Totemic Dreams by V. Shaw

A garden tended by a green and patient thumb is never ordinary, but artful touches large or small can make it extraordinary. Cast aside the notion that art should only hang on a wall or sit on a shelf awaiting routine encounters with the feather duster. Artwork intended for the elements can be a graceful extension of your home’s personality as well as an imaginative foil for natural beauty. Give these pieces a chance to take root, and watch them reveal their magic through the passing seasons.

Create a focal point.
A large work of art, such as a sculpture or a water feature, can give your garden a clearly defined point of view. Modern, formal, whimsical—that’s entirely up to you. An imposing piece is sure to attract attention wherever you place it, so approach the opportunity strategically. If you wish to draw eyes toward a favorite tree or flowerbed, site the artwork nearby. By the same token, you can use artwork to direct eyes away from a less desirable view.

Treat your garden to a secret.
If your garden has a hidden space—a wooded path, for example, or a leafy niche—try tucking away something beautiful to surprise passers-by. Squirrel away a statue. Or add works of art that possess a hidden twist, like the ceramic piece shown here.

Keep it functional.
All aspirations aside, you know your yard will never be a sculpture park with large-scale works of art around every twist in the path. But that’s no reason not to pursue other possibilities for incorporating art in your outdoor living space. Detailed metalwork is a natural choice—try lanterns, trellises, pland stands, or even garden gates. Or go the mosaic route and use bits of brilliantly colored tile or glass to add joyful pizazz to benches, grill surrounds, or paving stones.

The Great Bowl O’ Fire by John T. Unger

Sprial Orb by Nicholas Bernard

I was fortunate enough to travel to New Mexico this past Christmas, a place which is always a draw to me because of its mix of centuries of tradition in the arts and its reputation as a contemporary artists’ Mecca. The natural clay deposits in the arid Southwest have allowed indigenous peoples to make pottery here for centuries, and the practice continues throughout New Mexico and Arizona with breathtaking results.

The culture of ceramic art is strong in the Phoenix area in great part due to the long-standing support of the Arizona State University Art Museum and its Ceramic Research Center. The Museum sponsors an annual self-guided Ceramic Studio Tour (which already took place in February 2010) and maintains one of the largest public collections of contemporary American and British ceramic art in the nation. Many ceramic studio artists have chosen to move to this area because of the Arizona State University’s fine Ceramics program, its Ceramic Research Center, and the very large community of ceramics studio artists in the general area.

Nicholas Bernard has been a studio potter for more than 30 years. While his work is shown at galleries throughout the United States, it is in the beauty of Arizona that he has chosen to live. His inspiration in largely self-generated, but he acknowledges the importance of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Northern Arizona Museum, the Ceramics Research Center in Tempe, and the strong arts culture in Santa Fe as influences in his creative life.

Butterfly Garden Box by Farraday Newsome

Farraday Newsome works in a red terra-cotta clay and rich painterly glazes inspired by the lively beauty of nature. She is influenced by the natural history of the area, incorporating quite a lot of desert nature imagery in her art, especially plants, insects, birds, and mammals.

Clearly, the unique climate and landscape of the Southwest affects artists. Ken Drolet says of Arizona, “Many people see the desert as a dull, colorless environment. To me there is a vastness about it that requires one to look closely at small portions of it to see the richness and diversity of color and form. The desert not only has an incredible landscape but also magnificent skies, especially during monsoon rains. To see millions of stars at night from a mountain (and there are many here in Arizona) is pure joy.”

Desert Beach by Ken Drolet

Doug Jones of RandomOrbit Studios speaks of his work having been most affected by the openness of the landscape, the great vistas, the starkness. He sees, “the West still symbolizes freedom and possibility, translating into an eclectic and open environment for work. There is such a range of work here, with such diverse influences, that no one type of work dominates. Modern work blends surprisingly well with the tile floors, stucco or adobe walls and flat roofs common to New Mexico architecture.”

Small Bow Front Table by Douglas W. Jones and Kim Kulow-Jones

According to Kerry Vesper, many of the shapes and forms that he incorporate in his sculptural work are informed by the natural environment in which he grew up and where he continue to lives, the southwest desert. Although he is not consciously trying to depict rock formations and the strata of the earth, it is in his psyche from having lived in the Southwest all his life and reveals itself in his work.

Philadelphia Bubinga Wave by Kerry Vesper

7/3 – 7/5 Cherry Creek Art Festival, Denver, CO
(While this show is not technically in the Southwest, it attracts artists from all over the West)

7/9 -7/11 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market
While this show does not feature local artists, it is an exciting show with associated events linking the local arts culture with international artists. I’m planning to go this year and would love to see you there!

Many of you entrenched in the art or social media worlds are probably familiar with Willard Wigan’s “micro art”—incredibly tiny sculptures the artist creates on the head of the pin, the tip of an eyelash, or within the eye of a needle. I wasn’t familiar with Wigan until I saw him profiled on the “CBS Sunday Morning” show this week, and, like those who view his work through the rows of microscopes at his exhibits, I was filled with the same sense of wonder when viewing Wigan’s pieces. The scale of his work, how it’s created—it’s a delight to behold.

Cafe 1 by Vicki Reed

Later, I was telling my husband about these marvelous micro pieces and he joking asked, “Yeah, but is the sculpture any good?” His very left-brained question reminded me, however, that the wonder a work of art elicits is often more impactful than the sum of its parts. And it need not be of the “gasp-with-amazement” variety to make us take note.

The story unfolding in Vicki Reed’s hand-colored photograph “Cafe 1” always gives me pause. Likewise, I wonder at the detail of Julie Powell’s intricate beadwork and the amount of time it must take to create each piece, and the amazing turned wood vessels of Dewey Garrett and the transformation each of these pieces has made from tree to fine art sculpture. There’s a certain mystery behind these pieces that provides me with a sense of wonder—and I don’t even need a microscope.

Cupcake Pendant Speckled by Carolyn Tillie

I have recently returned from Baltimore, where I had been invited to speak at this year’s "Synergy 2" conference, a conference dedicated to artists who work in polymer clay. What’s polymer clay? You might know of it as "Fimo" or "Sculpey", a medium which has the incredible qualities of intense color possibilities, tremendous plasticity, and ease of curing. Because of its association with children’s art, it is a medium that is not always taken with the degree of seriousness it deserves, as I saw well at this conference. I was exposed to the work of dozens of artists, from fantastic to surreal, elegant to playful.

We are fortunate at Artful Home to represent artists who show off the wide range of possibilities in polymer, from the tiniest, most intricate work to large scale pieces. The most common application of the medium is jewelry, because of the ability to create exceptionally tiny details in color and form. Carolyn Tillie’s"Speckled Cupcake Pendant" shows off the artist’s ability to create a perfect miniature object.

Sun and Shade Wall Hung Cabinet
by J.M. Syron & Bonnie Bishoff

Far less common is the use of polymer clay in the furniture by J.M. Syron and Bonnie Bischoff. The "Sun and Shade Wall Hung Cabinet" has veneered doors covered in patternwork created in polymer clay. Pattern is created using a combination millefiore and marquetry techniques, techniques borrowed from glassblowing and furniture making! The pearlescent, opaque and translucent claysare combined with the mastery of a painter.

One of the newest polymer clay artists on our site is Sue Savage, whose use of the material shows yet another approach. In her "Sue Earrings", Savage uses an almost freeform painterly style, showing a looseness and abstraction uncommon to the medium.

As with all newer materials, polymer clay is going to continue to take time for people to appreciate it, as it does not have the same name recognition as porcelain, gold or glass. However, the beauty that artists have shown they can create with it makes it worthy of your consideration. I know it has mine!