Artist Watch - Anne Gibbs

Welsh artist Anne Gibbs came to The Clay Studio for three months to work as our guest artist in residence. Anne was an absolute delight, charming everyone with her beautiful Welsh accent. My Mother was in Wales this past month visiting my Grandmother and met up with Anne for a cup of tea. It was great to hear that she might be visiting in March for NCECA  festivities.

  

Household Implements (study 3)                  Tinctus series: Red ribbon

 I was reminded again of how much I loved Annes work while unpacking one of her pieces at The Studio this week. I needed to measure the work and get a vitrine made for our April show of  current and past resident and guest artists.

          

              Tinctus series: Comb and buttons              Household Implements (study 1)

I was able to watch Anne make her work from start to finish while she was in Philadelphia last year.  She collected forms to build on to, changing both the form and its references. In some cases she remakes the form. Placing new form next to old, remade next to original.

 Dwelling (Ravel)                      Tinctus series: Crucible

The objects Anne makes are domestic in nature, spoon and nails as well as her own invented forms that reference womens work such as sewing and kitchen duties.

 

    Made Do and Mend              Tinctus Series: Comb and Buttons

                                                                                     

The finished pieces are newly made but feel old, imbued with history and a past life. Collections that tell a story of time, place and moment.

An excerpt from Anne Gibbs artist statement

"The traditions of the domestic and ‘the home’ remain a major source of inspiration in my work. I was brought up in an ex-mining community in the South Wales Valleys where life was often driven by hard labour and there was little time for celebration. Therefore I am drawn to objects, which remind me of special occasions, for instance the bone china tea set which suggests pleasure and refinement. I contrast the beautiful bone china object (cup) against the ritual of domestic chores, cleaning and bleaching, suggesting that the act of refinement is often followed by a gritty reality."

A Good Look - Lighting

                           Tom Rosseau                Tim Lewis Studio

                                  TR 6                           Hilla Lantern

                            Future Retrieval             Jamie Hayon

                               Dada Light                     Metalarte

                               Areawear                        Badheebahdu

                            Orbit Chandelier               Tiffany Lamp

                           Hidden Art Shop             Artimede

                                                                    Soffione

                       Hidden Art Shop                     Modernica

               Cloud Lamp Chandelier      Criss Cross Nelson Lamps

                     

Winter Stew

We stayed inside and Rob made lentil stew with fenugreek and cinnamon bark

This was a jumble of a stew, involving garlic, carrots, onion, lentils, peppers and.....well i don't know

 

 The whole thing was cooked on top of the wood stove, all the peelings were put in a separate pot with water to make stock.

 

Kathy made really delicious bread, pretty darn good for her first time baking bread.

A Good Look - Vases

A quick look at some amazing vases - Craft, Design, Handmade, Industrially Produced.....All Good

          Marc Digeros                                  Deborah Schwartzkopf 

              Vase 2006                                           Flower Vase

          Johnathan Adler                            Andy Brayman

         Medium Aorta Vase                           White Vase

 

                Jamie Hayon                          Marcel Wanders   

      Grid Vases for Gaia and Gino                                                      

 

 

         Ayumi Horie                                   Diana Fayt

      Flower Brick 2005                              Pin Vases

      Victoria Christen                  Allison McGowen

              Vase                                      Tall Vase

Winter Warmer

Super Snow Day.  The city is pretty much shut down and I don't have to go to work! No Clay Studio for me today and certainly no NCECA planning (sorry). You all know that I am working at The Clay studio as the NCECA Coordinator right. It is my very real excuse for not  having posted  regularly in the last few months. It is also the reason my house is getting fixed very very slowly. I am knee deep in 100 exhibitions but my own life is very much on hold.

Winter View of 27th Street 

Very snowy back yard, hard to imagine ever using the grill again.....oh spring time

Hazel and Buster.....best friends for ever

Thankfully my good friends Rob Sutherland and Kathy Hurchla live right across the street and invited me over for a warm and snuggly snow day. They have a wonderful wood stove and the dogs are very happy. Rob and Kathy have renovated three buildings on my block and are working on two more. They have been so generous with me since I bought my house (soon to be home), cooking me dinner, letting me stay for a few weeks before my house was inhabitable and being amazing resources for everything related to house fixing.

Matt Metz Teapot, Rob Sutherland mug and Corn Casserole by the lovely Kathy Hurchla

So we are staying warm.......learning how to use our new IPhones, so lame I know but Rob and I both got them this week. Watching awful, awful movies on tbs such as Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in Music and Lyrics (barffff.) and now the not really so awful Twister. Rob is making soup.....more on that later today.

Whipped Bakeshop is the Best!

The lovely Zoe Lukas from Whipped Bake Shop brought us cupcakes last First Friday! Chocolate with peanut butter frosting, so yummy. Erin (my Clay Studio cohaught) and I thought they looked lovely on this Molly Hatch cakeplate 

We went to the opening of Whipped in Fishtown a few weeks ago. They did an amazing job of the place with massive amounts of subway tile and a super chandelier from Badhebadu. I wish them the best of luck with the bake shop. 

Pencil Heaven

"Designed by felissimo for social designer this complete set of 500 colored pencils consists
of 20 units, each pencil telling its own story with a unique name. you cannot buy the complete
set of pencils all at once, but you can receive them over the course of 20 months.
four different display methods let you keep your pencils at hand, while being displayed either
as an artwork, or kept aside as a special collection. the cases have been designed especially
for the 500 colored pencils and are available in a limited edition."

Up and Coming: Brian Jones

I met this guy at the Philadelphia Craft Show this year. We carry his work at The Clay Studio and I was really excited to see his new work at the craft show. Brian is using a buttery white glaze with bright blocks of color and I love it. I bought a plate at the craft show but have my eye on some bigger serving pieces at the studio. Check out the work and tell me what you think.

Lunch

Today was a computer day-website and blog mania, mixed with a bit of handle making (the last ceramic kitchen cabinet handles for my friends Tim and Sara). I did however manage to stop to make lunch and I though I would share.

 I made tomato thyme soup, grilled cheese and asparagus with salt and pepper. Tomato soup is amazingly easy to make.

one can tomatoes

half a can of veg stock (half as much in volume as the can of tomatoes)

pinch or two of thyme

salt and pepper

dash of tabasco

Put the tomatoes in the blender, puree and transfer to sauce pan. Add veg stock, thyme, salt and pepper and tabasco.  Simmer for a few minutes and serve with a dollop of cream in a nice Meredith Host mug.

Handmade Breakfast with the Family.

 

For Christmas I got  my family a new Cuisinart coffee maker that grinds the beans and all that jazz. They had an awful one that burned the coffee every time. I also thought they needed some dishes not made by Ikea or me. Mom got the Jen Allen mug, Jake got the Charlie Teft Rabbit, Dad got the woodsy Matt Hylek  I drank from the Maria Dondero that I bought during her TCS show a few months back. My family is really good at breaking dishes. I am hoping that they can figure out how to keep these beauties safe.

This Black Bear Lunch Platter made by Sue Tirrell was a gift for Thanksgiving.

The rectangle plates were made by me in between under grad and grad school.

Minor Malfunction

Resident artist Joanie Turbek just had her solo show at The Clay Studio and boy was it a hit. It was really exciting to see people interacting with the work. So often people are uncomfortable walking into these environments but Turbek's work really engaged the audience.

Turbek writes "“each piece is an attempt to fulfill a personal and specific human need. Efficiency is not necessarily valuable when dealing with personal issues; therefore metaphor and humor dictate form. In our society, the products we own are a clear portrayal of who we are and what is important to us. I see my work as a form of portraiture, both of myself and of the communities into which it is inserted”.

Turbek is curating an NCECA show called "The Souvenir Shop" I am excited to see it.

What is Tardigotchi

My friend Matt Kenyon just returned from a residency in new zealand with a very sweet but a little sad video. Watch it. You will smile.

"Tardigotchi is an artwork featuring two pets: a living organism and an alife avatar. These two disparate beings find themselves the unlikely denizens of a portable computing enclosure. The main body for this enclosure is a brass sphere, housing the alife avatar in an LED screen and the tardigrade within a prepared slide. A tardigrade is a common microorganism measuring half a millimeter in length. The alife avatar is a caricature of this tardigrade, its behaviour is partially autonomous, but it also reflects a considerable amount of expression directly from the tardigrade’s activities (like eating)."

Hiroe Hanazono

The cup I drink out of at work and the chihuahua named Drew that I looked after last week both came from Hiroe Hanazono. Pottery Making Illustrated just outed all her secrets in this fantastic article and Ceramics Arts Daily is giving us the sneak peek!