Cycladic Art from the Met

Last Monday Don, Harry, and I headed to NYC to deliver some tiles to a client in Soho. After a brisk walk down Mercer Street and a hearty lunch, we headed up to the Met for a quick visit. My intention was to photograph some of the tiles on display in the American Wing, but I was drawn into room 161, or there about.

I've been a huge fan of Cycladic art since I took my first art history class many moons ago, and these simple, but elegant renderings always fascinate me.

No one knows for sure what the purpose of these stylized figures was, but since they all have been found in graves, perhaps they served some religious significance.

These three are my current favorites!

We did eventually get to the American Wing......after the exhibit on Guitars.....and the elegant Box Show.....those photos to follow soon!

A few new pieces.

I've been having an amazing season of creative play in my studio, working out ideas that have been brewing inside for a while. I can never figure out exactly why it takes so long from the idea to the finished piece, but when they're ready to happen, they do.
Using the hand-carved tile moulds that I've made over the years, I've impressed clay slabs with different parts of the designs from my inventory of 100's of patterns. Then I take my smaller hand made stamps and add details and diversions to the image.

These pieces actually made their first appearance in my "Flying Carpet Trays" almost 2 years ago now (!), and although I really liked the trays, it never felt as though that's the form I wanted them to take.
I usually work with a very fussy porcelain body and, sorry to say, I lost more than 1/2 of the pieces I first made. But I'm so happy with the final product that there are more on the way.

These initial 3 pieces were entered into a show called "10x10 = $100" at the Mimosa Gallery in downtown Saratoga Springs. I'm thrilled to say that they all sold on opening night!!

Actually, these pieces never got the finishing touch on them, which are laser decals that I print from my new laser printer. The base glaze I used didn't hold the decals and they disappeared completely. Not a problem, as I have MANY glaze bases to use in my shop.

I've started throwing pots again and my next post will show the results of some small bowls, with decals intact!!

Museum of the Earth

For the second weekend in a row my husband Don and I have made the trip from Rock City Falls, NY, to Ithaca to visit our son at Cornell. Last week we stopped in Syracuse on the way home and spent a few hours being inspired at the Everson Museum of Art. Today we headed up one of the many hills in Ithaca to visit the Museum of the Earth. WOW! I really love paleontology - and for those of you who follow this blog, or are a fan of my facebook fan page, you'll know that I just finished a custom tile order that included carvings of NYS fossils....so this visit was really full of fossil eye candy for me!

From cephalopods to trilobites, ammonoids to eurypterids, the Museum of the Earth holds several million specimens, including those of the Devonian of New York State.


Fossils have such rich and varied textures, they are a natural inspiration for someone like me who just loves to carve. And I could really see that these natural forms are inspirations for many of the collected works of the outstanding ceramic artists at the Everson Museum of Art. Two wonderful and inspirational museum trips in two weeks....lucky me!!

The Beauty of Clay at the Everson Museum of Art

Earthenware Jar by Shin Sang Ho, 1987

This piece is so exquisitely beautiful, the details remind me of nature at it's creative best. No description of the decoration or technique used were provided, so my best guess is that the "florets" or "snowflakes" are slip paint or inlay.

Shin Sang Ho had a retrospective in 2007 at the Clayarch Gimhae Museum in South Korea which focused on, of all things, his tiles!

More inspiration from the Everson tomorrow!