Collar
JoAnne Russo
Photo by Jeff Baird

Baskets speak a universal language. For the historian, they are a signature of time and place. I grew up coveting the Native American baskets of the Blue Ridge mountains. Basket weaving is the oldest known Native American craft – there are some ancient baskets from the Southwest that have been identified as 8,000 years old.

For the collector, baskets are a contemporary art form of wonderful variety and beauty. I am continuously astounded at artists who provide fresh inspiration with this canvas called a basket.

Recently, JoAnne Russo’s “Collar” basket arrived on the Artful Home website. JoAnne is the master of surface embellishment, adding elements that are not essential for the construction of the basket but that change the appearance of the basket. In this piece, she has decorated the surface with traditional hook and eyes, transforming an ordinary object into a work of art.

I was reminded, once again, that the magic of the talented artist is to be able to reach beyond the physical nature of her basic materials, to create a work that transcends its own ordinariness and becomes something far more profound.