Into the Hartz (oil on paper) by Caroline Rannersberger. See website here
We, in our immediate family, seem to discuss the serious, deeper things in life early in the morning over our first cup of coffee. The discussion some times stretches to a second and a third cup. This week we had a three cuppa conversation about the way humans tend to fight against the natural flow of life ..... which brought to mind a poem I love .................
Caroline Rannersberger. See exhibition here
Passage by John Brehm
In all the woods that day I was
the only living thing
fretful, exhausted, or unsure.
Giant fir and spruce and cedar trees
that had stood their ground
three hundred years
stretched in sunlight calmly
unimpressed by whatever
it was that held me
hunched and tense above the stream,
biting my nails, calculating all
my impossibilities.
Nor did the water pause
to reflect or enter into
my considerations.
It found its way
over and around a crowd
of rocks in easy flourishes,
in laughing evasions and
shifts in direction.
Nothing could slow it down for long.
It even made a little song
out of all the things
that got in its way,
a music against the hard edges
of whatever might interrupt its going.
Caroline Rannersberger.
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." - Lao Tzu
The Treeness of Trees by Bridgette Guerzon Mills. Read blog post here
"If you watch nature,
how nature deals with adversity,
continually renewing itself,
you can't help but learn .... " - Bernie Siegel
Deposit of Silence(3) by Xavier Verhoest. See website here
Stone Speaks to Water by Bill Gingles. See website here
Talking Low in a Boat by Bill Gingles
Undercurrents by Judith White. See more of Judith's work here and here
Julie Shackson. See more of Julie's work here and blog here
"I look at a stream and I see myself; a South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth, and one day, disappear." - Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist. You might recognize Pata Pata, the click song, here
Scanned Assemblage found at Morning Earth. I will definitely go back to browse! Click here.
Map ed Veveiis, artist's book by Genevieve Seille
"Hinges, by definition, are not autonomous -- they can exist by themselves, but for them to perform their function, fulfill their humble nature -- they rely upon other completely different, yet intertwined parts" - M. Snowe
Shrine by Donna Flax (I believe Donna runs workshops but I havn't been able to find a link).See more Altars, Shrines and Holy Thing on Pinterest, here
Artists use hinges in any variety of ways
Some hinges are used on doors
Others to join two or more elements together
Found hinges are adapted to create jewellery or mini sculptures....
and then there is the hinge that serves no purpose at all except to look rusty.
Artists are known to be resourceful and will create their own hinges
Some are as simple as a few loops or ties connecting several pieces together
Others are more complicated.
Sue Brown creates the most beautiful enamelled concertina books and note books. See here and here and here.
Field Notes by Sue Brown
Found object jewellery by Monique Weston. See here.
Experimental book by Odine Lang. See website here.
Altered book triptych by Glen Skein. Found here. See Glen's website here.
Log Book by Ronald King. See more here
Waxed Diptych and stylus. Diptychs were known among the Greeks from the sixth century before Christ. They served as copy-books for the exercise of penmanship, for correspondence and various other uses. Read an interesting article here.
Wax tablets have been found in various forms, ranging from a single slab of wood with waxen surface to a ten or more paged book.
A book of wax tablets shown at the National Museum for Art and Cultural History in Bremen, Germany
Very old bird cage, found here
The fragile work of Atsum Izumi. Read more about her process here.
I've enjoyed reading Neil Gaiman's thoughts on fragile things.
"Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas-abstract, invisible, gone once they've been spoken- and what would be more frail than that? But some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created." - Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things
Exquisite porcelain pieces by Atsum Izumi
"It occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load-bearing marble halls ....." - Neil Gaiman
Atsum Izumi's porcelain pieces. See more here.
"Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkably difficult to kill." - Neil Gaiman
An inspiring video peaked my curiosity about Neil Gaiman. If you have the time, watch it here from beginning to end.
Porcelain sculpture by Cheryl Ann Thomas. See website here.
Cheryl Ann Thomas constructs her intriguing pieces by building tall thin vessels of coiled porcelain which when fired collapse and fold in on themselves.
Leslie Avon Miller's exquisite self portrait series. See the rest of the series here.
"The self portrait eggs are fragile.
They have cracked but not broken,
have been mended,
making them all the stronger
yet remaining open to new experiences.
Treasured.
Tucked into special places for safe keeping."
- Leslie Avon Miller
Whitewash by Deeann Rieves. See website here.
Her Tattered Covering by Deeann Rieves ( embroidery, lace and acrylic). See website here.
Detail of Her Tattered Covering.
No Longer Bound by Deeann Rieves.
Lace by Laura J. Wellner. See blog here.
"Artists are not fragile, but we are delicate." - Julia Cameron
There was a time
before I started selling my totems....
(before I was brave enough to put them out there)
when I created solely for myself.
The walls of my little studio were lined
with totem after totem
stacked one against the other
their weathered faces watching over me.
I discovered a quote by Wosene Kosrof
which was an Aha! moment for me
He said "The more I go to the studio,
the more I create my spiritual crowd".
I felt strongly that I had created
my own spiritual crowd.
After my first exhibition my studio emptied
It was a time to rejoice
but I also experienced feelings of loss.
Thankfully my work sells quickly.
I am grateful that people feel a connection to my work
and I wouldn't have it any other way.....
but I do miss my spiritual crowd
filling my studio
with their silent chatter.
Setting out on a road trip. Weaver wondered about my neck of the woods, KwaZulu Natal. Click here and scroll to get a general idea of where I live.
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