link to a good video piece
on the story behind the phoenixes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu4sD4c6yXA

Finally - a couple mentions of artists at CraftBoston, Dec. 4-7.
Best of show went to Sang Joon Park.  His work is
exquisite, I appreciate  his recognition of the bowl as art.

His design approach to his beautiful place settings is strong, simple yet
complicated.

Finally - artist choice went to contemporary metal worker
Michael Rossi.

We especially loved his airplane shapes:

Happy Holiday to all. May yours be filled with warmth, music,
good food, friends, family and story and the new year be filled
with wondrous adventure!

Hope to see you down the road.....2015 is looking like a busy year
of shows for me beginning with Arisia 2015 Jan. 16-19 and the
American Craft Council show in Baltimore Feb. 18-22.

Adventure on!        Wendy

Traveling librarians -process and completion

As mentioned in previous blog posts.. Inspired by the program

From Words to Wings which our daughter and her husband founded

in Ecuador, I've been making a series of traveling librarians...even

tried my hand at a little poetry to accompany them. 

          Traveling librarians

Some children cuddle at home
To share a book, hear a story
Some children walk down the street                                             
To find a book, hear a story
Some children go in a car or bus
To search for a book, hear a story
Some children go online 
To discover a book, read a story
Some children turn on the tele
To see a book, hear a story

Some children dream and wait
For the traveling librarians
     Who come by jeep
     Who come on horseback
     Who come by canoe
     Who come by skiff
     Who come on dragon’s back
      Who bring books
      And stories 
      And  wings

It's fun to see them emerge in the studio...

Here are some process photos:

A dragon librarian...basic armature:

 

A little further along...polyester and thread

around wire..and designing spokes.

Muslin hand stitched over stuffing....

(small creature in front ended up a winged dragon

named Majestis) 

 

Next leather....






Patina added to leather....and rawhide wet-formed
spokes (and books) added:

Completed Pageante and Roland

Head of another creature...which I thought was going to 

be a dragon...but she had something else in mind

Beaded leggings were definitely requested.

And a basket just perfect to fit between legs and hold mini books..

including a mini dragon book, of course

As I said, thie creature had her own ideas.. These rawhide wings

seemed much more appropriate than dragon wings... and 

Skreeraugh (aka Peggy) came to life..

But it is not just creatures that can bring books...Remember

that wood from the old dock in my last blog post?

 

As I thought it might...it became a skiff with library on
board..



Loofe, the librarian enjoys taking a break to read one
of his books...

Other Star Wandererers prefer to arrive by canoe:

Canoby enjoys paddling  along with books in tow

Next destination for the librarians is the Brooklyn Museum....where

I'll be participating in the American Fine Craft Show, Brooklyn

Nov. 22-23.

There was a fun article by Jenifer Eberhart  on the show  which

appeared  last week with responses by myself and four other 

sculptors to various process and life questions at examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/sculptures-to-join-other-works-at-american-fine-craft-show?CID=examiner_alerts_article

All my figures  are looking forward  to greeting folks in

Brooklyn....and sharing the booth - #49  with a new species of mini

creatures called  Taradiddles...(more about  them in a future

post.)

Hope to see some of you at the Brooklyn Museum!

Adventure on!   Wendy

New Art, New Show locations - in Boston and Brooklyn

 December with all its activities has a way of rushing by,
but this year it seemed to sweep by even faster.  Here
we are in January, and I wonder where the month went.
Where were the moments for quiet reflection? Doing
two back to back shows probably had a lot to do with
the frenetic pace - which hasn't seemed to slow down
much since then.

Before images and memories are flooded with new
ones, I want to share a bit of the two shows .
The first, Craft Boston Holiday was held at the
Hynes Convention center this year.  The size
was increased and  many of us had reservations about
the change of venue. However, thanks to the efforts of
the staff of the Society of Arts and Crafts, attendance
was quite good and sales to match.  Sculptures and
many leather items with eyes left my booth.

Reardon, the Rambunctious, pranced off to a new
home:

 Burrolle and Terref , the Traveling librarian packed up
books and were off as well. This especially pleased me
since the proceeds from the sale were designated for
funds for our daughter and so-in-law's mobile library
and literacy program in Ecuador called  "From Words
to Wings"

(Stay tuned for much more about that in a future
post.)

The following weekend  Dec. 14,15, I was off to Brooklyn
for the American Art Marketing's new American Fine
Craft Show Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum.  The space
where the show was held was gorgeous. (The photo
at the top of my booth there gives you a sense
of the elegance. )

As a new show and with a snow storm on Saturday to
complicate our lives, attendance was not quite what
we hoped for. That said, however, many of us are
very enthusiastic about this show which we think
shows a lot of promise and will do everything we
can to make sure it flies high in the future.
(Next year's dates are Nov. 21-23. - so perhaps
I can avoid back to back shows in 2014. )

This year the show soared from the viewpoint of
quality and diversity.  I was inspired by the work of
many artists.

John Borrero was set up a few booths away from
me ...a treat since I don't get to see his intriguing work
often enough.

Margery Goldberg of Zenith Gallery brought along
the art of many exciting artists including that of
Chris Malone. I've admired Chris's work in
magazines, but had never seen it in person:

and Fernando Roman:

Many of the  exhibitors at the show were familiar to me from
other major shows. It is always an honor to show with
 friends, but I also hope to meet new artists. One, whose
work pulled me in was Olga Grinberg.  Olga finds inspiration
in nature and primitive art.  I especially liked this guy:

Orders placed afterwards by people who saw me at the
Brooklyn museum added to sales I made at the show.
I'm optimistic that if we put in the effort to publicize the
show in every way possible, we can develop the market nicely.
In addition, thanks to lots of help on hand, the move in and
move out for the show was easy and uncomplicated...a nice
way to end the year.

Now on to 2014 to see what it has to offer.  One adventure
in the plans is a trip to Ecuador and Peru....so look for
blog posts about that before long.

Happy New Year  - May this year be filled
with wondrous  adventures for us all!

Wendy