Happy Thanksgiving
All articles filed in November 2020
Look! I Made a Mug
Actually, I made two, and snatched them out of the studio before the Fleisher Art Memorial open Ceramics studio closed in response to the latest Coronavirus surge. We had been working in the studio since September with added precautions, masks, a limited number of people, and social distancing. But safety is more important.
I decided to try making a hand-built mug where the handle and walls of the mug were all one piece, and I would add a bottom. In pottery as in jewelry designing, making paper models saves a lot of time and materials. So I made a paper template for the mug.
And the scraps from the foot rings inspired me to make a covered jar with a fancy lid. I’ll do some cold finishing on this one.
Electricity from the Mind of Mildred Greenberg
Last week’s post which included a link to a film about the artist Judy Chicago got me thinking. If being an artist is challenging, being a woman artist is even more so. I saw a great exhibit at the Tate Modern a couple of years ago on the Guerilla Girls and one of my favorite parts of the show was their Advantages of Being a Woman Artist Poster. You can get a look at it here. And Jane Dunnewold has produced another excellent video, this one on Women Abstract Expressionists. You can watch that here.
I was not familiar with the work of Mildred Greenberg although I had known her daughter, Susan for many years and at one time we had even worked in the same office. Ancient history. We fell out of touch and the years passed. Then we got reacquainted, this time through my husband. And before the Coronavirus shut everything down, Susan invited us to the opening of a retrospective of her mother’s work presented by InLiquid, a Philadelphia Arts organization, ELECTRICITY: From the Mind of Mildred Greenberg.
Mildred Elfman Greenberg hailed from Philadelphia and much of her early work was produced for the W.P.A.s Federal Art Project during the Depression. Her bio from the British Museum, one of the many museums that have her work in their collection reads as follows. Painter and printmaker. Born as Elfman to Russian immigrant father and American mother in Philadelphia, where lived most of her life. Married Samuel Greenberg. Graduated from Moore Institute of art and Design in 1934; WPA 1940. No work between end WWII and 1974. That’s thirty years without making art. I believe at this time that the family had relocated from Philadelphia to California. It’s my understanding that Greenberg resumed her art career after moving back to Philadelphia in the 1970’s.
Later work
You can read more about Mildred Elfman Greenberg here.
New Videos
It’s election night and I don’t want to think about anything and I don’t know how I will feel tomorrow. So I decided to share two inspirational but non political offerings I found on you tube. The first is a video on the artist Judy Chicago by another artist I respect highly, Jane Dunnwold. I could go on with commentary, but there’s been too much of that lately. Just treat yourself and watch the video.
I’ve been enjoying the claying challenges put forth from the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild even though I haven’t made a cane in the past few weeks they’ve turned me on to some great tutorial sites. But I found one I really like and it’s too good not to share: Clay Zoo. The videos are subtitled and easy to follow. Take a look.
Ornamento 