Tag: awesome women

December 4, 2012

Evelyn Ackerman(1924-2012): Mid-Century Modern Orange

Evelyn Ackerman, Seed Pods, dish enamel on copper, 1960

Evelyn Ackerman was born in 1924 in Detroit, and died at the end of 2012 at the age of 88. She worked in a multiplicity of mediums, from enamels on copper, to mosaics, tapestries, and woodcarvings. Evelyn and her husband Jerome were a Dynamic Duo. In 1949 they went to an exhibit at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, For Modern Living, which introduced them to post-war design, including Ray and Charles Eames. As Jerome Ackerman relates:

“Evvy and I looked at each other,” recalls Jerome, “and very prophetically said, ‘If the Eameses can do it, maybe we can do it. Or at least, we can try.’”

They set up a studio together in 1950’s California, and became lifelong friends with another Dynamic Duo, Gertrud and Otto Natzler(who also favored orange). I am inspired by the generative spark in the Ackerman duo, and glad that they had a chance to witness a retrospective of their work, “Masters of Mid-Century California Modernism,” in 2010 at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego.

Many of Evelyn’s creations include splashes of orange, and the Cats mosaic table is enlivened with golden orange squares.

Evelyn Ackerman, Cats, mosaic table, 1954.

Evelyn worked with a mosaic workshop in Mexico, sending her colored drawings keyed to tile samples for artisans to set. I see orange. And it makes me happy, and I am grateful to Evelyn for such unabashed orange, and delight in creating.

More Orange Goodness at my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

Ackerman Modern: The Mid-Century Modern Works of Jerome & Evelyn Ackerman

Bonus Orange, evocative of Evelyn’s tapestry: Pink Orange Red by Cocteau Twins(a band I listened to over and over again on my cassette Walkman in the 1980’s. Note the hair.)

December 3, 2012

Margaret Watkins(1884-1969): From Canada to New York to Glasgow and from Photographer to Recluse

Margaret Watkins Untitled (glass bowls & glasses), c.1928 6.25 x 8.5 inches vintage palladium print

Margaret Watkins(1884-1969) was born in Hamilton, Ontario as “Meta Gladys” and transformed into a Margaret. Often Margaret’s start out with the name but become Peggy, Marge, Greta or Maggie. Margaret Watkins left Canada when she was 24, and worked at the Roycroft Craft Community in East Aurora, NY. I was happy to find that connection, because I spent my 40th birthday at the Roycroft Inn. She moved to New York City, studied photography with Clarence White, and then taught at White’s school, including photographers such as (another)Margaret Bourke White. Watkins created still life settings of domestic objects in her Greenwich Village apartment and many of her photographs were featured in magazines and in advertising.

Margaret Watkins, photographed in 1920 by Alice Boughton. (Collection of Joseph Mulholland)

Then Clarence White died, and he left photos to Watkins, but Mrs. White sued to get them back. Margaret Watkins took a trip to Europe in 1928, and never came back. She moved in with four maiden aunts in Glasgow, and took care of them. I wonder about this transformation in her life, from adventurous young woman moving to another country, and operating her own photography studio, to a recluse in an old family house in Scotland. One of her notes on a scrap of paper:

I miss the artistic crowd most desperately. Collectively they may have every failing under the sun, but, in spite of their sins (or because of them) they have a strange gleam of vision, something worth striving for, something a bit beyond the end of their small human noses.(In Pictures: The Hidden World of Margaret Watkins)

In 1968, Joseph Mulholland, a journalist, moved in across the street and he and Margaret because friends. She handed him a box and told him not to open it until after her death, and when she died in 1969, Mulholland was amazed to discover photos from her studio, and magazines; he was amazed because she never mentioned her past life as a photographer. He found her trunks still packed for a return trip to NY, and many more photos in her house, and has devoted 40 years to showing her work.I take heart in Joseph Mulholland’s championing of Margaret Watkins’ work. It’s as if her life was embedded in film negatives, lost in a drawer for decades, and then discovered by a friend, developed and brought back to life.

Posted by: TP Newswire Tags: Margaret Watkins, Margaret Watkins Canada, Margaret Watkins Images, Margaret Watkins Photography, Margaret Watkins Photos, National Gallery of Canada

Margaret Watkins: Domestic Symphonies

05 Oct 2012 – 06 Jan 2013

Prints, Drawings and Photographs Galleries

Margaret Watkins made a name for herself during the 1920s in the world of commercial photography with the staging of everyday objects, such as soap, gloves and a pack of cigarettes, making them attractive and desirable. This exhibition of some 90 photographs will be the first retrospective of this important Canadian Modernist photographer.

Organized by the National Gallery of Canada.

More Margarets at my Margaret Pinterest Board

November 19, 2012

A Mosaic Pendant Giveaway Hosted by Photographer Kerri Farley

Blue Jay Mosaic by Wayne Stratz Inspired by Kerri Farley’s Photo

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

~ Thomas Merton

Kerri Farley has been an inspiration, with her bird and nature photography(and her choice of quotes), and Stratoz was particularly taken with her Blue Jay – Sweet Soul Shining Through and he asked if he could do a glass interpretation and she said yes, and he created Kerri’s Blue Jay. As the Blue Jay wended its way to its new home with an old friend, Kerri purchased one of my pendants and went on its way to her!

Kerri said she loved her pendant even more in person, and featured it as part of her Macro Monday, with exquisitely detailed macro shots, and we joined together to do a giveaway of one of my 1″ mosaic pendants from my Nutmeg Designs Etsy Shop.

Kerri Farley’s Guest Post for Orange Tuesday.

Congratulations to Dawn of Dawns bloggy blog for winning a pendant of her choice.

November 15, 2012

Color Can Be Learned: Nita Leland and Exploring Color

Alas, Nita Leland’s Exploring Color: How to Use and Control Color in Your Painting is out of print, but used copies are still around. I found a copy at the public library in 2004, and was entranced with Nita Leland’s assertion that color can be learned. As I explored collage and other visual mediums, I noticed how strongly I responded to color, and I wanted to understand this language of hue and tone and contrast. I took a watercolor class, and all I wanted to do was mix colors, which didn’t translate into actually painting much.

RYB Color Wheel rgbcoded

It was exciting having a name for why two colors practically vibrate next to each other(ie. orange and blue, complementary colors), and learning how colors transition into each other around a color wheel. I found my notebook of color experiments, and it brought back the thrill of trying these combinations out for myself. I played with a “tetrad” of red-orange/yellow-green/blue-violet/blue-green.I wrote a page of anxious notes about whether the colors were what I thought they were, but that’s part of what happens with colors. They shift and shimmer depending on context. Fortunately, I wrote at the end the page that I really liked the red of the ship against the blue, and the yellow-green against the red-orange. Color sense cannot be completely articulated in words, and along with learning the language color, I’ve also learned about the unspoken nature of color.

November 12, 2012

Margaret Peot: Artist, Costume Painter, Writer

The Creation of the World According to Birds, 16 x 20, Margaret Peot, 2008

Looking for Margarets has led to me to so many interesting women, but I found Margaret Peot because of looking for images about the Alexander Technique on Pinterest, and she had an Alexander board. Fortunately for me, Margaret Peot also had a board of her woodcut art, and in looking for more about her, I also discovered she works as a Costume Painter at Parson-Meares, LTD, for Broadway shows. Such awesomeness to know there is such a job as painting costumes! Check the costume fabulousness on her site, from mermaid scales for Bette Midler, a suit of flames for David Byrne, and fur for Flying monkeys.

Margaret Peot is also an author of books about making alternative journals and cards, ink blot art, and The Successful Artist’s Career Guide. In an interview on ArtistsNetworkTV, she mentions her mother’s recollection that Margaret would say she was going to be an artist until she was 40, and then write books, and this has come true.

More Margarets on my Margarets Pinterest Board.

November 10, 2012

Studio Listening on Saturday: Dorothy Ashby’s Hip Harp and In a Minor Groove

Dorothy Ashby – Article from Detroit Magazine – Nov 13, 1966 (An Insert Supplement for The Detroit Free Press) Features Article ” Dorothy Ashby At the Cafe Gourmet” An in depth article on Dorothy Ashby as a jazz musician. From beyondrecords.

Curt’s Jazz Cafe blog has a wonderful Unsung Women of Jazz series, and on Curt’s recommendation I checked out Dorothy Ashby, and have been listening to Hip Harp and In a Minor Groove in the studio. Every time I listen, I catch a few bars where I’m not sure what instrument she’s playing, and then I remember it’s the harp. Dorothy Ashby and her husband had a theatre company in Detroit, and her creativity manifested in composing, playing, and in finding ways to make the harp hip to other jazz musicians. Frank Wess plays flute on In a Minor Groove, and I am glad to be introduced to him via Dorothy Ashby. I could only imagine playing with his tone when I was taking flute lessons.

October 16, 2012

Fabric Topographies: The Textured Beauty of Kirsten Chursinoff’s Textile Art

Kirsten Chursinoff, Patina 2008, textile, thread, 21″ X 17″ framed

My friend Di of The Kitchen Door sent me a link to Kirsten Chursinoff‘s textile art, introducing me to this Vancouver, BC artist, who has a lively color sense and incredible surface detail. In her biography, Kirsten describes her involvement with needlework since the age of 5 when she embroidered her first iron-on transfer butterfly, which reminded me of my brief encounter with embroidery at age 9 or 10, and this very type of butterfly. I found the process of transfer magical, ironing the white paper pattern, with its blue lines. I pored over the instructions, and reveled in the colors of embroidery floss, but the actual stitching was a struggle.

As a mosaicist, I am drawn to the texture of her work, because what first drew me to embroidery was built up surfaces of french knots and satin stitch. Glass was to become my way of creating surface topography, and as much as I love it, there is still something intriguing about the suppleness of embroidery. Kirsten combines free motion machine stitching with hand stitching and building up of layers and uses “secret ingredients” such as the bits of loose thread that tangle up along the raw edges of fabric when you wash it.

I also feel kinship with the improvisatory nature of Kirsten Chursinoff’s work: “I never know exactly what a piece will look like until it is completed, but the anticipation continues to drives me forward.” The iron-on butterfly of her childhood has lifted off into flights through flowers, and the beauties of the natural world.

More orange goodness on my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

August 27, 2012

More Margaret De Patta Love: Her Art Jewelry as Wearable Sculpture and Playing with Light

Margaret De Patta “Portrait of Margaret De Patta” 1955 photo: Barbara Cannon Myers

Margaret De Patta was my first “Margaret Monday” feature and I’m revisiting her because the Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta is at the Museum of Art and Desig n through September 23rd, 2012. MONDOBLOGO wrote an exuberant post about Margaret De Patta and how her previous blog post was about wire sculptor Ruth Asawa, and then she found a photo of the DePatta in front of her own Asawa piece. I love connections like this, and MONDOBLOGO had a photo of Asawa’s wedding ring, designed by Buckminster Fuller, another favorite of mine.

Margaret de Patta photographed by Imogen Cunningham in front of her Ruth Asawa piece

Bella Neyman has an illuminating interview with Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator of the Margaret De Patta Exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design, about the sculptural quality of De Patta’s designs, and her use of “opticuts“(intricate faceting of stones to show their interiors with lapidary Francis Sperisen), and one of these she traded for the Ruth Asawa wire sculpture.

Photo courtesy of Ed Watkins. Rupert Deese’s design for Margaret De Patta’s work at MAD.

Neyman points to an interview with Rupert Deese, who designed the exhibit, which is an artwork unto itself. I was enchanted by Deese’s care for the display of De Patta’s work, his desire to bring the pieces to eye-level, to make their monumental presence known, in spite of being 3 inches at most. As a solution, he created lighted plexiglass cylinders suspended from columns. Deese describes an element from Moholy-Nagy, a teacher of Margaret De Patta:

Moholy-Nagy’s work definitely recognizes that everything is in flux, and therefore, flux should be recognized. And when somebody’s wearing jewelry, it’s a performance. You know, your earrings are fairly static, but nonetheless, they’re there, they move when you move.

Ilse-Neuman sums this up in the title of her article The Transcendent Jewelry of Margaret De Patta: Vision in Motion. Vision in Motion.

De Patta brooch with a Sperisen double lens “opti-cut” smoky quartz. When observed by a spectator, the stone creates a “see through” effect that distorts and gives the illusion of movement to the chased decorated surface behind the gemstone.
Photo by Margaret De Patta.

Space-Light-Structure at: Museum of Art and Desig n, New York City, June 5th, 2012-September 23rd, 2012, Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta.

Margaret De Patta’s Wearable Art of Space-Light-Structure

Groundbreaking Jeweler: Margaret De Patta

More photos at my Margarets Pinterest Board.

July 10, 2012

Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot(1921-) at the Berman Museum of Art in Collegeville, PA

Francoise Gilot, Self-Portrait

I can’t help but be endeared by an artist who paints her self-portrait with such orange-ness! Stratoz and I went to see the Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot summer 2012 exhibit at the Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College to escape the heat and be refreshed by art.

Gilot turned 90 in 2012, and is featured in Vogue, in an article called Life After Picasso. She was with Picasso from 1943-1953, starting when she was 21, and he was 61. Gilot left Picasso, who told her she was “headed into the desert” without him, that she would only be a curiosity, someone defined by intimacy with Picasso. When I read who her next husband was, I thought, “that can’t be the actual Jonas Salk, developer of the first polio vaccine. . .” but that’s who it was. I am also endeared by her account of meeting him:

On a trip to Los Angeles in 1969, a friend introduced her to Jonas Salk. She had no interest in meeting him—she thought scientists were boring. But soon afterward, he came to New York and invited her to have tea at Rumplemayer’s. “He didn’t have tea; he ordered pistachio and tangerine ice cream,” she recalls. “I thought, Well, a scientist who orders pistachio and tangerine ice cream at five o’clock in the afternoon is not like everybody else!”

TRANSITIONS: WORKS BY FRANÇOISE GILOT

Main Gallery
Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA

June 1 to Sept. 23, 2012

Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot focuses on the evolution of Gilot’s approach to composition and color beginning with her seminal Labyrinth Series and including key works into the 21^st century. Rich abstraction in a bold, powerful palette, a mainstay of her work, transitions to references to the figure, botanicals, and still life. Iconic images such as orbs, birds, water and earth elements are investigated in tandem with color juxtapositions that are built up from layers and layers of pigment.

The exhibition is curated by Mel Yoakum, Ph.D., author of Stone Echoes: Original Prints by Francoise Gilot and a scholar of her work.

More orange goodness at my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

June 4, 2012

Clothing her Children with Clay: Margaret Tafoya(1904-2001)

Margaret Tafoya from Pottery by American Indian Women by Susan Peterson.

I was born in Albuquerque, where my father was going to the University of New Mexico, but we moved to Canada when I was a baby. We were probably the only family in Edmonton with a subscription to New Mexico magazine. When I was a girl, my parents bought several pieces of pottery from New Mexico. The pots were polished black with matte designs emerging from the gleam. I was fascinated by the contrast of surfaces, of shiny and porous, how the black could be of two natures.

Margaret Tafoya, Santa Clara Blackware from Christie’s Catalog.

I came across the carved and polished blackware of Tewa artist Margaret Tafoya(1904-2001),from the Santa Clara Pueblo in NM. She was from a family of potters, and learned from her parents, Sarafina and Geronimo Tafoya. Margaret married Alcario Tafoya(who had the same last name as she did), and together they also worked together making and selling pottery to support their family of 13 children. Many of these children have gone on to make their own pottery. In 1984, Margaret Tafoya won an NEA Heritage Fellowship in honor of her work. She dug the clay at the Pueblo, and used the traditional coil method, and burnishing the surface with polishing stones.

In Bowing to the Artist Within, Nancy Azara describes Margaret Tafoya’s prayer to Mother Clay, and how, “In Tewa, the language of Santa Clara, uses the same word, nung, to mean both people and clay. As potters work the clay, the pot and the person are intimately connected. The shape that becomes the pot embodies the spirit of both.”