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Who wants to visit Nantucket for the first time in December? Turns out we do — well Rhonda, anyway (Tom had been there years ago in warm weather). Installing an exciting commission was our reason for going. Even though it was chilly and the ferries were touch and go for the two days we were there, the island was still hopping. 

Retailers seriously gear up for the holidays here — decorating small trees in front of each store. Lights and imaginative window displays abound. The week before we went was their traditional Holiday Stroll — but there was still plenty of seasonal spirit by the time we arrived.

The commission was prepared by Jennifer Falck Linssen for a beautiful, contemporary beach-y home. The artist sent us a full-size and detailed template to work from. There were 23 components for Tom to hang. The result was dramatic and ideal for the space. 

Loved our stay at The Brass Lantern Inn within walking distance of the main shopping area.

We enjoyed walking down the cobblestone streets and exploring the island’s many unique and quaint shops.

Ended our single night there with a great dinner at the Seagrille — oysters, cranberries, scallops — all local delicacies. We’ll be happy to come back some day in the summer!

Number five of the artists who are new to browngrotta arts and whose work will be featured in Art for Allies: Work from NATO-related countries (October 8-16) is Esmé Hofman of the Netherlands.

“I am a traditionally trained basketmaker” she says, “and learned the foundations of my craft at the German basketry school. Since then, I have increased my knowledge and repertoire by learning other crafts and through fellow craftspeople.” Hofman’s techniques and materials vary from the traditional to the contemporary using natural stems, leaves, bark, wire, plastics, vellum, paper and lots of color. She works for designers, artists, museums and private customers.

“Although fascinated by all the different possibilties,” she says, “my main focus is with the very time-consuming willow skeinwork, a nearly extinct basketry technique. This technique results in an extremely fine surface texture, almost like a textile, which enables me to create fine objects.” In skeinwork, material for this work is obtained by cleaving a long willow rod with a special wooden cleave. The long strips of willow are shaved by hand on a special shaving bench. With this type of work it is very important to work precisely. The skeins can be as small as one 10th of a millimeter. After shaving, the last remains of the bark are cleaned away. Every skeinwork object is worked around it’s own wooden mould. Skeinwork is very time consuming. Making a dish can take up to 40 hours or more. The result is a very fragile-looking piece which, when touched. is surprisingly strong and solid.

Hofman takes a modern approach to her work, “I am prepared to look beyond the borders of this traditional handcraft. This gives me freedom to explore creative possibilities.” More recently, she says, she is focusing on more contemporary work. “As a traditional maker there are three pillars in my work, which are equally important. These are function, materials and technique. By letting the function go, I get more freedom to place an emphasis on form. This gives me freedom to explore new ways of making.”

Hofman’s work came to browngrotta’s attention when it was included in LOOKOUT, an exhibition at the Museo de la Pauma in Spain, curated by Tim Johnson and Monica Guilera. “With the global climatic crisis and continued demand for sustainable practice and a counterculture to consumerism,” the curators observed, “we can look towards specialists in plant materials to offer beautiful, practical and innovative solutions to today’s questions.”

Allies for Art: Work from NATO-related countries (browngrotta arts, October 8 – 16, 2022) will feature nearly 50 artists and highlight work from 21 countries in Eastern and Western Europe, 18 countries in NATO and the three current applicants. The artists in the exhibition reflect diverse perspectives and experiences. Allies for Art will include art created under occupation, in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, art by those who left Hungary, Romania and Spain while occupied, and art by other artists who left Russia in later years. Allies for Art: Work from NATO-related Countries will also include works created by artists, like Esmé Hofman, who are currently working in Europe. Reserve your spot in Eventbrite. 

Happily, craft is resurgent, appreciation at a high point. The focus at browngrotta arts is art — one-of-kind, museum-quality art works made with attention to the hand and technique. But we are also advocates of adding handcrafted and mindfully made items to enhance every aspect of one’s life. 

We were involved with The Grotta Home by Richard Meier: a marriage of architecture and art (Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, Germany, 2019) — the book and the lives it chronicles. The book tells the story of Sandy and Lou Grotta who created, as Glenn Adamson explained, “a place for living with things, as well as looking at them, a place where craft can be appreciated for all its qualities: not just its stylistic and conceptual aspects, but how it feels in the hands.” (“A Vessel for Living,” The Grotta Home, p. 146). From tableware to pillows and throws, baskets for storage, and handmade furniture, clothing and even walking sticks, the Grottas chose things they loved to fit into a home they loved. When the Grottas began acquiring craft items 60 years ago it was a challenge to find working craftspeople — they did a lot of research. Today, however, thanks in part to the internet, it is easier to find such work. “Helped by this ease of distribution, a whole new generation of artisans is emerging,” says Adamson,”whose commitment to form and function recalls (and in many cases is directly inspired by) the great work produced in America in the 1950s and 1960s.”

Here, we suggest some sources that have caught our attention — but there are so many more. Use this as just a suggestive first step … set off on an exploration of your own, the journey, as the Grottas found, was more than half the fun.

Contemporary furniture and housewares brand, Design Within Reach, profiled Berea College in February. The College, in Kentucky, was founded by an abolitionist minister in 1855, was the first interracial, coeducational college in the South. It’s now tuition-free via a work-study arrangement, featuring a crafts program in which students create weaving, woodworking, and ceramics products that are then sold to help support the school. Remarkably, no student pays tution. In 2018, the College invited industrial designer Stephen Burks to collaborate. “Today, student craft is no longer just a factory of student labor,” he told DWR, “as it had been for nearly 100 years, but is transitioning into an academic program producing open-ended products.” The Crafting With Diversity collection is the result. Sold exclusively through DWR, it offers crafts interpreted in a modern way – for example, the Community Basket, fashioned from white oak bands joined together by sturdy aluminum links, or the striking Pixel table linens made of handwoven cotton. The full proceeds from all sales of the Crafting Diversity Collection will benefit Berea College. 

DWR has also partnered with Bolé Road Textiles which creates modern reinterpretations of traditional Ethiopian weaving motifs using heritage craft techniques. To realize her vision, founder Hana Getachew, born in Addis Abba and now in New York, enlists a network of Ethiopian weaving collectives and emerging women-led businesses in this growing handwoven industry. The resulting textiles are a testament to Ethiopia’s generational weaving traditions, its centuries-old craft techniques, and Getachew’s ambition to preserve and develop this rich legacy. “My long-term vision is to transform the industry into something that young weavers aspire to enter,” says Getachew. “I’d like to see handweaving be admired and considered a skilled and valuable profession. It needs to be treasured and recognized for what it is: an art form.”

The artisan marketplace offered by selvedge magazine is a global A to Z — Argentina to Zambia — source for consciously created works. There are portraits of the artisans and talks and  videos on the selvedge website. You’ll find dozens of objects that interest and delight there — from exuberant baskets by Baba Tree Basketry in Ghana and Canada to exquisite sweaters created by Maria Abdala Zolezzi, Knitwear & Weaving from Argentina.

A US craftsman that we’ve been watching for several years is Doug Johnston who creates coiled baskets and bowls.

Another comprehensive source for purposefully created design is the The Citizenry. The company believes our personal spaces, “deserve designs with a soul, a story, and a purpose.”  They travel to various countries, establishing sustainable relationships with artisans working only local materials. They site their commitment to providing fair wages, happy working environments, and sustaining grants to enable their artisan partners are able to take  their businesses to new places and to offer high-quality handmade goods at reasonable prices.

The Grottas often wondered, “Why doesn’t everyone live surrounded by handcrafted things?” Adamson agrees that it is a good question. “After all, buying handmade doesn’t have to be all that expensive. It provides satisfaction on levels beyond the purely aesthetic. And incidentally, it provides support to people who bring beauty into the world.” In a society awash with cheaply made, disposable objects, Adamson adds, the Grottas’ commitment to craftspeople and their creativity is worth replicating. 

Cardboard is a popular medium for contemporary artists. New materials like cardboard were introduced to art making from the very beginning of the 20th century. The introduction of new materials (and techniques) and heretofore non-art materials helped drive change in art during the entire century.

Perhaps the best known of the artists to incorporate cardboard was Robert Rauschenberg. “Rauschenberg has said he tries ‘to act in that gap between’ art and life, and there’s probably nothing more quotidian than a cardboard box. He uses them ‘as is,’ with their stains, tears, marks and worn labels revealing their history and creating a patina of wear and age. But he’s far from precious with the boxes, denting, tearing, flattening, crushing and combining them,” wrote Kelly Klaasmeyer, “Robert Rauschenberg: Cardboards and Related Pieces,” Houston Press, May 10, 2007. You can learn more about Rauschenberg’s use of cardboard in this YouTube discussion between Susan Davidson, curator at Guggenheim and RRF Board member and David White, curator at Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) and Board member. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoiDZKRKZxM Robert Rauschenberg: Cardboards and Gluts, by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. 

Artists who work in textiles have tried on cardboard, too. Ed Rossbach was a pioneer in the field of textile art, creating nonfunctional baskets and sculptures from an extensive array of materials including cardboard cereal boxes, plastic tubing, and newspaper. “He was the first to use plastic tubing in works of art, the first to use such throwaway materials as newspaper and cardboard,” according to Rebecca A.T. Stevens, a consulting curator at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. His work redefined conventional notions about materials for fiber and textiles and the beauty in the discarded.

John McQueen’s three-dimensional works are created from the materials he finds near his rural New York State farm, including twigs, bark, flowers, weeds, and vines—anything that comes from the earth, and increasingly, manmade materials like cardboard and plastic that he wants to draw attention to. McQueen prides himself on not needing to go the arts supply store. His several-part sculpture, Teeter, includes cardboard, shingles from a lake house and a hand, originally created as the mold for another project. Raillery is made of the corrugated cardboard that surrounded a Murphy bed. And, to accompany Man’s-Nature, he created a three-dimensional chainsaw of cardboard.

Axel Russmeyer ties cardboard thread-covered bobbins to create spheres, which reference textile making and the spheres that he makes from tiny glass beads. Lewis Knauss used cardboard-framed photographic slides in Old Technology Landscape. Still others use it to direct their work — Dorothy Liebes made sample shades of gold lurex glued to cardboard. Gyöngy Laky creates templates of letters and symbols of cardboard from which she builds her works of wood.

Wayne White, an Emmy-winning set designer for PeeWee’s Playhouse summarizes the attraction — cardboard has a “hard aesthetic” and a “tendency to do awkward things.” (“The Magic of Cardboard – Artist Spotlight,” Pactivate,com, June 3, 2021.)

Cardboard art even made international news this month, as Chicago school children created a 784-foot Ukranian flag from cardboard cereal boxes https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-high-school-students-attempt-to-set-world-record-for-largest-mosaic-made-out-of-cereal-boxes?taid=62f4468958b19d0001fadd0a&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter. Using yellow and gold cardboard from 5000 boxes (Corn Pops and Rice Krispies), they’ve created a record-breaking-sized mosaic of the Ukrainian flag while raising funds for humanitarian causes in the Ukraine.

Rhonda spent five great days in Vancouver last month. Here’s her report:

The artistic experiences began as soon as I disembarked at Vancouver International Airport. A rainforest experience has been recreated there, complete with birdsong, framed by a dramatic First Nations’ sculpture in the air. 

The visual feast continues outside. Like any good buffet, the offerings are numerous and varied — natural beauty vies with and public art everywhere one looks.

There are exciting and colorful murals on buildings large and small. Vancouver hosts an annual Mural Festival: https://vanmuralfest.ca. This year’s will last 11 days and sponsor 30 murals in eight neighborhoods. I came across a group of muralists near Stanley Park, protected by a Do Not Disturb the Artist sign. 

The architecture of Vancouver is wildly diverse —a combination of modern architectural styles, ranging from the 20th century Edwardian style to the 21st century modernist style. Arthur Erickson was a pioneer of the West Coast style which sought to integrate the natural environment into building design. Major stylistic influences were International Style, open space plans of Japanese architecture, the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and the work and talks given in Vancouver by Californian Richard Neutra. Erickson, Canada’s most influential architect, often worked with browngrotta arts’ first artist, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, including the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. 

Elsewhere, Granville Island, Stanley Park, the Waterfront — artful window displays, imaginatively painted buildings abound — even the concrete sidewalks are artful with their leaf imprints.

Intentional art offerings are just as voluminous. The most impressive of these is Erikson-designed Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of British Columbia. It’s dramatic Great Hall is under earthquake abatement, but the Museum’s collection of 46,000 objects (which you can see online http://collection-online.moa.ubc.ca) is more than enough reason to make a visit. (The Niobe Japanese Gardens and Treewalk both within walking distance are two more.)

The Museum is a pilgrimage for fiber fans — cases and cases of baskets and woven items from First Nation peoples and other geographic areas in the Multiversity Galleries. Ancient objects join ones as modern as a fish made from recycled fishing nets.

And then there’s the food, the walkability, the concern with sustainability and the friendliness of absolutely everyone. People stop and ask to help as soon as you pull out a map! Put it on your travel list — Vancouver is a must see!

Photos: Rhonda Brown

We’ve made our reputation on documentation and photography of art at browngrotta arts (“Beyond Measure,” Glenn Adamson, Volume 50: Chronicling fiber art for three decades (browngrotta arts, Wilton, CT 2020)). Crowdsourcing the Collective: survey of textiles and mixed media art, our 53rd volume, is the latest of our efforts. 

In an essay titled “State of the Art: where we are/how we got here” the catalog takes a look at fiber and art textiles today, as these art forms bask in renewed popularity. It also sheds some light on where fiber art has come from — featuring work that ranges from 1982 to 2022. The 42 artists featured in the exhibition (from 13 countries), are both a part of that legacy and a reflection of fiber’s current state.  In the 1960s, Adela Akers was creating large-scale weavings; by the 1970s, her works were noted for their spare designs and darker colors — brown, black and maroon. Gyöngy Laky has been a force since founding Fiberworks in the 1970s, a prestigious textile gallery and academic program in Berkeley, California. Lia Cook and Naomi Kobayashi participated in the prestigious Lausanne Biennials of International Tapestry in the 1970s; Laky in the 1980s. Artists in the exhibition who began exhibiting in the 2000s continue this legacy. Stéphanie Jacques, Rachel Max and Neha Puri Dhir all claim textile artist pioneers as an influence — Ed Rossbach and Claire Zeisler for Jacques;  Anni Albers and Ruth Asawa for Dhir and Max.

The catalog also includes the artists’ perspectives in their own words in “State of the Artist: how we are working/what’s front of mind?” and in the comments on their individual works. Not surprisingly, their preoccupations vary. For some, like Lewis Knauss and Laura Foster Nicholson, it’s the environment in the large sense — fires and climate change and the impacts of over consumption. For Lia Cook, and her garden, it’s more immediate. For still others, like Caroline Bartlett and Polly Barton, an abstract consideration is underway on the power of thread as a medium to reflect the fragility and connectivity of our world, and the cross fertilization of the senses as expressed in fiber. 

Crowdsourcing the Collective: survey of textiles and mixed media art is in full color, 148 photographs, 42 artists from 13 countries. You can obtain your copy at browngrotta.com. Learn more about the exhibition by joining our Zoom presentation on June 3rd at 5 pm EST, Art of the Rocks: an exhibition walkthrough with spirits. We will talk about the works in Crowdsourcing the Collective and toast the artists with a curated cocktail by our own mixologist, Max Fanwick @DudeWhoCooks.