In case you missed the conversation on the radio today, you can listen to it here. I was privileged to be interviewed by Daniel Fitzmaurice, Executive Director of Creative Arts Workshop, and to join in the conversation that included installation artist Laura Marsh and her brilliant perspective on the contemporary art scene.
Thank you to Daniel and Laura!
Art as the breath of life. Joseph Morris makes the idea literal with “Serpentine Breath” from 2014. Mesmerizing.
The “Intelligent Objects” show at Creative Arts Workshop is full of wonders that may be best experienced in person. I’ll try to give you a sense here.
Across the gallery from the breathing fabric is “Breathing Water.” I stood and watched and breathed in time with the water. And I tried to imagine how Robin Mandel filmed this.
His “Red Giant” from 2015 is made of gold clubs, steel armature, and electrical components. In the gallery, it looks like some kind of primordial, burning star. Maybe you can see that in this shaky video.
Mandel’s chair-on-the-wall thing is just fun.
Robin Mandel, Unrealized Gain, 2015, wood, metal
The breeze would seem to move “Solar Particle Wind Chime” by Morris. It uses “a data sonification system that pulls real time solar wind particle data from the Advanced Composition Explorer satellite.” Wow. I don’t know. It’s looks as playful as a Calder mobile to me.
check out the shadows!
Good old fashioned breath-powered wind would move Susan Clinard’s mobiles.
Susan Clinard, Kinetic Figures, 2015, paper, wire
Literally, light as breath.
I’m passionate about Susan’s work, and Susan, and have written about her before. Her “Filtering Noise” show at the DaSilva Gallery is glorious, and very, very quiet.
I really love this new work of hers. Hands are an important motif for me, and I think Susan’s mixed media pieces are so loving, so sensitive.
Susan Clinard, Full Circle, 2016, wood, clay
There’s deep humanity in her work. So much heart. Her works breathe.
They break free of bonds. They remind us to breathe.
This time of year makes me think about abundance and want. Thanksgiving, to be thankful for bounty. Today, the Boy Scout’s collected canned and packaged goods for the local food bank. Creative Arts Workshop had their annual Bowl-a-thon, where they sell hand made bowls made by students and faculty, filled with homemade soup, proceeds going to the Community Soup Kitchen.
Here are the bowls I bought, both by the same artist.
Then there was the line around the corner at the Apple Store, waiting for the new iPhone 6, a month after its introduction. And me at Whole Foods, spending needlessly on a Buddha’s Hand at a wasteful $3.99 per pound–the excess of a fruit I won’t eat, but does fill the room with a divine lemon scent.
So I acknowledge the contradictions in me. I spend $10 on a temporary decoration and deliver meals-on-wheels on Thanksgiving. For someone who doesn’t eat turkey, chaffeuring hot meals will no doubt fill the car with smells I won’t love. Maybe I’ll put the Buddha’s Hand in the car, too. A good metaphor to remind me of what’s really important.
Hope your Thanksgiving is full of gratitude, good smells, and Buddha’s Hand, in all its forms.
The Creative Arts Workshop offered a class today on iPhone photography. I loved playing around with filters on an app called Snapseed, getting fun distortions as seen in this slide show. By the way, the images are based on a display of pastries at the Farmer’s Market at Wooster Square.
But my heart is in what’s called Straight Photography–as we see it, on the streets, in the market, wherever. You can check out the images from today’s exploration on this page. Here are a few highlights from the walk to the farmer’s market at Wooster Square and at the market itself. Enjoy!
