MERAKI

Leaf Forms by Barry Smith. See blog, here.

While preparing for this post I kept coming back to Barry Smith's metal leaf forms. Barry is a generous soul who creates his metal artworks with love. He teaches his craft to others and sends his leaves into the world like little ambassadors, spreading peace and goodwill wherever they land.

Leslie Avon Miller. See blog, here.

Leslie Avon Miller's art speaks to me on an emotional level. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm thinking it has something to do with meraki.

"Please keep demonstrating the courage that it takes to swim upstream in a world that prefers putting away for retirement to putting pen to paper, that chooses practicality over poetry, that values you more for going to the gym than going to the deepest places in your soul. Please keep making your art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to day world a little more bearable". - Shauna Niequist

History by Donna Watson. See more from this series, here.

When Donna was struggling with a creative block I kept thinking ..... when she returns she will create art that will catapult her to another level ..... and I wasn't mistaken! Her new pieces incorporating cold wax, oils and collage are beautiful. 

Leaving Egypt by Mary Ann Lehrer Plansky. See blog, here.

A lot of research goes into Mary Ann's art. I enjoy tracking the ideas and thoughts that gently meander through her blog, culminating in beautiful artworks. 

Gabriel Lalonde. See blog, here.

I visit Gabriel Lalonde's blog regularly because I enjoy his work. I detect a playful spirit with a "what if" attitude when it comes to his art. 

Hanelore Baron

This exhibition of Hanelore's work is well worth the browse. I enjoyed reading the press release too.

Lawrence Carroll

Ikuko Ando. See more, here.

" I would like to envelop myself ..... to enclose a sense of space, of landscape, within clay. Creating day by day, like putting entries in a diary"  --  Ikuko Ando

Lynn Chadwick

"And what is it to work with love?
It is to charge all things you fashion with 
a breath of your own spirit." 
- Khalil Gibran

Totem by Robyn Gordon. Website, here.

I felt a deep connection to this piece. The person who commissioned it shared just enough of her story for me to recognize similarities in my own life. I could relate to her story and was able to create the totem for the both of us.

"One of the loveliest words in the English language is the word 'inspiration'. It signifies the creative breath. It also has to do with spontaneity, with the arrival of the unexpected image or idea in the mind. Inspiration is the flash of connecting light that suddenly comes from elsewhere and illuminates."  -  John O'Donohue

A BIT DOTTY

Feather by Maureen Shaughnessy

Guinea fowl feathers float around

in almost every room of our house.

I can't resist picking them up

when I'm out walking.

I'm dotty about the spots!

White spots on black...

Black spots on white ....

Intimate Conversation I by Leslie Avon Miller.

.... spots, speckles and dots in nature

and in art.

Mathias Goeritz

Mathias Goeritz

Eunice Kim

Olivia Jeffries (burn holes in book cover) 

Patti Roberts-Pizzuto

Patti Roberts-Pizzuto

Ghassan Ghazal

Jimmie James

Mixed Media Collage by Donna Watson

With Thanks to the Field Sparrow,

Whose Voice Is so Delicate and Humble

by Mary Oliver

I do not live happily or comfortably

with the cleverness of our times.

The talk is all about computers,

the news is all about bombs and blood.

This morning, in the fresh field,

I came upon a hidden nest.

It held four warm, speckled eggs.

I touched them.

Then went away softly,

having felt something more wonderful

than all the electricity of New York City.

Pinch pot by Priscilla Mouritzen

SCROLL, SCROLLING, PAPER ROLLING

Library of Alexandria (detail) by Ania Gilmore. Read post by Catherine Nash here.

My fascination with scrolls began when as a child my Grade 3 teacher told us the story of a young sheperd boy who discovered a cache of ancient clay jars in the back of a cave near the Dead Sea. I can still feel the butterflies in my stomache thinking back to that day .....when sitting crosslegged on the floor of a chalk scented classroom.... my teacher came to the part of the story where the lid was removed from one of the jars to reveal ....... a scroll that had not seen the light of day for more than 2000 years. 2000 Years!!! A simplified, condensed story of course but it made quite an impression on me.

Library of Alexandria by Ania Gilmore. See website here.

Many years later I read a short magazine article about the healing scrolls of Ethiopia. I had a fit of the butterflies again which sent me on a fact finding mission.... but my search came to a very disappointing dead end until I began working in the University library. Thrill of all thrills, I found a book.... a whole book! ..... about these amazing artefacts . When we finally had access to the internet and Google, several years later, one of the first things I googled was Ethiopian Healing Scrolls.

Long Ago and Far Away by Dot Krause. See website here.

This post however is not about the ancient scrolls of long ago but rather about contemporary scrolls or paper rollings that artists incorporate into their art.

Who Owns the News by Joan Giordano. See website here.

Who owns the News, detail by Joan Giordano. Website here.

Mixed media collage by Leslie Avon Miller. See Leslie's blog here.

Mixed media collage by Donna Watson. See Donna's website here.


Tribal Offerings Series # 7 by Joanne Williams. See website here.


Stairs to Mauthausen by Robbin Ami Silverberg. See website here.

Reeds of Knowledge by Rosie Huart. See website here.

I've featured these scrolls by Mary Ellen Long in another post but I love them so here we go again. See Mary Ellen's blog here.

Crush by Vadim Katznelson. Acrylic paint and mixed media on board. See more here.

JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL

Photos by Lyn Hughes, found on the blog Sri threads.

Donna Watson introduced me to Boro textiles and I've been in love with them ever since. I won't wax lyrical about these extraordinary pieces since I don't know enough about them to do so but I would love to decorate my blog with them today..... just because they are so beautiful.

Boro is the word used for patched or mended textiles of old Japan.





I found these stunning photographs on the blog Sri threads. Sri is a textile gallery in Brooklyn, New York, specializing in antique Japanese folk textiles.



Stitched and re-inforced layers of recycled cloth.



Antique book of weaving samples.

Photographer, Lyn Hughes has a website, here, where you can see more of her work. See her interiors below.

Donna Watson's painted collages are as beautiful as these Boro pieces. Have a look at her website, here. Oh, and by the way, a little birdie told me that Donna's work looks absolutely fabulous in the book, Masters: Collage: Major Works by Leading Artists. Soon to be released! It's on my Kalahari wish list!

Come together by Donna Watson

Boro Owls ?!

The line up b y Anne Wood. Ann's blog, here. Shop, here.

SHADES OF GREY

Untitled (Hitchcock series) by Robert Natkin.

Whilst walking along a misty beach early one morning, I realized that it was on the soft grey days that I felt most contemplative and content. The muted colours were somewhat soothing ...... and actually, it was a relief not to have the sun in my eyes as I searched the shoreline for bits and pieces to put into my niche carvings.

Sorting through the flotsam which had collected in the crook of a sand dune I marvelled at the beautiful shades of grey. Mussel shells which had roiled at the bottom of some rock pool, pebbles and driftwood rubbed smooth by the sand, downy feathers dropped by industrious sand pipers and my find of the day, remnants of a weathered fish trap .

Driftwood Assemblage from Hanspeterroersma's Flickr photostream. See more here.

Once home and happily reunited with my computer (though I hate to admit my obsession), I found I was gravitating toward art and photographs in beautiful shades of grey.

Black to White by Robert Natkin.

Robert Natkin is an old favourite of mine.

"He is a visual poet whose apparently abstract images actually exist to enchant us with intimations and evocations of things we can sense but never quite see." - Theodore F Wolff

Kalahari by Nicholas Wilton

Rhythm of the day by Leslie Avon Miller

"Having always lived in the Pacific Northwest very near the rain forest, I often live in an environment of grey and white – white caps on the waves of grey seas, seagulls in their grey and white finery, dark grey sands and rocks contrasted with white sea foam and white sea shells, and grey mists hiding the mountains…..the list is long. I see the beauty in the mists as they lift and reveal part of a decomposing dock, or bits of the mountain tops, or a wind carved tree on a cliff as exquisite as a sculpture of granite. One learns to love the subtleties of the colors and the nearly monochromatic shifts." - Leslie Avon Miller

Haunted by Sarah Giannobile.

My friend Lyle often sends me links to new artists and Sarah Giannobile is one of them.

" I use my imagination as a tool to opening up my experiences that once were forgotten." - Sarah Giannobile

Cloth by textile artist India Flint , who is also author of Eco Colour

India Flint has posted glorious detailed photographs of her new series 'landskins', on her website, here. An exquisite series in which "wool felt is used to bind fragments of silk, wool and other natural fibres together to make a cloth; then dyed using plant dyes."

Desire turns concrete by Shayla Perreault Newcomb

Shayla Perreault Newcomb has filmed an Oil Painting Tutorial where she chats about her process, here.

Transience by Donna Watson.

" Currently, I am interested in the passage of time, and what remains. This may be the physical effects in nature or the psychological effects on memory or identity. With the passage of time there is a transience depicted with traces, layers and recollections. I try to take what is personal to me and make a more universal connection." - Donna Watson (interview with Leslie Avon Miller, here. )

Painting from the Expert Mover series by Laurie Pearsall

Laurie Pearsall exhibited the Expert Mover series at her recent exhibition which you can read about here.