Extreme Craft

Just My Type!

If you were to extract the creative engine of a typography geek and a ceramic geek, then compare those two engines side by side, I think you'd have a pretty close match.  If you've ever suffered through a ceramic friend's discourse on Albany Slip or the merits of their favorite brand of wollastonite, you probably nodded your head and smiled like the enabler you are.  What if you love ceramics, but you also love typography?  What if your spare moments are all spent pondering proper kerning and proper use of ligatures in addition to new triaxial blended glazes? 

Fortunately, there are ceramic artists out there who can scratch both itches for you!  I'm indebted to Jared for sharing the work of Stephanie deArmand with me.  The "Hustle 'Em" piece above is one of my favorites.  DeArmand, who is a recent graduate of the (increasingly amazing) University of Colorado ceramics program, creates type-o-centric ceramic marvels that combine words that bounce off of each other poetically with fonts that will leave you scratching your head in wonder.  The pieces are finished with lush hobby-shop decals that add a layer of further mystery.  The combined effect is work that keeps revealing new details the closer you look.

I've also got a soft spot in my heart for Ian Anderson, a ceramic artist and graphic designer based in Maine.  Ian has always had a keen eye for intensifying political messages (usually involving some sort of text) through ceramics.  His "Try Truth" sculpture was a highlight of the NCECA clay national in Louisville this year.  The molecular forms reinforce his jab at the truthiness of our current political discourse.   Um...is that "Impact" you're using for your font, Ian?  (as I push up my glasses and snort to myself)

LINK to Stephanie deArmand  LINK to Ian Anderson

Ferreting Out Extreme Craft

Sorry to leave you hanging so far this week, Extreme Crafteers!  I've been saving something awesome for you to make up for it.  Last night I caught Mark Lewis' excellent Ferrets: The Pursuit of Excellence on PBS.  It's part of a 3-episode series that, Errol Morris-like, captures the intensity of American obsession.  Other episodes feature a hairstyling championship and synchronized swimming.

Comparisons to Best in Show are apt, but the dedication of the characters endear them to the audience.  The ferret owners are shown in all of their quirky devotion to their animals--the filmmaker touches on birth, life, death, and of course....competition.  The characters in the film are shown preparing for the Buckeye Bash--a sort of Superbowl of ferretdom.  You'll learn about what ferret judges look for in a ferret, the dangers of ferret bites, and the behind-the-scenes drama.  If you missed the ferret episode, I hope this clip will tide you over.  Ferret costumes...who knew?  Keep your eyes peeled for the hula bikini, which will, perhaps, go into the Extreme Craft hall of fame.

LINK

The Gold Bug

I wasn't going to post anything today...I wasn't really feeling it.  It's rainy, I'm sorting through all of the shit I've accumulated in anticipation of my upcoming move to the West Coast, and...bluuuuurgh.  I was awakened from my torpor by Neatorama's post about Hubert Duprat today.  Duprat is a French naturalist with a definite eye for the "Floss and Gloss".  He recently "colalborated" with a group of caddis fly larvae.  He took the larvae, gently removed their natural casing, then put them in an aquarium with a variety of gold and precious materials.  The insects are remarkably adaptive, and will build new shells out of whatever materials are at hand. 

You can read about the collaboration in Cabinet magazine, and you can even check out a video of the insects at work.  I feel much better now, thank you.

LINK via Neatorama

Look at Einstein Over Here!

Why are Episcopalians so awesome?  My wife grew up in the Episcopal church, where female clergy are plentiful, all sorts of people are welcome, and well...they like to get their DRANK ON.  Episcopalians know that the big guy isn't going to begrudge them a little drinky now and then.  As if I needed more reasons to like my Anglican brothers and sisters, today I found out that Grace Cathedral in San Francisco sports a stained glass window featuring Albert Einstein!

Einstein is Jewish, of course--not the most likely subject to be enshrined in a cathedral, but he also embodies a lot of the gray areas embraced by the Episcopalians.  The window is part of a series of 12 windows completed when the Church was built in the mid-1960's.  Each window features a prominent 20th Century American who embody human achievement.  Einstein's window is the "Natural Science" one.  Einstein, who is seen wearing a cape, is surrounded by his formulae, decorative elements and an atom, is gazing heavenward...probably thanking his lucky stars to be living so far away from Japanese nuclear plants.

Are you kidding me?  The church also features an altarpiece (shown to the right--click for detail) by Keith Haring that was created shortly before the artist's death.  The bronze and white gold triptych has a sibling that lives at Saint John the Divine in New York City.

 

LINK via Neatorama

I Scream, You Scream!

The day Extreme Craft has been hoping for has finally arrived!  Over a year ago, I brought you the heartwarming story of Robert McDonald, an American stuntman living in the Netherlands who was undertaking a massive Extreme Craft project.  McDonald spearheaded the construction of a full-sized Viking ship out of 15 million POPSICLE STICKS!  The craft (sorry...couldn't resist) was assembled in part by the schoolchildren who collected the sticks (tough job, right?). 

The Sea Heart, as the Viking Ship has been christened, set sail last week, accompanied by a flurry of media attention.  CNN was along for the ride, and produced this video.  According to its creator, The Sea Heart is the world's biggest project out of recycled materials...it certainly accounts for huge number of ice cream bars.  Any time I deliver the Extreme Craft roadshow lecture, this project is always front and center as a testament to the concept of the "whim of iron"--which is like the will or iron, but generally indicates that a person is unable not to see their most hairbrained schemes through to completion.  Mr. McDonald, Extreme Craft salutes you.  Not that I needed another excuse to eat ice cream bars.

LINK

Last Year...at Band Camp....

I wrote about the phenomenon of  "tampon craft" a couple of years ago (I haven't forgotten about your tampon candles, Mary!).  Evidently, the folks at tamponcraft.com have been honing their olde worlde skillz, and are taking things to the next level.  What could be more extreme than a tampon-shooting gun or tampon menorah?

If you squeeze your eyes tightly together and imagine hard, you can transport yourself to the Andes mountains, where goatherding goddesses serenade their charges with PAN PIPES made from tampon applicators!  This project isn't for the unambitious or faint of heart--you'll need a bunch of tampons, some cardboard, and unless you've got perfect pitch--an electronic tuner.  This tutorial shows you how to "hone your instrument" into something that will actually play "twinkle twinkle, little star".

LINK thanks Longtermguy91

It's a Hit!

I'm going to miss Atlanta, despite the occasional misfortune (...my car got shot up in a drive-by last night, no fooling).  I loved going to Braves games--the atmosphere at Turner Field is amazing, and I would aver that it has one of the best family atmospheres in the country.  Sadly, I'll be out of town this Sunday when STITCH 'N PITCH hits town.  This Sunday, July 15th, you can buy cheap tickets to the game and join your fellow needle arts enthusiasts in conversation.

If you're not lucky enough to live in Atlanta, check out the STITCH 'N PITCH website for dates in other cities.  Unfortunately, my new home team in California, the Anaheim Angels won't be hosting an event.  Maybe they're too busy working on a bring-your-own pottery wheel night.

LINK

Imitation of Life

Other than Amber Boardman's great quilt and a few other interesting pieces, this year's Atlanta Biennial (renamed "the talent show") is a bust.  The assembled work fails to capture the vibrancy and imagination of Atlanta artist, who I've found to be waaaaaaaay more talented and ambitious than Atlanta deserves.  I did want to mention one artist that stood out to me, though.  Suellen Parker creates clay figures in everyday tableaus, then meticulously photographs them and tweaks them with digital details lifted from real humans.  The results are extraordinarily creepy.  When I dug through her website, I realized that I had seen her work several weeks before, on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.

Parker's empathetic portraits manage to catch something touching about human beings striving to improve themselves.  The figures are often caught in moments of introspection, which adds to their otherworldy, voyeuristic quality.  The New York Times made a great video on her process, which involves creating a clay figure around an armature, photographing life models, then combining the two into an eerie digital print.  Parker likens the digital tweaking to painting--she is literally digitally painting the surface of the clay using Photoshop.   Finally!  Digital ceramics!

LINK

Virtual Springfield

I should be writing down my deep thoughts about the state of craft right now.  I should be trimming my nose hair or making something out of clay.  Instead, I got sucked into the @&*@! Simpsons movie website, and I've been designing an avatar of myself for the last half hour.  For those of you who know me, it's not half-bad.  It's not hard to portray a pasty-skinned craft geek in the Simpsons world...maybe I could get my Simpsons-self a part time job working for the dude in the comic book shop.

If you'd like to give the avatar generator a whirl, just check out the website for the Simpsons movie.  Don't say I didn't warn you, though.

LINK via Neatorama

Get a Folklife

Many thanks go out to Sahara (check out her excellent blog SistahCraft) for her followup posts about the evolving Gee's Bend controversy.  Although the Gee's Bend quilts come with a movie-of-the-week backstory, feel-good message and shock of the new, it's good to remind ourselves that there is a vast ocean of African-American quilters who are equally talented and amazing.  One main difference between the Gee's Bend quilters and everybody else is representation.  Bill Arnett plugged Gee's Bend into his modus operandi of cornering the market for artists, then trickling their work into the art world to inflate value. 

Fortunately, the rest of the African-American quilting world benefits from the genius of Roland Freeman.  Freeman has been collecting quilts and documenting their makers for more than thirty years.  Inspired by depression-era photographers, Freemen set out to record the lives of makers when he became a research associate for the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.  He is an academic with multiple books under his belt, and is a fine artist in his own right.  His magnum opus (so far) is A Communion of the Spirits: African American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories, which is an exhibition (and subsequent book) documenting the breadth and depth of African American quilting.

Freeman was just awarded the 2007 Beth Lomax Hawes award by the National Endowment for the Arts.  This recognition is a long overdue acknowledgment of somebody who has worked tirelessly for the art of quilting and remains a well-loved and respected figure in the community (unlike certain people recently named in a lawsuit).  Freeman's foundation, the Group for Cultural Documentation, seeks to expand his efforts by spearheading multiple exhibitions and books.  You can become involved by hosting their traveling exhibitions and purchasing their books and prints.

Most of all, don't forget the artistic community that surrounds you.  Don't assume that other artists or scenes are more valid than your own--roll up your sleeves and document the world around you before it slips away.

LINK thanks Sahara!