Kirsten Chursinoff, Patina 2008, textile, thread, 21″ X 17″ framed
My friend Di of The Kitchen Door sent me a link to Kirsten Chursinoff‘s textile art, introducing me to this Vancouver, BC artist, who has a lively color sense and incredible surface detail. In her biography, Kirsten describes her involvement with needlework since the age of 5 when she embroidered her first iron-on transfer butterfly, which reminded me of my brief encounter with embroidery at age 9 or 10, and this very type of butterfly. I found the process of transfer magical, ironing the white paper pattern, with its blue lines. I pored over the instructions, and reveled in the colors of embroidery floss, but the actual stitching was a struggle.
As a mosaicist, I am drawn to the texture of her work, because what first drew me to embroidery was built up surfaces of french knots and satin stitch. Glass was to become my way of creating surface topography, and as much as I love it, there is still something intriguing about the suppleness of embroidery. Kirsten combines free motion machine stitching with hand stitching and building up of layers and uses “secret ingredients” such as the bits of loose thread that tangle up along the raw edges of fabric when you wash it.
I also feel kinship with the improvisatory nature of Kirsten Chursinoff’s work: “I never know exactly what a piece will look like until it is completed, but the anticipation continues to drives me forward.” The iron-on butterfly of her childhood has lifted off into flights through flowers, and the beauties of the natural world.
Striped Glass Mosaic Frames by Margaret Almon of Nutmeg Designs. Now available at Bella and Betty in West Chester, PA.
UPDATE: Sadly, Bella & Betty closed the storefront on October 27, 2013. It was a pleasure to have my work in Rain Speciale’s array of artisan crafts.
I am pleased to have a selection of my mosaic frames at the Bella & Betty Gift and Home shop in West Chester, PA. Owner Rain Speciale was looking for frames for the shop, and Briana Brant, remembered my work from the gift shop of Kimberton Whole Foods. I am glad Briana connected me with Rain, and I was introduced to her beautiful selection of goods. I knew from seeing the warm earthtones and orange on the website that I would feel at home.
Belly and Betty.
The Mane Lion Greek Key Serving Platter at Bella and Betty.
dop dop design Potholders Avocado Orange at Bella and Betty
And Briana Brant’s expressive teddy bears in felt from recycled fibers:
Harvey K. Littleton, Conical Intersection, 1984. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
On my very first trip to Corning Museum of Glass in 1995, I was smitten with the work of Harvey K. Littleton, and intrigued by the idea that Studio Glass Art had not always existed. Littleton’s father Jesse was a physicist working at Corning, and his mother Bessie, turned her kitchen into a test kitchen, baking cakes in sawed off battery jars made of Corning’s Nonex glass, and custards in the ends of lamp chimneys. Heat resistant glass cookware is now part of our kitchen vocabulary. I grew up with Pyrex bowls, dishes and pans. But in 1913, it was all new. Harvey Littleton worked at Corning the summers, and eventually after getting a degree in Industrial Design proposed setting up a studio for experimenting with glass in different forms. Corning declined. As he relates in Harvey K. Littleton and the American Studio Glass Movement,
My idea was that there ought to be continuing, ongoing, aesthetic experimentation in material apart from production. But [Corning Glass Works] didn’t buy my proposal. They believed that architects made the best designers, where you made your designs on paper and didn’t fool around with the material…I thought form was born in the material and in the hands of the artist, and that a pencil was a…poor substitute…[resulting] in a very obvious and simplistic solution.
Four Square by Harvey K. Littleton 1975. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
I am struck by the assumption made by Corning in 1947 that you made designs on paper and didn’t fool around with the material. Littleton recognized that glass would be an awesome material for artists to fool around with, and he wanted to find a way to make glass outside of a factory. Now we are somewhat accustomed to the idea of going to watch glassblowers at work, or even take a class at a local college or art organization, but Littleton was working against the assumption that it just wasn’t possible on a smaller scale, that glass was an industrial material.
Red/Amber Sliced Descending Form by Harvey K. Littleton 1984 view 1. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
Littleton traveled to France and Italy, visiting artists who were working with glass, on their own. He stumbled upon Erwin Eisch at a glass school in Germany, and describes his excitement:
I saw [Eisch’s] work and I realized that he was doing what I wanted to do – play with the glass, to make forms that had no other reason for being than that he wanted to make them. Function was something to be used or not used. Totally free. Free with glass. . .
With all he had learned, Littleton, offered an experimental workshop in glass blowing for artists at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962, and then began a graduate program at University of Wisconsin Madison, which seeded Studio glass programs at many other universities, and had students such as Marvin Lipofsky and Dale Chihuly. In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the American Studio Glass Movement, The Art Alliance for Studio Glass has a many events planned including one at the Allentown Art Museum, The Lerner Contemporary Glass Collection, October 7, 2012-January 13, 2013.
Such delight has emerged from Harvey Littleton’s desire to bring glass to artists.
Warm Colors by Wayne Stratz for a Collage by Abby Sernoff.
Collage was one of my first art loves. Much of what I learned from making collages informs my mosaics, the way pieces combine to create a new whole. Also, being covered in glue is a common thread! Stratoz has been musing on what kind of client he would be, inspired by listening to Coltrane playing My Favorite Things, and a collaboration he was envisioning with collage artist Abby Sernoff of 111 Collage Design. He asks:
And I wonder how I would act as a client??? Would I be willing to commission a piece and say, “Make it new. Let the creativity flow?” I am thinking of doing that with a collage artist. I desire one of Abby Sernoff’s pieces, but how to make that commission still floats in my mind.
Stratoz made some colored pencil drawings to send to Abby and she is going to incorporate them, in whatever way she is inspired, into a collage for him. The collage below is one that both Stratoz and I admire, with the vibrant color. I look forward to seeing what Abby creates for her new client.
1. Rainbow in Bloom Mandala by Margaret Almon, 2. Crab Nebula Mandala by Wayne Stratz, 3. Red Orange Flower Mandala by Margaret Almon, 4. Red Tailed Rainbow Mandala by Margaret Almon, 5. Doodling with Scraps of Faithfulness by Wayne Stratz, 6. Helix Nebula Mandala by Margaret Almon, 7. Rainbow Starflower by Nutmeg Designs, 8. Shore Spiral by Margaret Almon, 9. Wernersville Wave Mandala by Wayne Stratz
In Spring of 2011, Stratoz thought we sold four mandalas, but it turned out the client wanted to hang them outside, and the ones she selected were not weatherproof, so she asked if we could make other ones for her that would be safe outdoors. In the Fall of 2012, we received an order for four more mandalas, and querying the client, discovered they were also for the bluestone wall along her sunporch, and made her another twin set. She told us our work brings beauty into her life, and we are more than glad to be able to do that. Stratoz’s suncatcher made it into the group as well, to hang at the end of the porch, already set for the outdoors. And finally, one of my Marzanne collaborations with Suzanne Halstead went to this client as well(for inside of course. . .) A fine collection of orange, highlighted with blue and the rainbow.
Orange Nautilus by Margaret Almon and Suzanne Halstead
1441 House Number by Nutmeg Designs, glass on slate, 12×8 inches.
Stratoz and I feel very blessed when we have the opportunity to create something that will give clients joy every time they come home. Adam in Pittsburgh commissioned this 1441, and we were bowled over by the note he included with his order:
I searched for house numbers on Etsy and your designs were one of the first ones that I found. After looking through pages of other designs, I kept returning to your work! Each of your pieces are wonderfully unique, and imbued with love and care. Every tile is crafted individually. No other artists who are creating house numbers seem to capture so much elegance in a single piece.
Thank you Adam! He said he was “seething with anticipation” and for a moment we had some trepidation about whether we would meet his expectations, and were delighted and relieved when he loved his sign and sent us photos after installing it. We also had a moment of anxiety when we saw the orange ribbon, since we don’t want any wind disaster to befall our clients, but Adam assured us that the ribbon is just for show and there is heavy gauge wire hiding beneath. I love having a client who adds his own orange, since I am a big orange fan(as evidenced by my Orange Tuesday posts and Orange Tuesday Pinterest Board.)
Nutmeg Designs House Number 1441 Before and After, glass on slate, 12×8 inches. This one went to Pittsburgh, PA.
Adam also graciously included a comparison photo of his old address plaque and his new one, and we appreciate the love.
Stratoz and I wanted to make sure we had a welcome sign for the Chase Show, August 4th and 5th, 2012. One of the rewards of going through the piles of scraps on Stratoz’s glass cutting table was finding some more of the awesome Youghiogheny sheet of glass that has inspired us both, and the scraps became the nucleus of the welcome. The border is composed of Vidrepur tiles made from 100 % recycled glass, with the cool name of Red Sea. Vidrepur has a slide show of the transformation from a mountain of broken windshields into beautiful tiles.
The Chase Show is August 4th and 5th, 2012, and I wanted to share some of the other artists who are participating and who have awesome orange!
The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen celebrates its 6th anniversary as the Brandywine Valley’s largest premier fine craft fair featuring more than 190 independent local and regional craft artists. Fair hours are 10 am to 6 pm Saturday, and 10 am to 5 pm Sunday.
I can’t help but be endeared by an artist who paints her self-portrait with such orange-ness! Stratoz and I went to see the Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot summer 2012 exhibit at the Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College to escape the heat and be refreshed by art.
Gilot turned 90 in 2012, and is featured in Vogue, in an article called Life After Picasso. She was with Picasso from 1943-1953, starting when she was 21, and he was 61. Gilot left Picasso, who told her she was “headed into the desert” without him, that she would only be a curiosity, someone defined by intimacy with Picasso. When I read who her next husband was, I thought, “that can’t be the actual Jonas Salk, developer of the first polio vaccine. . .” but that’s who it was. I am also endeared by her account of meeting him:
On a trip to Los Angeles in 1969, a friend introduced her to Jonas Salk. She had no interest in meeting him—she thought scientists were boring. But soon afterward, he came to New York and invited her to have tea at Rumplemayer’s. “He didn’t have tea; he ordered pistachio and tangerine ice cream,” she recalls. “I thought, Well, a scientist who orders pistachio and tangerine ice cream at five o’clock in the afternoon is not like everybody else!”
TRANSITIONS: WORKS BY FRANÇOISE GILOT
Main Gallery Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA
June 1 to Sept. 23, 2012
Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot focuses on the evolution of Gilot’s approach to composition and color beginning with her seminal Labyrinth Series and including key works into the 21st century. Rich abstraction in a bold, powerful palette, a mainstay of her work, transitions to references to the figure, botanicals, and still life. Iconic images such as orbs, birds, water and earth elements are investigated in tandem with color juxtapositions that are built up from layers and layers of pigment.
The exhibition is curated by Mel Yoakum, Ph.D., author of Stone Echoes: Original Prints byFrancoise Gilot and a scholar of her work.
Mosaic with Fish by Leopold Forstner at Corning Museum. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
The Corning Museum of Glass always reveals some new delight with every visit Stratoz and I make. This time it was Mosaic with Fish by Leopold Forstner(1878-1936), with gorgeous enameled fish surrounded by glass chunks is subtle gradations of green, blue, copper and gold. There was iridescence and orange, and I stood there awhile just admiring the intensity.
Mosaic with Fish by Leopold Forstner at Corning Museum of Glass. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
Leopold Forstner was part of a group of avant garde artists in Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century, and he was also known for his illustration and his textile designs. In trying to find more about Forstner, I came across a cool site, City of Memory, an online community map of personal stories and memories organized on a physical geographical map of New York City, and a story posted by a descendent of Forstner’s patron, and a chance encounter with a familiar mosaic. I love how City of Memory pairs the physical world with the emotional one, and shows how one can evoke the other. I could imagine mapping out my memories of Corning Museum of Glass, and how it has become our place of pilgrimage, of refreshment and joy as we grow in our own glass art, and our partnership.
Margaret with Leopold Forstner’s Mosaic with Fish at the Corning Museum of Glass, June 2012. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
