Precious

Bruno Schulz

Polish writer, drawer, illustartor to his own books,(1892-1942)

The writings output of Schulz contains only two collections of short stories.

the description of the life of Polish Jews and the autobiography of the writer is held in the poetics of the dream. Here a border is fading away between reality and the myth. The author is travelling all over the childhood which he can see as the most important period in the life.Extremely language of prose is characteristic of Schulz: remarkably rich, poetic, full of archaisms,as if Schulz discovered original meaning of words again.

Author of Cinnamon Shops. You can read online in English: http://www.schulzian.net/translation/shops.htm

Casper David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich was the most famous German romantic painter. (1774-1840)

Images of Friedrich usually shows lonely people contemplating the nature. The painter is coming up to the nature in the concentration, as the man who believes is confronted to the altar. Such experience requires the absolute solitude.

His work showed the spiritual nature of the landscape, confronting the power of the nature with the frailty of the man. He created romantic views of sea coasts, mountain snowy peaks, ruins, cemeteries oversaturated with the romantic symbolism.

James Krenov

Born in Wellen in Kamchatka in 1920. Krenov is revered by many designers and makers for his inspiration to bring simplicity, harmony and above all, a love of wood as a material into ones work. Having studying his work, James use of subtle details and simple forms has been instrumental in the teaching of furniture design across the globe. Simple looking is not always simply made.

“ A curve is made to be subtle, It’s not to look like a pretzel.”*

He founded the College of Redwoods woodworking program as well as Artisanry program at Boston University. He has taught in Europe, RIT, and the Redwoods. Currently he lives in Fort Bragg, CA where he retired from cabinetmaking due to vision problems.

*Oral review of Krenov History by Oscar Fitzgerald(Aug 12-13,2004)
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/krenov04.htm
http://jameskrenov.com/furniture.htm

Jan Svankmajer

Svankmajer was born in Prague(1924), is a Czech surrealist artist.

Called the "alchemist of surrealism", Jan Svankmajer, it not only the author of the animation and the director, but also the writer and the sculptor.

Svankmajer's films are surprising with diversity of applied materials from which autonomous, dark, grotesque and funny world is being built.

Svankmajer is applying ceramics, clay ,food, pieces of rubbish, wood. Equally rich, similarly to devices, a subject matter to which he is referring seems to be Svankmajer. He is touching subjects as taboos, fears, obsession connected with the death and disintegration. His animations are horrifying and entertaining in the same time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocj4-y6sc9o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8wvcnbesQE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9k5Ct7EHuE&feature=related

Martin Puryear

Born in Washington DC, African American Sculptor, Martin Puryear is considered one of the foremost sculptors today. His work is a synthesis of minimalism and process driven traditional craft practices. Incorporating wood, stone and various types of metals, he is divided between kinetic and freestanding sculpture. Because of his admiration for 1960's and 70's Scandinavian furniture design, Puryear contacted and inevitably worked for James Krenov as an assistant. Mixing his early crafts practices with innovative sculptural approaches, Puryear has represented the United States at the São Paolo Biennial in 1989, where his exhibition won the Grand Prize. Puryear is also the recipient of numerous awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture.

Stephen Hogbin

Hogbin dissects the relationship between artist and why we (artist) make. He focuses on how we design and make objects and how and if they resembles their intended/presented meaning. His book Appearance and Reality focuses on four key disciplines; art, craft/technology, design, and science. His theoretical background has allowed him to synthesize current ideas in a way that is cogent for general readers as well as well informed designers and artists. Aside from his theory, Hogbin is a internationally known designer and wood turner. He has been an innovator both lathe and fabrication techniques. Best know for his inverted turning or "inside out turning" Hogbin has received numerous awards and distinctions for his dedicated involvement to the field.

Susan Working

An independent studio furniture maker since 1981, Susan is the director of the wood facility at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, in Aspen CO. Her furniture based work constitutes a metaphor for the body. More importantly, Working believes the process of making is like the process of aging. Dissecting the role of the female artist in a male dominated medium, Susan concentrates on inviting a collision and knowledge of function and process. Searching for the unexpected, Susan looks at functional objects as improvisational ways to create narratives of her past experiences.

Michael Puryear

Michael Puryear has been an independent studio furniture maker for over 20 years. Having had no formal training in art or design, Michael has developed his craft through exploration and experimentation. His most recent work incorporates shibui, the Japanese term for simple elegance. Using minimal forms that are rich in traditional furniture ascetics and meaning, Puryear’s work reflect his appreciation for the clarity and directness of Scandinavian and Shaker furniture. Here Puryear comments on how shibui is incorporated into his work;

“This simplicity belies the complexity of creating and joining furniture elements aesthetically, while maintaining full functionality in the design.”

Currently, Michael teaches woodworking at SUNY Purchase as well as maintaining his studio in New York. Michael also has taught workshops at Penland, Arrowmont, Anderson Ranch, and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.

Frederico Fellini

Scene from La Strada

Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was an Italian film director. Born and raised in Rimini, Italy, Fellini's childhood experiences would later play an important part in many of his films in particular, "I vitelloni", "8½" and "Amarcord." Intimate friends, such as screenwriters Tullio Pinelli and Bernardino Zapponi, cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno and set designer Dante Ferretti have insisted on how Fellini invented his own memories simply for the pleasure of narrating them in his films. Known for a distinct style which meshes fantasy and baroque images, he is considered as one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century.

Fellini's films are deeply personal visions of society, often portraying people at their most bizarre. The term "Felliniesque" is used to describe any scene in which a hallucinatory image invades an otherwise ordinary situation.

Sergei Isopov

Sergei Isupov emigrated from Estonia in 1994 and now lives in Cummington, Massachusetts. Relatively unknown in the United States, he arrived with a long international resume with work in collections and exhibitions throughout Northern Europe and the Baltics. Sergei's current work is figurative in both form and content. His dreamlike, surreal narratives are self-portraits and auto-biographical.

Isupov's visual vocabulary includes many personal symbols - anatomically accurate hands, feet and hearts, animals representing the beast, torn sections of the body to reveal an inner thought or hidden element and tattoo style decorative painting. Isupov's work explores male and female relationships, which is often explored through graphic sexual images. He technically constructs his work in porcelain using traditional handbuilding and sculpting techniques; using stains and glazes to contrast areas of intense drawings in black and white areas with colorfully glazed and painted sections.

Lucian Freud

Freud was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. He is the grandson of famed psychologist Sigmund Freud.

Freud's early paintings are often associated with surrealism and depict people and plants in unusual juxtapositions. These works were usually painted with relatively thin paint, but during the 1950s he began to paint portraits, often nudes employing a thicker impasto. With this technique he would often clean his brush after each stroke. The colours in these paintings are typically muted. Often Freud's portraits depict only the sitter, sometimes sprawled naked on the floor or on a bed or juxtaposed with something else, as in "Girl With a White Dog" and "Naked Man With Rat." Freud's subjects are often the people in his life; friends, family, fellow painters, lovers, children. To quote the artist: "The subject matter is autobiographical, it's all to do with hope and memory and sensuality and involvement, really."

Kohyama Yasuhisa

 Kohyama Yasuhisa has traveled, taught, and exhibited his work throughout the world but never wavered in his loyalty to Shigaraki, his town of birth and one of Japan’s longest-established centers of ceramic production. He fires his works for about a week at over 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit to produce the orange-brown color of Shigaraki ware, but then he goes further, firing one or two more times to produce a grayish surface similar to Sueki, an even earlier ash-glazed stoneware made from the fifth century. His sculptures evoke the effect of natural forces on the earth’s surface—in this case, the erosion of a desert rock by wind-borne sand.  The delicate balance of his work shows his mastery of materials along with a lightness that is hard to capture with such rough textures.  The combination of traditional materials and firing process along with the sculptural  forms shows Yahuhisa's dedication to contemporary ceramics. 

Italo Calvino

An Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the "Our Ancestors" trilogy, the "Cosmicomics" collection of short stories, and the novels "Invisible Cities", and "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler".

His style is not easily classified; much of his writing has a fantastic element of fairy tales, although sometimes his writing is more realistic and in the mode of reflection. Some of his writing has been called "postmodern", reflecting on literature and the act of reading.

Man Ray

American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Ray is best described as a modernist, and was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements. He is best known in the art world for his (at the time) avant-garde photography. Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Ray is also noted for his photograms, which he renamed "rayographs" after himself. The recognition for Man Ray's work beyond his fashion and portrait photography was slow in coming during his lifetime, especially in his native United States, but since then his reputation has grown.

Jim Dine

Pop Art painter, sculptor, and performance artist. Dine first earned respect in the art world with his Happenings, pioneered with artists Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, and in conjunction with musician John Cage. They all took part in the "Happenings", which was performance art very much in contrast with the more somber mood of the expressionists popular in the New York art world. The first of these happenings was the 30 second The Smiling Worker performed in 1959.

In 2008, Jim Dine inaugurated his nine meter high bronze statue depicting a walking Pinocchio, named Walking to Boras. The statue is placed in the city of Boras, Sweden. Dine previously worked on a commercial book, paintings, and sculptures that focused on Pinocchio. He feels that "the idea of a talking stick becoming a boy like a metaphor for art, and it’s the ultimate alchemical transformation."

Cory Robinson

Cory's work is dependent on the formal aspects of material combinations and composition. This pursuit has led him to make work that draws on the elements of chance and the spontaneity of gesture. His continued interest in texture, color, and line have encouraged him to explore forms that are based on simple constructions found in nature. The foundations of these forms have drawn from such inspirations as the structure of an atom to the workings of nests and animal habitats. His most recent work incorporates experimental mark making and textural exploration. He has taught furniture design at the Herron School of Art and Design for the past five years.

Bobbi Shaffer

Fragmented Cameo

As a jewelry artist and metalsmith working primarily with found objects, I seek to create an intimate interrelationship between my work and the viewer to form a narrative on life and memories. I see these objects as residual fragments of life and connections to the past as well as connections to who we are today. Cameos are of special interest to me because of their social commentary and collectible nature. By changing their context and imagery a whole new sequence of interpretations are unfolded. Juxtaposed against religious architectural fragments these new cameos pose questions of femininity and faith. What happens when the cameo image is no longer a pristine, demure woman? What happens when the structural elements are broken? These cameos break from their traditional constructs and raise the question of their integrity when they are no longer worn as a brooch or when the frame is broken.

Found Object Bowls

Precious Commodities

My interests lie in bringing attention to social constructs, how we live our lives and the choices therein. By inviting viewers to take a closer look at traditions and social standards, I hope to incite a dialog that prompts the viewer to be less automatic in their acceptance of said traditions and standards. I aspire to capture the human contradiction of individuality and connectedness.
History delineates how inextricably involved human appearance is with the social structures of everyday life. Jewellery and clothing have long been used as a visual parameter of a person’s social class and status. Personal meaning and value is conferred on these objects that is not intrinsically their own. The exploration of social and cultural codification reveals the human struggle for balance and Grace.
Being able to use art that is both meaningful and functional allows the wearer to gain a certain intimacy and connection through their interaction with the piece. With this in mind, I incorporate designs that raise questions through social commentary. I do this by employing iconic forms and images in unconventional contexts.
In sum, I aspire to create works that evoke a feeling of personal connection, spark social dialog and speak of humanity.

Randy Baker

Artist statement

My art addresses ideas of the modified human. Through out history humans have used the ideas of changing or modifying the human form to improve their own self image and self worth through scarification, tattoos, and piercing. Today’s technological leaps in modifying the human body are on the cusp of replacing our total selves with better parts and materials. By joining stone, clay and other materials to technology, I explore how we perceive ourselves through these modifications and the emotional impact each creates in re-creating ourselves in our own “best” image. What self voids we seek to fill may push humans into non-existence. How and why we are human may be defined as no more than the actual sums of are parts, literally.

Robert Felsburg

Bridging a gap between natural and man made materials, I seek to bring the viewer into a place where styles and techniques from different traditions are blended and become codependant of each other. The materials I have chosen for these pieces are NuGold and Cherry Wood, man made and natural. By including wood with the metal, I seek to bring a handmade and human touched feeling to the overall form. This contrasts and combines with the almost sterile industrial feeling of the metal work. The forms are derived from a mixture of traditional Japanese Origami and modern sense of Minimalist sculpture. I work with the straight lines, angles, and empty spaces in a way as to express appreciation for the material and to engage the viewer in a simple feast of shadows, rich wood colors, multi-layered views, and three dimensional appreciation.

Bifei Cao

Artist Statement

Works Name: Where am I

The series of my works include four pieces: three for ring, one for brooch, made by nickel, Sterling silver and ebony. The major techniques are soldering, making die form, chiseling. White contrasting black that is the classical color are my choice. The dimensions of most of pieces are suitable for wearing, about 7in by 1.25in.

Ladder is the primary element that matched with clouds expresses my feeling to the life around me. That’s to say, my works are language of mine. They can communicate with wearer to reflect my personal emotion. They are conceptual works and at the same time, they are also functional. Finding the connected point between function and concept, appearing abundant emotion language and forming a beautiful works is my aim.

Clouds are another visual language that performed at my works. It roots from Chinese traditional lucky clouds pattern, means floating and motivating life.

Four pieces close connecting with each other perform a series of expression of mine to recently life: Where am I.

James J. Nestor

Through my hand and eye I investigate space and material as it relates to the human body in non-corporeal forms. The non-corporeality allows me to exploit my personal emotion with the security of not being publicly exposed. This is a investigation of emotion, emotions that one feels for another, emotions that one feel when they are alone, emotions that no one is really ever supposed to know.
Allowing a voyeurs view in the subconscious of their own mind. My work engages the viewer head on drawing them beyond the dimension of the work. Allowing s/he to create a personal dialogue within the images and shadows created by the piece. With emotion always comes motion, of mind body or object.
I do this by using materials that are emotionless such as plaster, steel, rubber, and plastic. They carry little to no emotional value. Industrial materials that have been appropriated to form structures, skin, and bodies. Two dimensionally through photographs that are strictly editorial, quick, unedited and documentarian in their nature. Each movement whether in 3 dimensional form to 2 dimensional form is quick, deliberate, and uninhibited. James J.Nestor

Heather Thompson

Inspired by nature and the forms that occur therein, these brooches delve into the exploration of the evolving, growing movement of life. Using the brass with white pearls is an ideal medium for this piece. Through the skeleton-like qualities of the brass section of the pieces, I want to create the feeling of death and decay of the organic form while the pearls represent the seeds that would be the next generation of life. The pearls feel as though they are dispersing out of the form to continue the circle of nature, giving the new generation a chance to grow. The crocheted forms along with the corresponding stick pin showcases the rich surfaces and curvilinear components of the work. I create perfect forms in nature in my own intuitive way with the integration of form and function found in the natural world through the organic processes of growth.

Dan Kuhn New Work

    Porcelain, Sawdust, Walnut

Artist Statement.

The permanence of ceramic materials, used in my sculptural pieces, creates a commentary on the wastefulness of today's society.  I manipulate materials to show excavation, sedimentation and geologic processes.  Subtly floating my work on refined pieces of hardwood lends to the idea of a specimen of artifact in a natural history museum.

By casting porcelain I address the false sense of importance, which is imbedded in products that are made to be obsolete, such as cell phones and computers.  Producing multiples of an everyday object is informed by artist of the Pop Art movement, such as Arman, Robert Arneson and Mishima Kimiyo.