ED ITORS’ LETTER
In Transition
R endering change in art, nature and life
through engagement w ith craft.
Beth Lipman
Combine
#/, 2006,
C print, 34 x 58 x і in.
As we wrap up this issue, winter has given
way to spring. New York City and its envi-
rons were inundated with rain and snow
over the past several months, but we are
finally feeling the warmth of the sun on out-
faces and seeing the trees blossoming. The
city has become a happier place.
Transformation tends to do this. Whether
it is a feeling of accomplishment, an end to
a long journey, or an answer to a perplexing
question being revealed, transformation
can bring a solid sense of comfort. Change
is not always simple or direct, but the idea
that it can be good should resonate with
those of us observing the craft world.
W e’ve tried to address some of the ways
people and things evolve through intense
engagement with craft.
Meribah Knight ventured into a Mis-
souri penitentiary to bear witness to the
transformational power of quilt making on
a group of incarcerated men who have com-
mitted serious and violent crimes. As she
observes, the communal act of piecing the
quilt blocks together ultimately for chari-
table purposes and in a spirit of camaraderie
has become a key to repairing the damage
past violence has done to themselves and
to society (“Breaking Patterns,” page 56).
An “earthier,” as it were, growth project
was recently undertaken by Lonny van
Ryswyck and Nadine Sterk, who operate
a design studio in the Netherlands. Their
goal, as writer Deborah Bishop explains it,
was to collect dirt from the farmlands of
the Northeast Polder and create tableware
for specific foods made from the clay found
in the soil where these crops are grown—in
other words, to discover links between har-
vest, earth and clay. Their finished pieces,
or Polderceramics, have been captured in
photographs that intentionally allude to the
lighting and mood of 17th-century Dutch
paintings (“Drawn from Clay,” page 46).
The paintings of this era were also the
inspiration for the astonishing glass installa-
tions of the Wisconsin artist Beth Lipman.
Though the source for the imagery is still
life, there’s nothing remotely “still” about
these exuberant tableaux rendered in clear
glass that transform the original subject
matter into what writer Jody Clowes
suggests is a critique of the obsessive mate-
rialism of our consumer culture even as
it celebrates the allure of luxury objects
(“Beth Lipman: Banquet Years,” page 36).
A spirit of evolution also seems apropos,
in an eerie way, to the porcelain, leather
and mixed-media animal sculptures of Ad-
elaide Paul. Starting with a taxidermist’s
mannequin and a sound knowledge of ani-
mal anatomy, Paul then develops the figures
through color and unsettling details—such
as mutilation—into fantastical creatures that
comment on the human commodification
of animals (Reviewed, page 32).
Much to think about, we hope, as spring
transforms into summer.*
Drop us a line:
Shannon Sharpe
ssharpeOcraftcouncil.org
Beverly Sanders
Christine Kaminsky
Correction
In the article “Hard Core Romance” in
the February/March issue, it was mistak-
enly stated that jewelry artist Lola Brooks
is an associate professor at the Rhode Island
School of Design. She is a visiting assistant
professor there.
06
amcrican craft june/july io
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