Midges…ooowww

These are the legs of Mr Andrew Dalton of the Ryedale Folk Museum… and the ‘decoration’ was created by severe midge attack whilst in the Dales… these are not  moors midges I hasten to add.. though indeed moors midges are fierce this year.( thank you Avon.. for the fantastic spray stuff you make )  But, I have never seen anything like this, even  the worst of the wost midge experience on the extreme cellist adventure last year, hope it clears up soon Andy !

New Work / Ryedale Folk Museum

The exhibition at the Contemporary Gallery at Ryedale Folk Museum looms large. The show opens on 8th August and runs through to 11th October .

‘Vessel, bounded space’… its still a working title

The show will have a catalogue which will be presented at the end of the exhibition.

Will blog more later, but we are making new work and developing the forms and  content of our work. A thank you to the Arts Council for the funding which enables us to take the time to do so and Andrew Dalton for the invitation to show.

The jist of show is  we use the  blown glass vessel, as metaphorical containers for our thoughts, our interests, and as a way to reveal the possibilities of our shared world.

Also, really like the context. Here we are makers on a post industrial island, showing work within a museum, where 85% of the objects were made by people. Objects that were made to last, time taken, thought given, materials conserved and considered…  by necessity. Hmmmm.

Rosedale

A fine day for a walk. Buttercups everywhere, foxgloves coming into bloom and an encounter with a  very bold stoat.

Beautiful dappled light on the two hills and a fine view of the dale from the craggs on Northdale.

The Teeming pond

Took a stroll with the kids down to the pond. Never seen it so full of tadpoles. It looks black around the edges. Just teeming with life. Wonderful.

Bee

A sudden change in the weather brings in many bees to the warm studio. This one was motionless, but after a good feast, it started to buzz against the window to be let out. Simple things can bring a great sense of satisfaction.

Bolsano

Had a few wonderful days away in Italy, visiting with Christine and Dan. Beautiful overviews looking up and over at mountains, and as ever, stopping to look at details of extraordinary beauty and in this case ingenuity. Lots for the heart and the sketch pad.

Financial Times/ Glass is making the breakthrough

Nice piece by Antony Thorncroft in this weeks Collecting section of the Saturday FT.

‘Glass is making the breakthrough’

Saturday June 6 2009

It mentions Dan Klein’s tireless work to support and represent glass, the recent Bonhams auction and a general overview of glass as a collectable art form. A good upbeat optomistic piece especialy from the presepective of a maker.

Collect 2009

Stephen and I visited the show on Friday. Beautiful space, good lighting and a good selection of work.

Some excellent glass on show with Vessel and the Australian galleries.

The Saatchi gallery is a wonderful space and I hope the Crafts Council continue Collect in this venue. Collect is an important event for artist makers and we look forward to the future.

It was a pleasure to have the space to enjoy viewing the full range of work in ehibition. The feeling in the halls was the event was attracting a new audience to see the work and that just has to be good for all of us.

Apples to come

Just beautiful. Stunning day. Hope the frost stays away. The sky on the images is as it was, no photoshop, just as the lens saw it and as we know there is a great deal if sky in Yorkshire.

Contemporary Applied Arts / New Work

Five new pieces on exhibition. Five with a similar colour theme but each an individual.

Vessels

…came across a lecture by Jeremy Rifkin … he talked about us as the last of the oil people, before us it was the coal people, and before it was the grain people, each development in our civilization has been driven by a specific fuel… but… civilization as we know it now was started when a container, a vessel was created as a means to preserve, transport and trade the fuel ( grain ), so I would argue for the  significance of the vessel, as still much more than ‘just’ a container.

Vessels are ubiquitous as Mark L Johnson says..” We automatically learn the meaning and logic of containment, since hundreds of times daily we interact with various types of containers – cups, boxes , clothes , rooms , our bodies etc. as bounded spaces .”

Hmmm… “bounded spaces” We are bounding spaces by continuing to make vessels. It begs a whole other set of questions.