Saturday, November 24, 2012

A GATHERING WE WILL GO


 Penny  (Back Valley Seasons) commissioned one of my small niche carvings recently and asked me to do a post with  photos showing where I find the objects that go into them.


Many times it's a case of 'the early bird get's the worm' so we set off to weekend markets at the crack of dawn.....


.... to arrive there when stall holders have just set up their wares.
Our favourite market is just under an hour's drive away and begins at 6.00am.



Sometimes I find small or unusual pieces on street vendors tables...



.... at scrapyards and junk shops throughout KwaZulu Natal


Vintage furniture dealers out in the country...


Wherever we go we are on the look out for shops that sell old bits and pieces, though it's becoming harder and harder to find the bargains. We live in hope...



Beach gathering is my favourite pastime. Husband goes fishing on three coasts..... North, South and the most beautiful of all, the Wild Coast in the Transkei. When I can I will tag along and we holiday at the Wild Coast at least once a year.


Up at dawn to catch the ferry across the estuary ....



to the other side where I spend the whole day walking....


.... sifting through shells


searching for solitary cowries in sand hollows and pools


collecting driftwood 


... and pebbles.


Friday, November 16, 2012

BETWEEN THE LAYERS

Mixed Media Collage by Christian Heinrich. See website here.

Layer upon layer ....
paint and paper
marks and gestures
metal and clay
textile and thread

Layer upon layer ....
of thoughts
and conversations
between
artist and medium...
medium and medium
artist and self
 Collage by Christian Heinrich. Website here
 Mixed media collage by Christian Heinrich. See more of Christian's amazing work here.
Inga Hunter : A book with carved wood covers and thick layered pages made from handmade paper and silk, with etchings and paint. Stitched together by sandwiching the binding threads between the layers of paper. See website here.


This intriguing piece by Jiyoung Chung is created with layers of joomchi paper. These pieces are hung several inches away from the wall and the shadows form yet another layer. See Jiyoung's website here.

 Francine Vernac. See Francine's lovely blog here.

 Katherine Chang Liu. See more of Katherine's beautiful layered pieces here.


Kristie Severn. (Sewn panels, stitching, acrylic, oil and collage on linen). See website here

"My process is one of intuition. This is not to say it is exclusively an impulsive act. But one in which I must trust the tools I have acquired for making art and rely on my gut reactions to guide the process. Lines dance. Scratches reveal. Thick layers hide. Passages of thread, repetitive marks and color interweave like the strips of a quilt."  -  Kristie Severn


 Jenny Verplanke. See more of Jenny's work here.

 Layered journal pages by Roxanne Evans Stout. Read about The Thread that Weaves Workshop here.

Justin Nostrala. See more here

Justin Nostrala. See more here.

 Charlene Abinante. (Layers of paper clay in wooden box) See website here.



 Brunivo Buttarelli. See Brunivo's website here.


Sculpture by Riusuke Fukahori. See more here

Riusuke Fukahori's work is a combination of painting and sculpture. This piece consists of  layer upon layer of painted fish and cast resin.

Friday, November 9, 2012

MEND, MENDING, MENDED


Brunivo Buttarelli. (Rock mended with metal) 

Mend: to make (something broken, worn, torn, or otherwise damaged) whole, sound, or usable by repairing ....

Looking at these images I could add .... 
Mend: to beautify and to create art.


"When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful." - Billie Mobayed


Repaired bowls by RELAXMAX. 

Kintsugi: the artful repair of damaged things.


The Japanese Boro Yogi is a sleeping garment used like a blanket for warmth . More Boro items at Kimonoboy, here.




American 18th century carved (and repaired) bowl. 


Mending Land II by Trace Willans. (encaustic and mixed media). 


Broken Teacup by Claire Crompton. 

Susanna Bauer. Click for Susanna's website



Lawrence Carroll. 


Lawrence Carroll.

I love the fact that Lawrence Carroll's canvases are stitched, patched, stapled and mended. Hester van Dapperen also  slices through the canvas of her color field paintings and  mends them.

Hester van Dapperen. 

"Mutilations of historical works in museums inspired me to cut in planes of color. The knife in cloth gives a tension and requires on-going effort of the painter. Sutures and operations with crooked needle and twine followed. The scars in combination with added paint become an integral part of the canvas. They lead the search for the essence behind the work".  -  Hester van Dapperen

Mending Bridges by Deborah McArdle. 

Lea McComas became involved in the Peace Quilt challenge when she heard about a "call for solidarity of the women of the world to work together to defend and protect women in times of conflict and to empower women to be active agents in the peace process."

"My quilt began as a collage of photos collected over a decade of living, working, and traveling overseas. Many of the photos are my own. A friend who has traveled extensively as a medical volunteer contributed others. The photos were printed onto fabric, pieced together with scraps, and quilted in a very traditional manner. The quilt was then torn, cut, burned and shot; literally tearing families apart. Finally, a woman's hands were added to the top using fused applique and shown working to stop the destruction, mend the damage, and repair the vision." - Lea McComas

Read more about The Mending by Lea McComas here.

Friday, November 2, 2012

LIGHT SPLASHED .......


Photo by Petra Cortright. See Petra's Flickr photo stream, here

A new day 
A fresh start 
The world awaits .....



Photo by Ineke Kamps. See website here   and Face Book page here

A poem by Stanley Kunitz fills me with anticipation .....

The Round
Light splashes this morning
on the shell-pink anemones
swaying on their tall stems;
down blue-spiked veronica
light flowed in rivulets
over the humps of the honeybees;
this morning I saw light kiss
the silk of the roses
in their second flowering, 
my late bloomers
flushed with their brandy.
A curious gladness shook me.
So I have shut the doors of my house,
so I have trudged downstairs to my cell,
so I am sitting in semi-dark
hunched over my desk
with nothing for a view
to tempt me
but a bloated compost heap,
steamy old stinkpile,
under my window;
and I pick my notebook up
and I start to read aloud
the still-wet words I scribbled
on the blotted page:
"Light splashed...."

I can scarcely wait till tomorrow
when a new life begins for me,
as it does each day,
as it does each day.

- Stanley Kunitz

Photo by Nicole Franzen. Visit Nicole's lovely blog here.

Rice grain porcelain bowls by Eeva Jokinen. Website here.

Sun-Kissed by Andrea Fettweis. See here

 Maple Sun by Richard Shilling See more here.

Photo by Kim DuPree. See website here.

Photo by nic*nilla on Flickr. See more photos here

Beautiful photographs by Ineke Kamps. See Ineke's website here   and visit her on Facebook here


Photo by Jane Fulton Alt. See more of Jane's photos here  and read about The Burn series here.

".... We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the
ruthless furnace of this world.... "  - Jack Gilbert