Tim Johnstone weaves

Bare foot cane climbing!

Over the four days of the project we worked early and late - avoiding the hottest part of the day, we built the main structure from the large bamboo-like European Cane Arundo donax, the same stuff that bassoon and oboe reeds are made from - alongside fences, roofing panels, baskets, bee hives, toys and no doubt many other things. The combination of Cane and Willow and sometimes Olive branches is a distinctive feature of Catalan basketmaking. With this in mind working alongside the makers from the Catalan Association brought a great wealth of material knowledge to compliment my own ideas about the structure and form of the project.

Text and image from here

Tim Johnston's work is captivating. He does a lot more than weavings and if you poke around his website and blog you see what I mean! I found his work a few years ago and  was delighted to get to this link today as I dont remember it being easy to find much in 2010 on this artist's stunning work.

His website and blog has lots of excellent images and info ... do go have a look wont you! Well worth the journey!


LOVE this found here















thorny issues ....




 see connections



















and the biggest wow factor of all.... found here











I'm inspired ... makes me want to go live in the bush somewhere so I can explore the landscape! So far I have not managed to sway my family to consider leaving the city precinct during our house-hunting days ... so not sure when a house in the country will be in my sight.

Still there are always the weekends and holidays.

Enjoy our week wont you!

what's to be cultivated in 2011?

   HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
hello there... 1st post for the new year and I'm offering something I recently found and had saved... I liked this thought found through the artist's website.




If you put a seed in the ground, the seed doesn't stop growing. You put it in the soil, and that bulb grows every second that it's attached to the earth. That's why I think that every minute we're attached to the earth, we should be doing something."
-Ruth Asawa

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This stunning work is by artist Ruth Asawa - reads more here at Community of Creatives - San Fransisco Visual Creative community 1945 to 1970. Ive found seed pods that resemble this form quite closely and have loved drawing them.... so this is such a treat discover. More Seed -related discoveries can be found on this post here.

'

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Ruth Asawa in her home with sculptures, 1954

1954 Crotcheted iron wire (24" diameter)

Ruth holding a paper fold in which she has already painted a pattern, circa 1975.

visit these 2 sites to see more: 


 ruth agawa
                                               
 community of creatives 



The website contains many links to her extraordinarily interesting story and involvements.



This lead me to recall the extraordinary work of late Australian artist  - Bronwyn Oliver.

Sakura, 2006 copper 48 x 48 x 20cm

Flare, 1997 - copper 50 x 50 x 14cm

World her oyster...Bronwyn Oliver in her studio.
Photo: Danielle Smith

Represented by Gallery: Roslyn Oxley


well.... my blogosphere friends ... may 2011 see you planting seeds to have them thrive and grow into all that you might hope for ... wishing you well with cultivating... and an abundant harvest!!!
S x

a little bit of heaven...

My idea of wonderful would be to discover this place as I strolled along a city street on a hot day...

and to find that after gazing at all the marvellous potted plants that look rather like a vertical garden

you could enter a front door which at first you didn't really notice so busy were your eyes gazing at everything

stepping inside the peace and cool air would hit you instantly and you would be seduced to sit and order a delicious lunch from this cafe/flower shop in downtown Tokyo.

Read about this at INHABITAT ... who wants to come with?

also on a botanical theme...with a slight whimsical bent...

from a post i did last year....read more here!

and a really clever artist working metal into lace... click here!

and if you want to know what on earth this is below ... go to the homage blog here.

short post tonight... its late...ciao,

S x

...over to South Africa this morning

a warm
thank you 

to Robyn Gordon,

 South African based,
a lively and 

passionate artist

working on carved 

wooden totems 

and panels.

Experiment by Robyn Gordon

This morning I received a note to say  Seed pod inspiration story was posted. Robyn had made contact re using images with various other artists working with this source of inspiration. So I am delighted to find my clan... or more precisely... to be included with this fine company in a wonderful Post. Thank you Robyn...there's so much to explore at this post and something fresh to bring to the Homage to the seed blog!

Wild dagga, Leonotis leonorus

Art Propelled is exciting to explore for many reasons - seeing what Robyn is working on is always a treat, but there are posts on books she loves, interiors, places she visits like this image above taken at the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu. Her features of artists are broad-reaching and excellent and I find her African sensibility draws her to post things that have a particularly of the earth feel to them... ancient, dimensional, rich, but also various and unexpected at times.

Here's something from Dec 4 2008...

Swans nest maze, 40 m dimeter earthwork. Read more here.

I'll finish with the last image on her seed pod story... from the Omo tribe, body paint and decorations. Photo by Hans Silvester.

Lost Found Art via Art Propelled

Robyn Gordon's wonderful blog Art Propelled is full of treasures. Tonight I happened to visit again and find these collections with a great story - Dec 2nd 09 - about how an interesting business started up for Mark Indursky of Lost Found Art .

Also loved the friday Nov 27 post on Sarah Mitchell - 'tied up with string' featuring this wonderful image below:

from flickr -  little paperbird: sarah mitchell - concertina books

To see Robyn's intriguing and detailed artwork in wood go to flickr.

Posted on Nov 19 was the introduction of a newly published book titled HOT AFRO by Craig Fraser which features the interiors of Neville Trickett some of you may have seen at the excellent saint verde blog. Below the image is from Gerhard Swart and Anthony Harris.

Thanks to Robyn for the inspiration and excellent journey into Africa without leaving home.....actually, I would be wrong in suggesting all that she posts on hails from the African continent - however - there is a distinct flavour and sensibility in what she brings to us that I sense is very much an African one!

I've still got my first Derwent colour pencils...

But I dont think Jen Maestre does... I imagine they may well have ended up in an art work and be long gone. Then again...its curious what people save - I should talk! Here is a sample of what  Jen does with off-cuts from her work as a sculptor. I found her on the Data Is Nature blog feature on the post below. When she returned my email she reported having visited Australia 10 years ago and said she loved being reminded of the Indigenous woven forms she had seen then when reading about the 'Floating Life" exhibit I posted on 3 days ago currently at Brisbane's GoMA.

Sunshine oculus pencil pendant  shown at  jenmaestre.etsy.com

Artists the world over are often to be found innovating something in their studios that is a sideline to their main Art Practice, making the most of left over material where possible, or utilising hard won skills into something streamlined to sell at affordable prices. Its a bonus when the by-product of the larger work bears fruit in this way...and does not diminish, but enhances the other work. There is a strong element of fine craftsmanship in producing work over a life-time and sometimes the application to producing smaller fine works can be the discipline that can add significantly to an Art Practice - of course depending on the nature of the work and artist's intention.

Perhaps in one's student years, when cash may be in extremely short supply - corners are cut - but it is gratifying to see the shift in awareness of materials that is part of the Artist's maturation process, despite the ongoing need for thrift that is often the case for a great many practitioners..

dataisnature.com

Found at DATA IS NATURE this evening via the wonderful BibliOdyssey:

Pencil Point Creatures - Jennifer Maestre

Aurora - Jennifer Maestra   - Posted 13.5.09  undulating sculptures reminiscent of anenomes, sea urchins and starfish utilising sharpened coloured pencils as a medium.

Post: 17.7.09  Flickr Fruits # 29 -

Tree foregrounded in a Soap Bubble by Richard Heeks (richard.heeks photostream)

Below:  Geom III - Re:void Flickr - Gwen Vanhee's photostream

Below:  Feildlines: toxi's photostream

Post : 29.4.09  Linn Meyers - Undulation, interference & turbulence

Linn Meyers produces complex organic geometric drawings. If you go to her website and click on drawings look at number 8 - spectacular! Below is an untitled ink drawing on the wall at the Morgan Lehman Gallery, NYC, 2009.

And last of all a post from 9.4.09 titled:  Twittering Machines

Here a fascinating connection is made. Ponder this - to quote Dataisnaure: "any excuse to post a picture, and reference, one of Dataisnature's favourite Paul Klee drawings is always welcome".

Twitter Visualised - Scott Templar       &       Twittering Machine - Paul Klee

There is so much on on this amazing weblink to explore...but for now...its time to go!