The.Artist.DonaldB

“Art is not a luxury. It stands at the essence of our humanity and it asks for no special protection except the right to exist. It accepts argument, criticism, even rejection. It does not accept violence.” - Salman Rushdie

RIP

New graphic ceramic medium available from AMACO - American Art Clay Company

https://www.facebook.com/share/TX89D1v3N6Xn43SB/?mibextid=WC7FNe

This article discusses the repercussions of not having an estate plan in place for unsold artwork and the importance of having an executor who is knowledgeable in fine art.

Estate management a cornerstone of the preservation of Canadian culture — and a challenge for artists' families The concrete floor is covered in paint. Some of the splatter is a byproduct of a decades-long art career. Other swaths are embellishments to liven up the large garage studio, with brushstrokes that ma...

https://youtu.be/pi-IEBsZCVc?si=3CucrTlIiwM78dv8

Pottery and Revolution There were “rebellious” activities in colonial America well before the French and Indian War and the series of governmental acts that would eventually culmin...

It really is that simple.

The inaugural fundraiser for the Robert and Meridel Archambeau Award for Excellence in Craft. Information in the link below.

The Robert and Meridel Archambeau Award Fundraiser | C2 Centre for Craft The Robert and Meridel Archambeau Award Fundraiser Sunday, October 29, 2023 2:00 PM C2 Centre for Craft | 1-329 Cumberland Ave Parking and accessibility information Tickets $150 | Scroll down...

“Art washes away from the soul
the dust of everyday life.”
Pablo Picasso

INDIAN YELLOW

What does Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ have to do with mangoes?
The answer lies in the moon, which he painted using a vivid, orange-yellow pigment with an optical luminescence that seems to brighten in the sunlight – one of the most mysterious to ever reach a painter’s palette.
Its origins were Indian, of course, a land deeply in love with everything yellow, from saffron to carnations, the sun, and gold. Some of the most glorious art from the Mughal era used this particular yellow, draping gods and emperors, bringing flowers to life, depicting spring scenes of bucolic splendour.
The pigment reached Europe in soft brownish-yellow lumps which had to be washed and purified to extract the vibrant yellow phase, and was used as a watercolour until the Scots found a way to turn it into oil form. Nobody knew what it was made from, but the pungent, rank smell of ammonia suggested it contained urine, from camels maybe, or snakes. Other theories involved a mysterious bushy tree, or a complicated procedure involving plant sap precipitated into magnesium and boiled down until only the residue remained.

To unravel the mystery, the explorer, botanist and director of Kew Gardens Sir Joseph Ho**er eventually wrote a letter to the Indian Department of Revenue and Agriculture asking about the pigment’s source. The department sent an expert in Indian arts materials to the area where the pigment was thought to be manufactured, Bihar, on the northwestern corner of the country next to what is today Bangladesh.
He returned saying it actually came from Uttar Pradesh, to the west of Bihar, and more specifically the village of Mirzapur, where cowherds fed their animals exclusively with mango leaves then boiled their urine until only the bright yellow sediment remained.
The expert was appalled by the state of the cows, so unhealthy they seemed to die within a few years – which was to be expected, since mango leaves contain the toxin urushiol also found in poison ivy. The findings produced an uproar in the anti-animal cruelty circles, leading to protests and a law forbidding any further production of the pigment – just a couple of years after Van Gogh painted ‘The Starry Night’.

Incidentally, Van Gogh’s bodily and mental sufferings could have been caused by his passion for vibrant colours, since he loved to use a lead-based white primer and another type of yellow containing lead chromate. Lead has a toxic effect on the brain causing what is called “saturnine encephalopathy”, which may appear as epileptic fits and/or states of delirium leading to emotional, behavioural, senso-perception alterations, and states of obfuscation that may result in aggressive behaviour, often unleashed after the intake of small amounts of alcohol. All of it describing pretty well what happened on the fateful night of his self-mutilation, after drinking a little absinthe in the company of Gauguin. Their discussion became so heated that Van Gogh chased Gaugin with a razor blade, then cut off his own left ear.
Unfortunately, saturnism was only studied after the Industrial Revolution, when lead became widely used in paints, pipes, ceramics and as an additive to petrol. So many people started suffering from epileptic fits that the connection with lead was finally established.

Had to steal and add this...

Congratulations, Grace on your Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts
👏👏👏

Grace Nickel Grace Nickel is the winner of the 2023 Saidye Bronfman Award, a GGArts for excellence in fine crafts.

This April will mark the one year anniversary of the passing of one of North America’s foremost ceramic artists, Robert Archambeau, of whom I was a student at the School of Art - University of Manitoba, but who was also a friend.

“Those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end...”

A Life’s Story - ‘It was all about doing work that you believed in’ - Winnipeg Free Press Passages.

A Life's Story - 'It was about doing work that you believed in' - Winnipeg Free Press Passages Robert Archambeau, 89, leaves legacy as one of North Americaâ��s foremost ceramic artists By: Erik Pindera He was the son of glassblowers and bricklayers, a bodybuilding beatnik, and the first Manitoban to win the Governor General’s

What might have been... a different course in abstract art history had she revealed these works prior to her death.

Increasing homelessness
Increasing costs of living,
Agendas bent on destroying Healthcare for all.

Decades in the making
Age old unethical profiteers sucking the life out of the working class
People lost and aimlessly wandering the streets

All founded on past transgressions
Ceaseless class guerrilla warfare

The.Artist.DonaldB ©️

Education systems,
increasingly fail to reinforce foundation skills...
in favour of the flavour of the day.
What’s in the curriculum you say?
Certainly not critical thinking!

The.Artist.DonaldB ©️

Capitalists bent on global rule while falsely promoting a ‘free market’ system

Nothing is ever free
Not even the markets

Criminality knows this as they prey on the vulnerable
Rapacious Capitalists no less evil, but with “the law” on their side know this too.

The.Artist.DonaldB ©️

Theocratic brutality it still is a thing
Zealots abound legislating love

The.Artist.DonaldB ©️

Reality shows,
The digital colosseum,
New loaves of bread to satisfy the citizens
Thumbs up 👍
Thumbs down 👎

The.Artist.DonaldB ©️

Interesting art lamp base design by ceramic artist Vally Wieselthier (May 25, 1895 – September 1, 1945) Austrian-American ceramic artist.

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧 on Twitter “Lamp base by Vally Wieselthier for sale by Kinsky, Vienna. She was one of the innovative ceramicists of the Wiener Werkstätte, set up an independent studio and then emigrated to the USA.”

Art that protests in comfort

RIP.

Saddened to learn of Michael Simon's passing via Mark Shapiro. Michael Simon (b. 1947) made functional ceramic art in his studio in Athens, Georgia until around 2005 when his practice subsided due to illness. Fired in salt kilns with decorative motifs ranging from the geometric to the natural world, Simon, a student of Warren MacKenzie, absorbed aspects of Mingei ethos while developing a unique vision of American studio pottery.

Notable for many qualities of creativity and craft, Simon's pots hold inhabit a special realm. Often the wheel-thrown piece is a point of departure. Altered physically and optically ... geometric abstraction and nature-centered decoration of the surface are integrated through conversation with form, volume, and the tactile and meditative qualities of ceramic objects in daily use.

Michael Simon received his B.F.A. from the University of Minnesota and M.F.A. from the University of Georgia. In 2011, the University of North Carolina Press published "Evolution." The book, edited by Susan Stokes Roberts, with a foreword by Warren MacKenzie, introduction by Emily Galusha, essays by Mark Pharis and Glen R. Brown, author interview by Mark Shapiro. In 2013, the exhibition, "Pick of the Kiln: The Work of Michael Simon," was presented at the Georgia Museum of Art showcasing what Simon felt were his best pots from the past several decades. His work can be found in the Los Angeles County Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and is in The Rodger Corsaw Collection of Ceramic Art at Alfred University.

Mark Shapiro's interview with Michael Simon for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts is a treasure of reflections and insights about the potter's art. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-michael-simon-11797

Another ceramics legend is gone. May his potter’s wheel steadfastly remain spinning.

To all our friends...

On behalf of his family and the pottery crew, it is with great sadness I inform you that John Leach passed away peacefully yesterday evening (August 29th).

John Leach, 1939 - 2021
'Potters of the World Ignite!'