While visiting Boston over the weekend, a friend and I got to spend time with artist Amy Nguyen at her live/work home/studio in Boston. The excuse for the visit was to review some pieces of wearable art we intend to show in the Fall 2010 Artful Home catalog, but the truth is that I always like seeing an artist in her own environment to get a better understanding of what makes her tick.

Amy provided us with a feast for both our eyes and stomachs, as she graciously created lunch salads perfectly composed on handmade plates. As we sat in her showroom/living room, we were surrounded by an abundance of colors, as Amy is a master dyer and textile designer, strongly influenced by Japanese textiles in her development of contemporary shibori designs.

Fashioned into modern shapes, Amy combines a painter’s eye with a perfectionist technique. It is staggering to understand the meticulous process she employs to create her designs. Each fold and pleat is calculated to create a specific effect, repeatable though slightly differing every time Amy hand-dips each piece in the vat of dye. Often, shibori garments are left in their pleated state, but Amy presses out her fabrics after pleating, folding, stitching, dyeing, re-pleating, and re-dyeing, revealing the full effect of all this work. There is no forgiveness of mistakes, so her master technique is critical to the final outcome. In her garments, she then pieces her textiles, referencing Japanese quilts as she develops bold graphic designs. The end results are elegant, classic, and powerful – and obviously I could not resist trying on almost every piece!

I was once again inspired by an artist’s passion for her work. As Amy explained her ideas for new work and showed me samples of experiments in the works, there was a visible fire in her eyes. “Look at this – and this!” she exclaimed, in her quiet way, pulling out swatches of inspiration and resulting new directions. She knows that she could probably make a lot more money through some version of mass production, but has no interest in that at all, preferring the thrill of creating by hand, from concept to experience to final work. I, for one, am most grateful for her passion!

Home 14 by Lisa Call

Without a doubt, one of the great joys of my work is meeting artists in their studios. The combination of actually getting to know an individual artist, seeing more of their work (including work in progress), and seeing them in their own environment allows me to develop a deeper understanding of them and their work and often see the work in a new light. This past weekend I was in Denver and Boulder, visiting with three Artful Home artists, each of whom works in a different medium.

The first stop was at the home and studio of Lisa Call. Lisa is a textile artists (and software engineer!) who often develops whole series of quilts around particular themes. Currently, she is exploring houses, strongly influenced by her recent overhaul of her own home and life, thus exploring what “home” means to her.

Lisa boldly explores her theme in multiple scales, from teeny tiny 3″ squares to large pieces. Seeing Lisa in her light filled studio with her larger pieces helped me understand her draw to the house structure, and notice the exquisite detail of her hand-dyed fabrics, her painterly color sense, and detailed, almost obsessive quality to her stitching.

Striations Cuff – River Blue by Julie Powell

The next stop was in Boulder, to the home and studio of Julie Powell. Julie is a former quilter (and outstanding baker!) who now employs her fascination with color and texture in amazing beadwork jewelry.

I got to see this Striations Cuff in person, along with many other pieces, and came to understand Julie’s process. She starts with a feeling, in this case, the desire to convey the motion and rush of a Colorado river. Working with a sketch that she uses as inspiration, Julie starts in the middle of the piece and lets the piece take form from there. The end result is dazzling, sculptural, and unique , so much so that a friend who had joined me for the visit, an avid fly-fisherman, had to purchase it on the spot – just because!

And in my hand is one which you’ll soon be able to find on Artful Home – and my wrist!

Teardrop Hall Table by Derek Secor Davis

My final visit was to the home and studio of Derek Secor Davis. He lives in the gorgeous foothills of the Rockies, and finding him required driving up and up and up along a breathtakingly beautiful road through gold mining country. Derek is a furniture artist whose elegant work employs sculptural elements, sophisticated whimsy, and masterful craftsmanship. Seeing work in progress revealed the painstaking carving, milk-painting, sanding, carving processes Derek uses to create his subtly textured surfaces and forms. Even more interesting was seeing Derek’s pieces in a home environment.

Sometimes it is easy to assume that a piece of contemporary furniture might be too “out there” for your home. Yet, in Derek’s home, the Teardrop Table lived perfectly happily next to the coziest of chairs, as evidenced by this photo of the artist himself. And yes, Derek built his home, and it is a thing of beauty!

After leaving these three artists, I was reminded of something I was taught in art school, that as an observer of art one should be willing to let the work “sink in”. Any one piece represents all the years of experience of that artist, funneled into a specific work. Meeting the artists, hearing how they think about their work and what inspired them, allowed their work to sink into my brain even more deeply, and I am grateful for their allowing me to experience that.

Shimmer 5 by Tim Harding

I admit: I am a bi-coastal snob, who until just a few years ago had little direct connection to the vital community of artists working throughout the Midwest. Like many of my fellow “coasties” (a Midwest term I have learned here in Madison, WI) I knew of the Midwest more as a place of airport connections than artist colonies. Through my association with Artful Home, I have certainly learned otherwise and had my eyes opened.

While in Minneapolis to speak at the American Craft Council national conference, I was fortunate to get a chance to visit Tim Harding in his studio, located around 30 minutes outside the “Cities”. A Minnesota native, Tim’s work is more influenced by internal forces than external, yet his acute attention to the details of the landscape around him are evident in his intricate textile works.Harding’s pieces, comprised of cut, layered and stitched bits of silk, have a pixel-like quality reminiscent of pointillism. He uses “simultaneous contrast” – multiple solid colors in tight proximity to create the kind of vibrant richness associated with the Impressionists.

I was fascinated to learn from Eric Bladholm about the effect of his life spent in Chicago on his work, and it caused me to look at his work differently. From a young age, he was fascinated by the steel mills and urban areas. During college he started documenting through photography the urban landscape around Chicago, a project that continues today and has expanded internationally. He believes that his current work is heavily influenced by this. The industrial influence on his forms in glass is evident.

Neo Geo Cone by Eric Bladholm

Planetree Console/Bar/Buffet by Brent Skidmore

I have learned in my research about art and craft across America that there is often a single seminal influence, a school or a movement, an indigineous culture or industry, that profoundly affects the growth of a creative community. Surely, in the Southeast United States, there are several major – yet disparate – influences, from the textile industry to the Penland School of Craft, the Savannah College of Art, and the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University to the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Tennessee which extends a long tradition of object making in the Southeast.

A unique entity unlike any other in the US, the Penland School of Crafts is a national center for craft education located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Offering classes and workshops in the widest variety of mediums, Penland also sponsors artists’ residencies, community education programs, and a craft gallery, thus ensuring that the reach of their program is widespread. With no standing faculty, it draws worldwide instructors yet has also become the focal point for a lively community of craft artists, thanks in part to the resident program which has encouraged many artists to settle in the area.

Brent Skidmore exemplifies North Carolina artists. Having taught at Penland, at the University of North Carolina, Arrowmont, and the Appalachian Center for Crafts, he now dedicates himself to being a full-time studio artist in the artist-centric community of Asheville. His infusion of energy and emotion into finely crafted graceful furniture forms influences a new generation of studio furniture makers in this area of the country.

Amethyst Geode Set by Chris Mosey

Christopher Mosey introduced me to the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Smithville, Tennessee. While there is a long tradition of object making in the Southeast, glassblowing is something relatively new to the region for the most part, introduced in great part due the Center for Crafts and Penland. Chattanooga itself attracts many artists from the Craft Center , as well as many other areas through its Arts Move project sponsored by Choose Chattanooga, a city based non-profit that offers financial incentives for artists to move to the area. For more information on Arts Move, you can check out ArtsMove Chattanooga.

Of equal importance and influence on the region is the American textile industry. One artist who returns again and again to inspiration and materials from this now foundering industry is Ellen Kochansky.

Whether working with the now abandoned by-products of the industry, or literally creating studio space in old mill buildings, Kochansky brings history and material recycling to all her work today. Steeped in the southern quilting background, Kochansky has now set herself free from the technique and traditions to create textiles and installations which refer to past, present and future.

Prom Date by Ellen Kochansky