Hello soup speaks

Hello soup speaks, originally uploaded by Robin Hutton.

Here's a table art photo from Down Under...

Bisque Firing

Opened a bisque kiln yesterday which I am glazing today. Hopefully have the results by weeks end. Pictured here are medium oval platters, cake plates, pod vases and some brand new tea pots. All awaiting color and
another firing!

technorati tags: bisque, pottery, process, ceramics

Mommy week

Well, this week has been a little more hectic than usual, because my normally incredibly healthy 10 year old got a stomach virus and was home from school for 3 days. No blogging, very little pottery AND I stayed home from a peace planning meeting at the UN! I was able to conference in, but hey. I realized, without a doubt or heitation, my priority is my son and my family. No matter how "important" all my extra-curricular activity seems, my boy, my husband, my home and my community are my top priority. Only when everyone is healthy can I leave town for anything.

I take a great deal of comfort in this decision, because it shows me that there are some very clear choices in life. Relationships are at the top of the list and especially our kids. They are the future and their well being is priority one. A little different than how I grew up, but hey, nobody's perfect and better late than never...

Pictures of new work next week, when I glaze and load the kiln!
ps- The New York Times called yesterday....I'll keep you posted ;-)

Craft Manifesto

Found this amazing manifesto today through another interesting blog by York. The author, Ulla-Maaria Mutanen is an interesting Finnish thinker on technolgy and crafts. York is Japanese and is seeking to collaborate on eco-projects via blogs.

Draft Craft Manifesto

I’ve been trying to pin down what is driving the increasing popularity of crafting for a while now. This is what I’ve got so far:
1. People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.
2. The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.
3. The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.
4. People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.
5. People who believe they are producing genuinely cool things seek broader exposure for their products. This creates opportunities for alternative publishing channels.
6. Work inspires work. Seeing what other people have made generates new ideas and designs.
7. Essential for crafting are tools, which are accessible, portable, and easy to learn.
8. Materials become important. Knowledge of what they are made of and where to get them becomes essential.
9. Recipes become important. The ability to create and distribute interesting recipes becomes valuable.
10. Learning techniques brings people together. This creates online and offline communities of practice.
11. Craft-oriented people seek opportunities to discover interesting things and meet their makers. This creates marketplaces.
12. At the bottom, crafting is a form of play.

Oh yeah...

technorati tags: craft, crafting, technology, craftmanifesto

Blogs as Art

A relative newcomer to blogging (who isn't??), 3 months or so under my belt, I am beginning to see some similarities to art in blogsphere. Art, these days, is pretty much anything you claim as art. So are blogs. Plenty of bad art happens, is declared art, and well, there you have it. Art! Bad art and good art. The distinction and the real art becomes clear over time. Sometimes very bad art, on first glance turns out to be really great art, because innovation can be uncomfortable. My first take on Picassso (age 17, in an art history class) was Yuck! I have a much more informed opinion of Picasso today, 30 years later. Blogs are a way for the creative geek (??) to express him/herself in a brand new context. Seth talks about noise and the desire for a lot of traffic, but always returns to his underlying imperitive of authentic stories and quality, not quantity. Hugh describes the Infinite market for something to believe in, meaning. The goal of great art, if I may, is meaning, after all.

So, whatever you might think about blogging in general, it is really in the specific that blogging can become an art form, maybe already is. Building a great blog takes time, like making a masterpiece, and it is done through the daily attention to your story, your vision and your ability to change in the very fast nature of developing technology. Everything is possible here.

technorati tags: art, blogging, meaning, Picasso

Today's table Art

Here's today's table art concept. My plates and vases, my linens, my grandmother's silver (Steif's Rose, Kirk) Saarinen table.

technorati tags: dinnerware, table, art, linens, lifestyle

Real vs. Fake?

Seth's got a great rif on the authentic vs. the contrived on his blog today. It's not easy getting to real sometimes and it can take time. But if the authentic is priority, then getting there is way more likely. And who wouldn't prefer a bit of the real thing? It's like balm on a over glossy environment. Getting down to what is underneath layers of crap and figuring what really matters, that is a process. Focusing on that process also removes you from the victim status which is so enervating. I know what I like and what I want. It's like the difference between the French pavilion at Disneyland and Paris. No contest.

technorati tags: real, athenitc, andywarhol, jacksonpollock

Connect the Dots

What if artists today would focus on ways to imagine peace, instead of reacting to war? Can we shift our vision to the glass half full? The artist is a visionary, imagining new ways of doing things. With this question I also suggest we are all artists...

technorati tags: peace, art, artists, vision, Internationaldayofpeace

Peace as Art

How can peace be expressed through art? Guernica, one of the most famous paintings depicting the horrors of war, is just that. An awesome depiction of the horrors of war. It's heroic jumble of bodies, seen though the eyes of the master, Picasso, tears at your heart in its power.

technorati tags: art, war, peace, picasso, guernica

Another blogging artist

Artist John T. Unger blogs about making a career as an artist with the blog as a portal. I love an artist who still calls himself an artist!

technorati tags: art, sellingart, blogging, artist, studio,

Dots

I love dots. They are like a universal language. This is an aboriginal artwork (Australia).

technorati tags: dots, australia, art,

Natural Capitalism

Great interview on Treehugger with Hunter Lovins, co-author of Naural Capitalism. She talks about developing a sustainable world as a marathon, not a sprint and balancing our efforts with nourishing, small actions. Taking care of ourselves and each other in the process of visualizing and creating a better world takes time, persistance and pacing. The fruits of our labors will be there for the next generation to continue to build. The slow road. It's the only way.

technorati tags: naturalcapitalism, hunterlovins, sustainable, future,

Indie retailers in Metropolis

Amy at Greenjeans points to an article in this month's Metropolis Magazine about indie retailers. Her store in Brooklyn is highlighted as well as others nationwide. The idea is a curated store experience, stores whose focus is out of the box, and well, independent. A non-big box shopping experience for those who prefer rare finds by hunters of wonderful objects, music and the stuff we put into our lives.

Hunting and gathering taken to new level.

technorati tags: art, craft, design, shopping, independent, trend,

Influence, inspiration and relationships

How do ideas and relationships form who we are? This is a question I have entertained my brain with most of my life. As an artist, I have beeen informed by artists throughout history, some more than others, but I have certainly built my current vision on the influence and inspiration of those artists who broke ground before me. My work itself is about relationships, how the intersection of knowing another impacts our development, a lot when we are young, but contiually through out our lives. A compelling conversation, book or media story affects how I think, how I view the world and can and will impact my choices. Knowing others changes me. Loving others changes me in profound ways. Loving others means I seek ways not to hurt them. It means I may change my behaviour, outlook and as a result even who I am as a person.

The sculpture in this photo is my attempt to show this process in an art context. The vases are nested, the bottles lean into eachother. The small vases seek the comfort and protection of the larger pieces. All metaphoric, abstract and impossible without the groundwork of potters, painters and sculptors who preceed me on this path.

technorati tags: art, metaphor, craft, relationships, influence, inspiration