Art Propelled: Tim Johnson

Showing posts with label Tim Johnson. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

ON THE TABLE

On the table ....

or on the shelf ....

or any surface ....

preferably scrubbed wood

in a kitchen ...

in the studio ....

in the homes of artists.

Catherine White's blog held me captive for days and nobody could get any sense out of me until I had finished reading it from one end to the other. I love the way Catherine writes and thinks. I love her ceramics and the way she photographs pieces against hand painted backdrops. And I love her choice of poetry and excerpts from the books she reads.

"Sometimes when asked how I chose to make pots I jokingly say that in a household of artists the only space left to express myself was the table. The family dinner table was the place of sit down meals, jokes, shaggy dog stories, limericks. Grandfather White's round robin letters were read aloud and our day-to-day adventures recounted. While conversations whirled around me, I studied the flowers, the pitcher, the sugar pot and the coffee cup, often imagining them with cartoonish variations." - Catherine White

The three images above are all Catherine White's. Visit her blog here.

"My dream, was to make an evocative setting of plates, some cups and a teapot to nourish my friends and to fill the table with pottery" - Catherine White

I can't resist weathered or scrubbed wooden surfaces. Perfect for Watanabe Takayuki's ceramic pieces. Photo credit: Nazara Lazaro. See Watanabe's website here.

More of Watanabe Takayuki's work. Photo credit: Nazara Lazaro

An old favourite of mine, Elaine Pamphilon's paintings. See more at her website here.

Elaine Pamphilon

On Tim Johnson's work table. See Tim's website here.

Elizabeth Bunsen's tables are always laden with inspiring, arty things. See Elizabeth's blog here.

Stephen Croeser's work table. See Stephen's work here.

I love this image of African carvings which I found on Pinterest. I would love to give credit to the photographer if anyone knows anything about it.

Link to my Pinterest board, On The Table, here.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

WEAVE, WEAVING, WOVEN

I found a beautiful poem by Adrienne Rich which transported me to a cosy spot beside the Aga in a farm kitchen long ago. I picture a woman sitting with head bowed over her handwork. Perhaps she is weaving or crocheting, sewing, sketching, collaging .... or even carving.

"..... Vision begins to happen in such a life

as if a woman quietly walked away

from the argument and jargen in a room

and sitting down in the kitchen,

began turning in her lap

bits of yarn, calico and velvet scraps

laying them out absently on the scrubbed boards

in the lamplight, with small rainbow-colored shells

sent in cotton-wool from somewhere far away,

and skeins of milkweed from the nearest meadow -

original domestic silk, the finest findings -

and the dark petal of petunia,

amid the dry dark brown lace of seaweed;

not forgotten either, the shed silver

whisker of the cat,

the spiral of paper-wasp-nest curling

beside the finch's yellow feather.

Such a composition has nothing to do with eternity,

the striving for greatness, brilliance -

only with the musing of the mind

one with her body, experienced fingers quietly pushing

dark against bright, silk against roughness,

pulling the tenets of a life together

with no mere will to mastery,

only care for the many-lived, unending

forms in which she finds herself ..... "

- Adrienne Rich, Transcendal Etude

The 2 baskets above were created by Maggie Smith

Small Lamandra Grass Basket by Lelarnie O Sullivan

Janine McAullay Bott

When fiber artist and bush sculptor, Janine McAullay Bott first began weaving she recalls that "Something came over me. I'd never weaved an object in my life, yet it felt like I'd been doing it forever. That feeling went from my heart right through to the tips of my fingers. I haven't been able to stop since."

"I like to call a weave a thought I had. Sometimes I'd just sit there and think about my grandfather or my mother and my hands would keep going - like they had a mind of their own" - Jane McAullay Bott

Basket by Tim Johnson

If you are a basket maker you have probably visited Tim Johnson's studio photo blog, here. Not only are his baskets wonderful but his photography is outstanding too.