I love this show and I am so grateful that it happens in Denton every year. Not only do my students get to see some excellent work from an international selection of makers but some years I even get to participate! One of my newer pieces, Fort Worth Trash Chute, was selected for inclusion this year. The show runs from February 7 - May 9 with a reception on the 7th from 6-9. The juror this year was Beth C. McLaughlin, Chief Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. She will be giving a gallery talk on Thursday the 6th at 2:30.
Metal Complexions
Louver: Houston is on its way to….Houston, fittingly. It was selected for inclusion in the Houston Metal Arts Guild’s Metal Complexions Exhibition. The exhibition juror was Anna Walker, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The show takes place from February 2nd through the 28th at the Jung Center in Houston. In addition to an opening reception on Friday the 7th of February, from 6-9pm, there will be an exhibition Walk-through with Anna Walker on February 19, from 6:00-7:00 PM. If you are in the area I hope you will check it out!
Cityscape 2020
One of my louvers has traveled to South Korea! Louver: Las Vegas was accepted into the Cityscape 2020 exhibition at the CICA Museum in Gyeonggi-do. You can see more information about the exhibition here. I must say, I get a little jealous when my work gets to go places to which I have never been.
Westward Ho!!!
That is actually the name of the exhibition. It was curated by Gail Brown and is the companion exhibition to CraftForms 2019 at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania. It features work by a selection of artists living in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. I think it is exceptionally fitting that my contribution is Louver: Phoenix. You can learn more about both exhibitions here.
Louver: Phoenix
copper, vitreous enamel
8 x 14 x .5”
Texas Metals Symposium
I am honored to be one of the speakers at the Texas Metals Symposium this year. Rob Glover and his students always do a great job and it has been such a pleasure to attend in past years as a viewer. Getting to present is super-exciting! It will also be the final stop of the “Not-So-Lone-Star Studios: A Gathering of Texas Makers” exhibition artfully curated by Natalie Macellaio and Kathleen Janvier. This is your last chance to see the grouping before the pieces all go to their respective homes. The symposium is FREE but you need to register, which I recommend you do right now because they have filled up in the past. See you there!
Wearable Pewter Goes to France!
After a trip to the Windy City and a sojourn to Istanbul, the Wearable Pewter exhibition has decided to skip off to France. You can see all these glorious works at Alliages in Lille, September 21st through December 7th of 2019. I like the piece I made for this - it has a lovely weight when worn and it makes bell-like chimes as the pieces tap into one another. However, I must say that my favorite piece from the exhibition is by David Harper Clemons. He cleverly carved the wood in a way that causes the cast pewter to lock into place. These radiating planes create an etherial nimbus for one’s neck. If you find yourself in the area, please check out the show.
PEWTER: not just for tableware
I was really excited to be invited to participate in a Wearable Pewter exhibition. It is a material I have always wanted to work with but, as with so many things, I needed a purpose and a deadline to make it happen. Enter Teresa Faris and James Thurman and the Wearable Pewter exhibition. Its going to be at City Soles in Chicago during the 2019 SNAG conference, then it will travel to Ayse Taki Galerisi in Istanbul, Turkey and Alliages in Lille, France. In addition to myself, it includes work by David Clemmons, Umut Demirgüç Thurman, Dan DiCaprio, Teresa Faris, Frankie Flood, Kyle Patnaude, Juan, Riusech, Michael Rybicki, Donna Sweigart, James Thurman and Jennifer Wells. I hope you will join us for the reception on Thursday during SNAG’s Gallery Crawl from 5-8.
WEARABLE PEWTER EXHIBITION POSTCARD
Pendulous (necklace)
Pendulous (necklace) detail
Circling Back: An Exhibition
The event of a move often brings re-discoveries. When the Metalsmithing and Jewelry program at the University of North Texas moved into new facilities last summer, we found all kinds of things hiding in obscure storage areas. Among them was a box of my work from my years as an undergraduate student. I was simultaneously delighted by the find, confounded by what now seems like poor craftsmanship, and led to compare that work to what I have been doing lately. While my skills have changed, much of of the imagery and formal language that I am drawn to has not.
This prompted my interest in inviting a group of mid-career makers to exhibit one newer work paired with something they had made more than ten years previously. I hoped to provide them with an opportunity for the same moment of reflection that I had in being reunited with a box of dubious treasures from the past.
I would like to thank all the artists who agreed to participate in the exhibition. Mounting of the physical exhibition was supported with a UNT Small Grant and my travel to the conference received assistance from the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas. I would particularly like to thank my Chair, Lauren Lake, for looking under all the couch cushions.
Circling Back was organized in response to the Society of North American Goldsmith's call for proposals for the Adorned Spaces segment of the 2019 conference. It will be taking place in Chicago, Illinois from May 23rd through the 24th at the Palmer House Hilton with a reception from 5-8pm on Friday the 24th. The theme of the conference is "The Loop: Coming Full Circle. 50 Years of SNAG."
The website for this exhibition will remain active through April 2020.
Best of 2019
Two of my bollard necklaces will be touring with the Ohio Designer Craftsman’s Best of 2019 exhibition this summer. London Bollard and Viennese Hydrant and Bollards will be in the exhibition that is opening this Sunday May 5th at the Ohio Craft Museum and then moving to the Springfield Museum of Art on September 20th.
London Bollard
Viennese Hydrant and Bollards
Fewer Better Things review is out
I am pleased to announce that my review of Glenn Adamson’s Fewer Better Things is out in the newest edition of Metalsmith Magazine!
College Art Association Talk
I am so excited to be going to New York next week to speak at the College Art Association conference! I will take part in the session, Wish You Were Here: The Souvenir as Emblem of Regional Identity. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by! My panel was put together by Christopher J. Moore of Concordia University and Isabel Prochner of Syracuse University. It will take place Wednesday the 13th at 10:30 am at the New York Hilton Midtown - 2nd Floor - Nassau East. I will be presenting my body of work, You Are (the) Here and its relationship to cultural geography, personal identity, and the souvenir.
Photo by Chenli Ye
Looking Forward
I am very pleased to announce that I will be a speaker at Looking Forward: a contemporary blacksmithing and metal design symposium at Bryn Athyn College this coming summer. The organizers have put together a great lineup of artists/blacksmiths/designers and those who study their works. The symposium will take place from June 14 to 16, 2019. Its a great opportunity to have a conversation about the futures of metalworking. Please spread the word!
You Are (the) Here at Brookline Arts Center
I have a little solo show going up next week at the Brookline Arts Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, from November 9-December 21. If you are in the area I hope you will stop by. I am really excited about the cast resin replicas of my own torso that I made to “wear” the work in the exhibition.
Houston Goes to Nacogdoches
The wall piece, Louver: Houston, has made its was to Nacogdoches for the biennial Refined Exhibition at Stephen F. Austin State University. This year’s Juror was Perry A. Price, executive director of Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. I feel very fortunate to have had a piece selected. I will not be able to make it to the reception but perhaps you will! Its Friday the 26th at 6pm at the Reavley Gallery in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House. Price will give a talk at 5:15. The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.
Not-So-Lone Star Studios: A Gathering of Texas Makers
Natalie Macellaio and Kathleen Janvier have put together a beautiful exhibition of works by Texas Metalsmiths. I count myself quite lucky to be among them and am looking forward to the reception on Friday, September 14th from 6-8. Hope to see you there!
Book Review
Check out this month's Metalsmith Magazine for my review of Ezra Shale's "The Shape of Craft"
There is no party like a DMA Late Night!
I am super-excited to have been invited back to the Dallas Museum of Art for a gallery talk and show-and-tell! You will find me at 6:30 on Friday July 20th in the Power of Gold exhibition talking about some of the processes used. Then join me on the main concourse from 8-10 while I do a little chasing and answer questions from aspiring silversmiths!
In Flux: A Metalsmith's Journey
Friends Brian Jacoby and Betsy Davison were kind enough to invite me to speak at NOVA Labs in Reston, VA, at the end of the month. Come on by if you are in the neighborhood!
You can learn more about NOVA Labs Makerspace here.
Recent Works at the Delaplaine and a talk at Towson University
Tomorrow I am heading to Maryland for two very exciting opportunities!
Leslie D. Boyd of the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Area at Towson University is being so gracious as to host met for a talk excerpted from my History of Crafts Class, entitled "Foundations of the Studio Craft Movement." It will take place Thursday May 3rd at 6:30 in the Art Lecture Hall at the Center for the Arts.
I am pleased to be exhibiting at the Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, Maryland, from May 5 through June 24. If you are in the area, stop by and say 'hi' on the 5th. The reception is from 3-5pm.
UNT Metalsmithing Lineages
Big thanks to Umut and James Thurman for organizing a multi-generational exhibition of mentors and students affiliated with our the University of North Texas Metalsmithing and Jewelry Program now on view at UNT on the Square. The Lineages exhibition will be up through March 19th and is documented in a print-on-demand catalog available here.
