Imagine a show devoted solely to the underbelly of historical pots…Oribe, Tang, Royal Copenhagen and many many more. The MAK museum in Vienna revealed the hidden aesthetics of the reverse side, which often tells a lot more about objects and their history than the so-called “right side”. This was a truely profound experience, and such a treat to have stumbled upon. The only bummer was that there was no photography allowed. So close your eyes and imagine a room where 80-90 pots lay upside down and sideways, exposed and virtually suspended bearing their most deep dark dirty secrets.

My grad school professor said , “you have to have input to have output”… well fill me up! I just returned from a 10 day trip to Eastern Europe.(Prague, Budapest and Vienna) My friend Ingrid and I walked, looked, ate, drew and couldnt help but noticie how Europeans are really into tall sexy boots right now.

This is a great 30 min. video about…you guessed it Pots. It was produced in conjunction with the Cup: The Intimate Object V exhibition at the Charlie Cummings Gallery. Pete discusses the finer points of function as it relates to handmade ceramic cups, and place. Quick, run dont walk to your closest web browser.

I was featured in the “Shop Talk” portion of this weeks Portland Press Herald. Dont look for me in the Art section …I am a Buisness woman and thats where you’ll find me.

I just got home last night from teaching Open Door Session at Haystack Mountain School of Arts and Crafts. What a great class!!! In three days the class made oodles of work, fired three kilns and surely could have fired another three with just a bit more time. Thanks to everyone for making such a great weekend possible for us all.

Untitled (Hanoi no.2), Kelly Shimoda, Archival pigment print.

Jen Bekman (of Jen Bekman gallery in NYC) is cleverly hustling art enthusiasts to her project 20×200. (I found this site because my friend Kate Bingaman-Burt is currently having a show there) Bekman introduces 2 new pieces each week one photo and one work on paper. Each artist produces a limited edition of the work. The smallest size is printed in the largest batch- 200 and is sold for the lowest price $20 each. For the more affluent you can find larger editions of 20 for $200.
About 20×200 Bekman says, “As we see it, there are a lot of people out there who want to sell their art and a lot of people who’d like to buy it. They just have a hard time finding each other. The internet is the perfect place to bring those people together. We’re really excited about creating a place where almost any art lover can be an art collector”.

I bought this one.

The Faceted Couroucou, Carrie Marril, Archival pigment print.

Last weeks installment of This American Life had a fabulous piece by David Rakoff called Martha My Dear. Rakoff visits his dream job in the crafts department at Martha Stewart Living magazine. He wonders (as i occasionally do) if his hobby became his job, would it still be fun?

He says, “On some level me giving someone something I’ve made is almost the equivalent of your fitness nut friend coming into your living room dropping and giving you 25 and then shouthing HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Who’s really gotten the gift in a transaction like that. You tell me. ”

If you make things- listen to it. If you dont- listen to it. Its only 11 minutes.

I love the way this combines contemporary design sensibilities with the decorative vernacular.

Eva Zeisel is continually intrigued by what she calls her “playful search for beauty.” A person of delightfully defiant spirit, the designer was just beginning her career when she declared war on the fashionable avant-garde. “I didn’t accept the purism of modern design,” she says. “In my definition, if it gave beauty to the eye, it was beauty.”

www.dwr.com/designers/?designer_id=7887&CMP=EMC-Q62L54717042

I spent last weekend at the 11th Annual Audubon Center Craft Show in Falmouth Maine. It felt really nice to do a craft show so close to home… and I met a bunch of great people I will actually see again. Speaking of seeing again… I ran into some folks that I was super happy to see. One was our awesome realtor Charlie McBrady. The others were friends from long ago Lisa and Chuck Blier and their little girl Sophie (who i met for the first time). I also saw some great work from Maine Artists Ingrid Bathe, Stephanie Sersich, and Kara Romano . All of the photos below were taken by my long lost friend Chuck Blier. Thanks Chuck!

cups.

lisa and sophie.

and me.

Just finished this Candleabra for the show at Northern Clay Center. It is approx. 2′ in length.