December 2011 | Daily Art Muse

Monthly Archives: December 2011

dean lucker & ann wood’s mechanical sculptures are visual poetry

Written on December 13, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Wood

Dean Lucker builds mechanical sculptures and Ann Wood is a mixed media painter. They have never worked as individual artists – Lucker and Wood “share a studio like we share a life.” The husband and wife team have collaborated on art and life for more than 25 years.

I have included a few images of their mechanical pictures (as opposed to their mechanical sculptures), although I could not find any pictures that truly do this work justice. However, the video above, from MN Original, a weekly series that celebrates Minnesota’s creative community, showcases the sculpture and the artists quite beautifully.

Winking Moon, 14″ x 8″ x 1.5″

As you press the handle, the gentleman’s arm raises a flower to his nose as the moon’s eye winks. The moon gently reassures the man of his romantic spirit.

I Will Always Love You, 13″ x 8″ x 2″, closed

I Will Always Love You, open

This mechanical picture has a brass lever that when pressed will cause the girl to open a fan shaped folded card with the message “I Will Always Love You.”

Dean Lucker and Ann Wood’s website

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shannon weber: if it bends. . .

Written on December 9, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in encaustic, Featured, Fiber

When I first wrote about self-taught artist Shannon Weber back in 2007 (remember my Empty Vessel blog?) I loved her work, color sense and her sensibility regarding life’s obstacles – still true almost five years later.

Private Parties

Weber uses chewed beaver sticks, reclaimed metal, willow, sea kelp, sea grass roots, dyes and more to create her unique over-sized baskets and assembled collages. Her motto? “If it bends, I use it!”

Watch the excellent video above to get a glimpse of Weber’s world

Life Guard Towers, beaver sticks, kelp bulbs, beach glass, waxed linen

Weaving stitching and tying her materials together, one could say she does it in a fashion that mimics the way she weaves the obstacles life throws at her into the tapestry of her own life.

From my 2007 post: “The common denominator in moving this talented weaver’s career ahead might be dark clouds, but don’t discount Weber’s soul-shifting ability to laugh out loud and jump into the fray. After all, ‘it started with a giggle.’”

Orbit, 57″ in circumference. It’s almost as wide as I am tall!

Well Traveled

Shannon Weber, photo via Register Guard

Shannon Weber’s website

The video on ArtBeat

My original post on The Empty Vessel

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look what lucrezia bieler does with a sheet of paper and scissors

Written on December 8, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Paper

Lucrezia Bieler began her art career as a scientific illustrator. The Swiss artist, who now calls Tallahassee Florida home, uses only a pair of scissors to cut thread-width lines in a sheet of paper, creating fairy-tale-like scenes from her vivid imagination.

[Click on the images to see them full size. Amazing.]

Evil Bunny Rabbits Are Tempting Me With Their Fluffy Fur

“The fox is dreaming about his existence. He has front legs of a rabbit and not those of a fox because he feels sympathy for the rabbits that he eats and tries to relate to them (evoking the proverb: “to be in someone else’s shoes”). When you look at his eyes, you can see that one of the eyes looks sad and the other look vicious, as if he would have bipolar disorder. So you can see in his eyes the yin/yang that’s in every creature. The forest that surrounds the fox shows the life cycle of the rabbit.”

Kokopelli

Bieler cutting Kokopelli

Polar Star

“All of my cuttings are cut out of a single sheet of paper. That means that the remaining design is still one piece of paper. The only instrument that I am using is a pair of small scissors.” Lucrezia Bieler

Lucrezia Bieler’s website
More here.

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mary donald finds the poetry in everyday materials

Written on December 6, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Featured, Plastic, Recycled

For Mary Donald, part of creating unconventional jewelry means satisfying her penchant for experimentation. She accomplishes this by searching for and collecting unorthodox materials, including the mixed plastics shown here.

Tribe Cane Necklace, mixed plastics, oxidized silver

Siblings III, mixed plastics, oxidized silver

Minus Cuffs, rubber, nylon, oxidized silver

SoHo Bracelet, mixed plastics, oxidized silver

Trace Bracelet, rubber, nylon, oxidized silver

Scout & Jem Pendants, mixed plastics, oxidized silver

Pierced and Pieced Rocker Bracelet, rubber, nylon, silver

I’ve discovered a kind of poetry in every day materials, images and objects that often seems absent in traditional jewelery. The subversive act of rescuing materials destined for the dumpster motivates me further or simply repurposing various found goods. Taking the time to craft orange peels, cheap plastics, spent inner tubes and other odds and ends into “gems” intended to adorn the human body — where gold and diamonds are the tradition — or sometimes combining ordinary and/or waste materials with traditional precious materials, brings tension to the completed works.

The California based artist holds a Master of Fine Arts degree with a concentration on Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a focus on Painting.

Mary Donald’s website

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kina crow: humor as the pressure valve of consciousness

Written on December 5, 2011 by Susan Lomuto in Ceramic, Featured

I am finally feeling like myself again after almost two weeks of being held hostage by a wicked virus. A big thank you to Kina Crow – her figurative sculptures gave me the chuckle I needed today as I re-enter the world.

Cleaning Day Again

Playing With Myself
A solitaire game, the object of which is to “jump” and remove each of the 33 mini heads, one, by one…until you have only one little head…(or little voice in your head) remaining

Moody Judy
interchangeable heads – pick your mood and put it on the body, 28″ x 28″

The self-taught artist left a 25-year career as a costume supervisor in the film industry to pursue her art – in this case childlike, figurative objects with a narrative that helps them take on a life of their own.

A Circular Motion
31 ” x 16 ” x 16 ” ceramic, metal, wood turntable

“This is my visual reference to the all the good intentions that so many of us have and the bad, bad habits that seem to over-ride them……continuously…….over and over……in a circular motion.”

The Reason I Don’t Sleep At Night

“I am becoming increasingly intrigued by human behavior. The vast territory of the mind and it’s secret little spaces supply me with endless amounts of inspiration and abundant humor. I feel as though humor is the pressure valve of consciousness, a welcome respite from the austere rulings of that fat -headed bastard the ego, who has a tendency to let us all take our selves & lives a bit too seriously at times. I am also prone explore the regions of the sublime and the strange feelings of completion it is capable of creating.”

Kina Crow’s website

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Twice a week until the end of the year subscribers will receive free, high-resolution image downloads from my personal collection of photographs.

Seasonal and holiday images, text-messages, images from nature and more…I’m celebrating life! {Hurry – the first image will be sent to subscribers on Tuesday, December 6th.}

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