Soon after Navio Artisan Collective suggested I create a teapot for an upcoming show, I noticed a bright red teapot on my neighbor's stove. I thought the shape perfect, as it captured exactly the teapot form I recall from childhood. The shape was so appealing, so steady and calming, that I felt compelled to make one, but in white oak, and three times the size of the original.

The open design is of tea plant leaves, and the tea flowers are created using 12,000 dressmaker pins. Each pin was cut by hand, with the last 1/4 inch tapped into the pot.

Thanks to Jean & Arthur Bennett for generously loaning me their teapot for this project.

The ArtPrize Experience

Remember me talking about ArtPrize in the last newsletter? It's the public art exhibit held in Grand Rapids, Michigan where the public decides who gets the prize money (a cool $250,000 to the winner). I submitted my giant bench, titled "Time Cannot Exist Without Memory," which is intended of course to make people sitting on it feel like they are 6 years old again. The bench was shown outside the Public Museum. It was a lot of driving, two trips out and back at 1000 miles each way, but what a hoot. The city rocked. And, no, I didn't win a thing, but had a great time being part of this unique experience.

This is kind of old news, but many don't know that Secrets, a book sculpture carved from maple, was purchased while on exhibit in Silver Spring, MD last year. The buyer offered it to the University of Wisconsin, who accepted it. It now resides permanently in the Kohler Art Library, Madison, Wisconsin.

The page segments are carved from separate blocks of wood. Before assembling the sculpture I carved text on the pages, but what I said cannot be read now.

Rant of the Month

OK, I have a request of curators. Please, please, please put a small paragraph of explanation next to art works that need it. Most of us don't know the context or background of some work, so some historical context would really help. Then we'd have a better chance of knowing what the work we are looking at is about, and why it's important enough to be in a museum. Then it's up to us to make our judgements and interpretations. But, without context, many of us leave galleries frustrated. It doesn't seem to me that's in the art world's best interests. So ... please ... a little help from the curators?

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jmagnan@johnmagnan.com • 22 Centre Street • New Bedford, MA 02740 • 508-999-5051