James Waring Dances the Merz

Hello Friends!

It's been fun getting back into the groove of collage.

I've been working on creating painted abstract backgrounds to add more color and interest to my compositions. I'm also challenging myself to be more selective in my gluing process so as to allow more dimension. I'm using just enough raised foam adhesive to glue the pieces down yet allow for some shadow effect. If you look to the right of each of the elements above you can see this happening.

With Covid restrictions easing up, Jimmy and I were excited to read that the public library was bringing back their annual Library Book Sale. He likes to read mystery authors such as H.C. Bailey and I enjoy looking for 'collage fodder' so we donned our masks, headed to the sale, and had fun getting lost in the world of books.

One book in particular that I was excited to find was Anthology of Dance. It's from the 1970s and is a compendium of the modern dance movement from that time. I had been waiting to find a vintage book on modern dance, so this book, with its somewhat grainy black and white photographs was perfect!

As I flipped through the book, this image of James Waring (1922-1975) caught my attention immediately. At first he reminded me of Sherlock Holmes with his dark hair and top hat. But I was also enamored with his dance outfit and pose. And when I read the short paragraph accompanying his photo and learned that he was not only a dancer, choreographer and teacher but also dabbled in collage, my interest was kindled! The book also mentioned that in both dance and collage he was influenced by, prioritized and embraced experimentalism.

I love the challenge of creating atmosphere in collage (another reason for adding paint), and I will often add birds in flight as part of that idea. There is something about a grand landscape where, as one takes in the stillness of an expansive panoramic view, the sight of birds flying across the sky seems to slow the passing of time and allows the space within ourselves to expand. Some might call it Buddha-nature.

In that spirit, I thought it would be fun to place Waring in a time and place where he is in the process of, well, it could be collage... but it might be dance.

His outstretched arm led me to think how that gesture could be a part of the story and I also considered how experimentalism, like Dada and Merz, challenge the viewer's perceptions about what art is. In particular Waring's choreography is considered 'collage-like' in its experimentation and unexpected juxtapositions. So why not place him within a fanciful atmosphere, casting his cards, and relying on the serendipitious landing of the cards to tell him what the next dance steps will be? Or perhaps his intention is to create a collage, based on chance, wherein he will paste the cards in the exact arrangement they will fall in. Either way, the viewer is a witness to Waring's expressive pose and his creativity in that moment, slowed by the sight of a migrating bird...

Flattening the Curve, Day 27

Reviving the Dance

Friends, today is the twenty-seventh day of my mandatory quarantine from my work site due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and today I took care of some unfinished business.

I started the collage above, entitled Reviving the Dance five years ago! I remember when I needed to get new tires on my car, I brought an Italian printed vintage book, titled Ceramiche e porcellane cinesi, along with me to the tire store. As I sat waiting for my car to be serviced I cut the three images of women, known as mingqi or 'furnishings of the spirit', (shown) out of the book, knowing I wanted to use them in collage. Of the three women, the standing figure on the left is a 'court lady' from the Sui Dynasty (589-618) and the other two are dancing tomb figures from the T'ang Dynasty (618-907). Both were part of a broad afterlife tradition known as 'furnishings of the spirit'.

There were several 'false starts' with the three figures over the years as I stumbled through various ideas, but it wasn't until I was looking through a copy of North American Wildlife (another great vintage find) and saw the dancing Sandhill Crane (middle panel). Part of the description for the Sandhill Crane states "Pairs perform together during courtship, but dancing is confined neither to the breeding season nor to pairs; hundreds of birds may dance at the same time."

That was my 'a-ha' moment. Dancing ladies and dancing cranes - now that's a party! During one of my failed attempts to make this piece, I had punched out the brown and light blue floating balls or dots, and it seemed like the work was coming to life at that point but it wasn't until I started cutting out the cranes and experimenting with placing them with the dancers that it felt like the energy and emotion of the dance was becoming more apparent.

The last problem to solve was how, because the figures are all similar in size, to create some interest in how they each sat on the page. That's when I got the idea to find some kind of base for two of them to stand on. Now the figures are all grounded, yet each sits at a different height, which gives the piece more interest. And, finally, the work is ready for the imaginings of the viewer to wonder what this dance is all about!

I'm very happy with how this collage turned out and that I was able to finish something, even though it was started five years ago. Now, I wonder what other unfinished business I may have in my art box?

How about you? Do you have an unfinished project of some kind laying around somewhere?

Thanks for looking and I hope your day is good and your night is restful. 

World Collage Day

Friends, World Collage Day is Saturday May 11th, 2019. The first World Collage Day was held last year when the publishers of Kolaj Magazine declared the second Saturday of May to be a day for artists to celebrate art making and to raise awareness about the art form.

More specifically and in their own words, Kolaj states:

World Collage Day is about artists connecting across borders against a global context of entrenchment and separation. And the day is about an art medium that excels at bringing different things together to create new forms and new ways of thinking.

We created World Collage Day because we wanted to honor this community of artists and to remind the world what a spirit of cooperation, mutual support, and creativity can look like.

Collage is a medium that I have been exploring for the past few years. For me, collage provides an emotional connection to the world that is unseen, felt on a very personal level, and difficult to describe in words. I am, after all, an introvert...

Owl #1, for example, was created out of a concern for the health of birds and the relationship we humans have with them. There are about three more in this series in various stages of completion.

Mrs. Grosvenor Contemplates the Evolution of Her Next Tea Party features an Aesthetic Movement (1870s -1880s) teapot in the form of a woman holding a flower. Her bent right arm serves as the handle and her left arm extends out forming the spout. It made me chuckle a bit when I cut her out of a Sotheby's art auction book and positioned her whimsically bobbing about on a wild flower waiting for her eggs to hatch while geese fly by in the background. (What, do you suppose, is in those eggs?!!!)

So you see, collage can be serious and emotional but it can also be humorous and quirky. Fostering ideas in visual form from disparate parts can, indeed, "create new forms and new ways of thinking."

Happy World Collage Day!

World Collage Day

Hi Friends! Since Kolaj Magazine has declared today World Collage Day I thought it would be fun to share with you a few collage projects I'm currently working on.

Last month the local public library had its annual used book sale - tables and tables full of books for about $2.00 each. I happily filled one bag (the limit I imposed on myself!) with books about birds, flowers and art history. A couple of the books I purchased are shown above. 

Birds are some of the most fascinating creatures on earth and the collage pieces I'm sharing with you here today are my creative expression regarding the importance of birds.

National Geographic Magazine has declared 2018 the Year of the Bird in celebration of the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act passed by the United States Congress in 1918. The purpose of the act is 'to protect birds from wanton killing.' According to the Geographic, "Things with feathers can be found in every corner of every ocean and in land habitats so bleak that they're habitats for nothing else." Their diversity, social structure, ability to fly and migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles surely commands our respect. Not surprisingly, the Geographic posits that bird populations indicate the health of the ethical values of humans. From the recognition that birds are living dinosaurs, having witnessed life on earth for millions of years, to the fact that they connect us to the natural world, we must care for and about birds simply because humans have the unique ability to reason and reason inevitably leads one to a place of responsibility.

Because of these facts and more it only seems right to give owls a regal place in my imaginary owl world - a place that respects their ability to survive in spite of the pressures of human intervention.

Thanks for letting me share.

The Dawn of Helena's Liberation

Hello Friends! As I was combing through my file folders of images cut from magazines for the February One Little Word collage I came across a particular image that I have been meaning to use for quite some time. Knowing that the intake for a spring art show at a local gallery was coming up soon I decided to make an idea I had for using the image a priority and worked on making it happen.

The image I found in my stash, a two page spread from a National Geographic magazine, is now the background of the above piece. As I recall the caption in the Geographic stated that the photograph is of an abandoned house in a desert somewhere. Months ago, as I cut the image from the publication, I had this idea that someday I would like to create a scene within this intriguing magical space.

And what scene could be more intriguing or magical than the transformational moment when one receives specific knowledge of a coming event that will alter their life for the better in significant ways?

Meet Helena, whose name means bright shining light, and is the subject of the assemblage I'm sharing with you here today. I call this piece The Dawn of Helena's Liberation. Her real name is Young Girl from Anzio (Rome) and she is a Roman copy of an Hellenistic sculpture. Helena features prominently in this collage because she represents the women of the Hellenistic era (323 BC - 31 BC) who welcomed new laws that gave them legal, social, economic and cultural freedoms as well as educational opportunities, making them smarter, legally freer and economically stronger. This is my ode to that moment in time.

During the Hellenistic era, new philosophical schools of thought influenced the loosening of social constructs for women. For example, women were allowed to draw up and sign their own contracts and legal documents that protected their social status which made the exploitation of them more difficult.  And a prominent improvement in women's lives was that they were no longer required to have an escort or chaperone in legal matters or to enter public spaces or gymnasiums.

Being able to leave their homes unescorted, women became integrated into society and in the workforce, albeit in their more traditional Greek roles such as weavers, pot makers, launders, grocers and barmaids.

With education, women became literate in subjects such as mathematics and literature and worked as philosophers, poets, writers, architects and musicians.

Young Girl at Anzio was excavated in 1878, having been found in an early Roman Imperial villa, and is thought to be a priestess. When I first saw her in my vintage Art of Classical Greece book several months ago, I knew she would be perfect for some as yet unknown collage project. Then, as I was flipping through the book again, looking for an image to cut out and place on the mound of sand in the Geographic magazine spread, I knew she would be perfect.

I thought, what better recipient of a life changing event than a priestess named Helena? And how about the spiritual significance of a luminous silver bird that symbolizes the coming of the new rights bestowed upon women and who intimately delivers that message? I felt that this noteworthy dramatic story of transformation is best told in the midst of an azure colored temple and that it only seemed right that an event of this magnitude should take place within a powerful golden 'other-world' atmosphere. There, Helena sat, ready, waiting, clock ticking away. And when the moment came, she stood and formally received a grand and historic moment.

Are there significant moments in the history of women that you are fond of? What stories of women's transformation do you enjoy? Leave me a comment or send me an email. 

Spring Art Show

Recently a local art gallery, The New Zone Artists Collective, held an open call for submissions to artists working in any medium for their upcoming spring show. I usually contribute at least one piece for the gallery's semi-annual shows, but I haven't shared too many of them here on the blog. So, today I'm stepping a bit out of my comfort zone to share a collage I created for New Zone's show. 

My interest in the history of the Modern Art movement has led me down many paths; I've read stacks of library books, visited art museums, took some painting classes, and have written a few blog posts about my interest in art. With each journey, I've come away with new knowledge: an education that ultimately helps me not only explore the endless variety of artist's mediums and methods, but also to solidify my own art style, in particular, collage. 

Being a collector of, well, almost anything, I've accumulated a large variety of fascinating ephemera, or collectible memorabilia, from different eras. The older the better! The fun and challenging part of collage is to create a piece of art out of seemingly unrelated bits, and I find that I love working with bits of printed material from the past. 

I've written blog posts about my interest in African art, in particular sculpture, and that interest is expressed in the collage I'm now sharing with you: Two Women, No. 2. In this piece I've combined an antique pressed paper photo frame, with postage stamps, also antique, and various images hand cut from a newspaper and some old books. Since I'm also concerned with the role of women in society and culture, that is why I've brought these two images of women together. This is the second in a series with that theme, and I plan on executing more in the future.

Here's a closer look at this piece of collage:

Two Women, No. 2

This coming Friday will be the opening night for the show. There will be a city sponsored First Friday Art Walk, music, wine and snacks. I'm looking forward to seeing what other members of our art community have created.    

Thanks for reading, and if you also enjoy making art, I would love to hear from you!

Picasso And Primitivism: The Story Behind The Masks

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

Over the years, there has been a lot of speculation concerning how Pablo Picasso conceived the ideas for his paintings, and what influences played a part in his departure from traditional representational art to a linear, more abstract style.  In Gardner's "Art Through The Ages", Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya refer to the "energetic, violently striated features of the two heads to the right" in Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, seen above. But are they "violently striated heads", or are these two young ladies actually wearing masks?

Considered to be at the forefront of the modernist artistic movement, Picasso was greatly influenced by what is known as the 'plastic arts' (a reference to sculpture and its three dimensional interpretation of form), and is said to have been intensely committed to innovation, both materially and stylistically. As well, he was an avid collector of African arts.

During the early years of the twentieth century, as a direct result of European colonialism, anthropological and ethnographic museums had become well established in many of the major cities of Europe.  Displaying thousands of art objects made by the peoples of the Oceanic and African colonies, these museums provided an insight into parts of the world that previously most European people knew little about.  Unfortunately, the manner in which these artworks were displayed, referring to them as 'artificial curiosities' or 'primitive objects', reinforced to the public the idea that colonialism was justified.

Although the term 'Primitivism' appears to have been coined around this time (with similar notions going as far back as Socrates), it has both positive and negative connotations in the art historical record.  In its most basic usage, it refers to a certain simplicity of form, yet it can also insinuate a lack of intellectual reasoning or low level of artistic skill.  For the purposes of this essay, let us say that we are using the term 'primitive' as it relates to an art process or style.

For the artists of the first decade of the twentieth century, it can be argued that their main purposes for borrowing certain aspects of African art styles and techniques was because it not only shook up what was a long tradition of naturalism and Realist painting schools, but also it intermingled certain stylistic traits of African art with their own works. Thus they created a fresh new art that represented a welcomed departure from traditional styles, a departure that was already at work, for example in the later, Post-Impressionist paintings of Paul Gauguin.

That is not to say that the creators of these new works were not ethnocentric, but they were lacking in the specialized knowledge that would have been required to know the context of African art.  Plucked from the hands of the original artists, shipped hundreds or thousands of miles away, displayed in museums as curios and at flea markets as trinkets - these are the circumstances under which Picasso and his contemporaries encountered these fascinating objects.  If anything they can be faulted for attaching their own subjective meanings to these works, as artists tend to do with most any aspect of their own art process. 

In fact, the story is that in about 1905, Parisian artists Maurice de Vlaminck and André Derain made several trips to the Trocadéro Museum in Paris.  According to De Vlaminck, in the excerpted essay Portraits avant déce's in "Primitivism and Twentieth-Century Art", "We had become thoroughly familiar with the museum, having looked at everything with great interest. But neither Derain nor I viewed the works on display there as anything other than barbarous fetishes. The notion that these were the expressions of an instinctive art had always eluded us."  Yet he found himself one afternoon in a bistro after having spent the day painting alongside the Seine River, facing, "three Negro sculptures. Two were statuettes from Dahomey...and the third, from the Ivory Coast..."  Of these he stated, "These three sculptures really struck me.  I intuitively sensed their power.  They revealed Negro Art to me."  He further exclaimed, "These three Negro statuettes in the Argenteuil bistro were showing me something of a very different order entirely!  I was moved to the depths of my being."  He convinced the owner to sell him the statues and showed them to a friend of his father's. This friend offered to give him more African sculptures.  He states, "I went to his place, and I took a large white mask and two superb Ivory Coast statues."

"I hung the white mask over my bed", De Vlaminck went on to say, further stating, "I was at once entranced and disturbed: Negro Art was revealed to me in all its primitivism and all its grandeur. When Derain visited me and saw the white mask he was speechless."  Derain immediately offered to buy the mask but De Vlaminck turned down the offer.  Several days later, Derain offered a higher amount and De Vlaminck accepted, saying, "He took the object to his atelier on the Rue Tourlaque and hung it on a wall. When Picasso and Matisse saw it at Derain's they were absolutely thunderstruck."  

Corner of the studio of André Derain, Paris, circa 1912-1913

French artist Henri Matisse also had an interest in African sculpture.  In another essay, First Encounter With African Art, Matisse tells the story of frequently walking past a curio shop and seeing African statues.  In describing what he saw he stated, "I was astonished to see how they were conceived from the point of view of sculptural language... these Negro statues were made in terms of their material, according to invented planes and proportions."  Matisse eventually bought one of the sculptures and brought it to Gertrude Stein's apartment.  He states, "I showed her the statue, then Picasso came by, and we chatted.  That was when Picasso became aware of African sculpture."  Matisse also tells us that a large mask that Derain purchased, "...became something of interest for the group of advanced painters."

"Everyone always talks about the influence of the Negroes on me", states Picasso in Discovery of African Art (also excerpted in "Primitivism and Twentieth-Century Art").  "The masks weren't like other kinds of sculpture. Not at all.  They were magical things... intercessors... against everything; against unknown threatening spirits... I understood what the purpose of the sculpture was for the Negroes."  From this and other interviews given by Picasso, it has become clear that his understanding of African art came from an artist's perspective.  As an artist himself, he intuitively understood the function of artistic tradition in African society and related that to his own role as an artist within his own culture.  In other words, the process of creating a work of art and the role of the artist in that process, and in society as a whole, are interconnected spiritually and are a shared human dynamic amongst artists throughout the world.  He further states, "If we give form to the spirits, we become independent of them.  The spirits, the unconscious emotion, it's the same thing.  I understood why I was a painter."  He then claims that Les Demoiselles d'Avignon came to him, "not at all because of the forms: but because it was my first canvas of exorcism..."

Picasso in his studio in the Bateau-Lavoir, Paris, 1908

What Picasso was referring to was the process: the physical act of creating a work of art coupled with the psychological act of giving ideas physical form. After all, he is known to have stated that "I paint forms as I think of them", and that the African sculptures he collected and displayed in his studio were witnesses to his art process, rather than models for it.  Perhaps this is why there is no particular African mask that could be said to be the source for the masks in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.    

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is considered to be Picasso's first foray into a new, more dynamic way of depicting not only form, but space as well. This departure from tradition, while inspired by African sculpture, was also influenced by his earlier studies of ancient Iberian sculpture and by the paintings of Paul Cézanne, and is ultimately considered to be the beginning of Picasso's invention, with fellow artist Georges Braque, of Cubism.    

Once we understand the circumstances under which Pablo Picasso encountered African works of art, and view the art he created during this phase of his career, such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, we can agree with De Vlaminck when he says: "It was Picasso who first understood the lessons one could learn from the sculptural conceptions of African and Oceanic art and progressively incorporated these into his painting."

The Priestess Of Culture

This is the face of The Priestess of Culture.  She symbolizes artistic awareness, and offers to you her abundant knowledge of the arts, which she shares in the hope that it will lead you to an understanding of the problems facing all of humankind.  Come along with me and explore her past...

One hundred years ago, sculptor Herbert Adams displayed his representational works of art, The Priestess of Culture statues, as part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a 635 acre world's fair that took place in San Francisco, California from February to December of 1915.  Conceived as a celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal, the specific themes expressed through the art and architecture of the Exposition were those of aspiration, progress, achievement, and victory.  The people of San Francisco also viewed it as an opportunity to showcase their city, newly rebuilt after the devastating earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed over eighty percent of the municipality.

The eight Priestess of Culture statues were placed around the base of the dome within the rotunda of the Palace Of Fine Arts, the only remaining building of the eleven exhibition palaces originally built for the Exposition.  The Palace consists of four unconnected structures: the rotunda, shown below with its classic Roman style architecture, two detached peristyles, or open colonnades, one on either side of the rotunda, and an art gallery, situated at the back of the rotunda.

The Palace Of Fine Arts still stands today, thanks to the ongoing support of the citizens of San Francisco.  After the close of the Exposition, when the fair site was slated for demolition, they rallied in support of allowing it to remain, not only as a landmark embodying the spirit of the Exposition, but also as a visual symbol of the meaning of the arts in society.  Over the course of the past century, the Palace has undergone periodic rebuilding and refurbishing, and it appears that of the original eight Priestesses, only two still remain in existence, with their places under the dome of the rotunda taken by reproductions created for the rebuilding.

Imagine my surprise, when one day, while visiting family and friends in the San Francisco area, I came face to face with these two Priestesses!  They were temporarily housed in the art gallery, which at the time also contained the Exploratorium, a family science center.  I was standing on the second floor of the Exploratorium, looking out over the crowd onto the lower level when I noticed them.  At first I couldn't believe my eyes - they seemed very large, and even from a distance I could see that they were, if not ancient, at least from another era.  My curiosity got the better of me and I had to investigate.

There they stood, flanking either side of a massive old ornamented metal door.  Facing this scene, I could see that the Priestess on my left appeared almost perfectly preserved, while the Priestess on my right was rather severely time worn. Their size was overwhelming; I think they are over 10 feet tall, with a width of about 4 feet.  And their faces!  Do you agree that it feels as if you are looking straight into the eyes of a real fellow human being?  I'm not sure I've ever seen such a realistic depiction of a human face on a statue at first hand.

Juliet James, author of Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts (1915), said of Herbert Adams: "There are few sculptors with greater refinement or more cultured reserve than Herbert Adams.  He understands the selection of the significant and in many ways seems most fitting to represent The Priestess of Culture."  

Indeed, the details of these sculptures are worthy of attention; not just the expressive faces, but also such features as the draping of the garments and the gentle curve of the wings.

Notable also are the graceful manner in which the Priestesses' hands ever so slightly curl around the ends of the cornucopias and the delicate flower-like detail of the cornucopias themselves.

Juliet James continues: "This figure at the base of the dome of the rotunda of the Fine Arts Palace, on the inside, is eight times repeated.  Simple, dignified, beautifully balanced, with elegance expressed in every line of her garment with its rich border sparingly used, she holds in either arm an overflowing cornucopia, the symbol of what she is able to give you."

These Priestesses, I've since learned, were among more than 1,500 sculptural works of art on display throughout the Panama-Pacific Exposition.  Sculptor A. Sterling Calder, appointed acting chief overseeing the sculptors and responsible for the overall character and harmony of the works, conveyed his thoughts about the role of sculpture within the Exposition in his essay, Illustrations and Descriptive Notes of the Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition (1915): " - it is not too much to claim that it supplies the humanized ideality for which the Exposition stands - the daring, boasting masterful spirits of enterprise and imagination - the frank enjoyment of physical beauty and effort - the fascination of danger; as well as the gentler, more reverent of our attitudes, to this mysterious problem that is Life."

Since this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and because I've become fascinated with these Priestesses, I thought it would be fun to share both the wonder and excitement I felt when I first discovered them, and what I've learned about them since that day.

Here is a video I found about the Exposition, made in the 1960s using film clips from 1915:

Have you ever attended a World's Fair or Exposition, or visited the site of a former one?  What impressed you the most?

Hannah Höch, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse

When I first started being fascinated with the collage art form, I began looking at the art historical record for examples of works that best express those principles and elements that I am most interested in: variation and dynamics, color and texture.  I love the challenge of creating interesting compositions utilizing thoughtful designs, and in doing so I have come to favor three artists of the past, Hannah Höch, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse.  Each of the three were born in the late 1800's and were artists in what we now call the Modernist Art Movement of the early 20th century.

Hannah Höch is most famous for her Dadaist photomontages created during the heyday of the post-World War I Weimar Republic era in Germany, which lasted about fourteen years.  In the example shown above, Cut With The Kitchen Knife, Dada Through The Last  Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch In Germany, she challenges the social and political events of her time.  And she was a master at it - her ability to deconstruct the everyday images from her local newspaper and reassemble them into new images is astounding.  The variety of images, their precise placement, and the way in which the shapes play off of each other, creating a perfectly balanced composition, keep my eyes interested and curious. 

In about 1912, Pablo Picasso began an exploration in what is known as papier collé, or pasted paper, with the guitar as his subject matter.  Both the technique and the choice of subject matter are said to have been borrowed from his friend and collaborator Georges Braque.  In this image, titled Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass, which is possibly his first in this exploration, color and texture play a great role in setting the still life scene and in creating the shape of the guitar, but what draws me the most to this image is the idea of using everyday objects as art materials.  The 'stuff of life' reassembled: wallpaper, sheet music and a newspaper, all make an appearance here. 

Henri Matisse was faulted by critics of the day for his participation in what is now known as the Fauve Movement, which took place from about 1904-1908.  The shock of color they utilized in their paintings drove one critic to call them Fauves, or 'wild beasts'.  I wonder though, if perhaps Matisse's role in this movement is what influenced his bold choice of colors in his later years when he took up gouaches découpés, or 'painting with scissors' as he called it.  This particular collage, which I have been unable to locate the name of, is a good example of the striking color combinations the Fauves were so well known for.  Matisse's use of a simple complimentary color scheme, combined with what is obviously scraps and pieces of hand cut paper, create an asymmetric organic shape that stimulates my eye and keeps it moving, and the colors make me happy and excited.  

I have been a student of art history for a while, both in the academic world and as a personal interest.  A few years ago, though, I decided that it was time to create my own art instead of just looking at it.  But I will say that studying what has come before is a worthwhile activity, as well as getting out into the downtown art galleries where I live.  I would encourage anyone who thinks they are interested in creating art to first, look around you, then look within you.

Thanks for looking!

Made in Japan

Back when I studied Art History, I became fascinated by clay sculptures, or tomb markers, called Haniwa, which appear in the archeological record in the Kofun period in Japan (c. 300-552 CE).  During this time period, there were well organized craft and other labor groups known as Be.  The Haniwa in particular were made by the Haji-tsukuri-be, a clay workers guild.

In these later years, my captivation with these intriguing forms led me to more modern (and affordable!) forms of Japanese ceramics, the everyday, mass produced, wabi-sabi novelty and home decor items from the 1950's and 1960's.

But herein lies the connection: there are some districts in Japan, where these clay guilds have been in existence for centuries, and these vintage items I find so charming were made in districts that have long histories, where families have handed down their skills through the generations. In the 50's and 60's, some of these producers switched from traditional pottery styles to commercial ceramics for export. 

This set of 'Price Import' company stylized swans with matching bowl/planter was recently gifted to me:

What's your collection obsession?