Scarab, my most recent book art object, is on display at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia through March 9, 2012 as part of their exhibit The Decorated Book. Visit www.philaathenaeum.org for hours and directions. See article below for more about the creation of Scarab.

Other Newsy stuff...

Looking To The Summer, A New Body Of Work, And Maybe A Show

After sort of lying fallow for the summer and fall, I've suddenly found my head exploding with new ideas that might just form the basis for a summer exhibition. Thanks to Lyn Keith for giving me wood lost on her family's Westport farm during Hurricane Irene. That Chinese chestnet, honey locust and black walnut piled in my studio is begging to become chunky abstract forms. And to my grad school classmate, Debra Kruse (look her up, her work is awesome), thanks for shuffling my brain with reminders of what a head game art can be. And to my wife Annie, thanks for working so hard on your own art. Your struggles and our discussions as you worked out your own thoughts were inspiring.

Anyway, I find myself already working on 6 projects in parallel, starting to play off of each other, with opportunities for new studio discoveries presenting themselves daily. I intend to close myself into that toasty studio of mine, put my head down, and dive into new stuff. Look for everything from abstract fish, recycled water bottles, a strangely modified dorge, even somthing to do with a QR code. Of course, some of my representational work will show up in there somwhere, too. Maybe even something with pins in it. There will always be pins, I guess.

If all goes well, by summer I should have a new body of work worthy of a solo exhibition. Hopefully, between now and then I can succesfully pitch my proposal to the right gallery.

An Inspiring Visit To The Harvard Business School

Recently I participated in a fascinating first-time project at the Harvard Business School. Created and managed by Studio2Sustain, a local environmental company dedicated to effecting change through education, the afternoon exercise involved the conceptualization of an aesthetically appealing sustainable energy sculpture. With no prior information about the task, the students were assigned to teams and immersed in a fast-paced leadership development situation in which they were required to build a scale model of their idea. Each team was constrained to using a limited box of material chosen and supplied by Studio2Sustain.

Invited by Studio2Sustain, I joined nine other "senior critics," each working a room of 90 students to coach and critique their design concept and model creation. I found the afternoon both challenging and rewarding. Before the project began, many thought that business students would be too far out of their element to create a sculpture. Once again my belief (and Studio2Sustain's) was reinforced that we humans are by nature a creative species. The incredible variety of ideas and visual creations developed in a matter of two hours by all the teams was amazing and encouraging.

I left feeling honored to have been included in this pilot project, and also hopeful that Harvard Business School is now working to produce future corporate leaders sensitized to the fragility of the environment.

In my last newsletter I told you about a project, inspired by my mother's and grandmother's thimbles. It seemed to be growing and growing. Well, it continues to grow. Besides expanding from the thimble to buttons, as I mentioned last time, a friend loaned me a 100-yr-piece of lace tatting from her grandmother, challenging me to replicate it in wood. I did that, at double the size and in maple. See close-up photo to the right.

But things aren't quite right. The problem is that the tatting needs to be presented better than being plain on the wall, and the buttons need a box, basket, or something (not just pilled up as in this photo). So, over the winter, look for me to be figuring out how to best mount and present the lace, and carving a wood basket for the buttons. As always, presentation is tough to get right, so who knows what the final outcome will be like.

Maybe then the Sewing Memories will be finally complete.

Rant of the Quarter

Context is Everything: Lessons from Williams College

We all know the effect of taking a statement out of context, how meaning can change and the listener can be misled by telling only part of a story. When we hear or read a quote that confuses us we want to know the rest so we can more reliably interpret things. We want context. Likewise, our perception and interpretation of art is affected by our knowledge of its context. Knowing the historical setting of a piece, or the mindset and circumstance of the artist, often enriches (or at least changes) our reaction to it.

A major exhibit at the Williams College Museum of Art takes the notion of context to another level. The exhibition (really 8 exhibitions using 10 galleries) takes the museum as the subject, exploring everything from the role of a curator to what makes something a work of art. Some of the exhibits are familiar fare. The readymade, art about art, religious and ceremonial artifacts have all been placed in museums before. They nudge us to decide for ourselves the definition of art. But beyond this, the Williams College exhibition shows us that the simple placement of art in relation to other pieces can also change our perception of the work. Among other things, the college focuses on "the role of the museum in dictating this transformation."

Willams challenges us to admit that two objects placed in close proximity make a different impression than when placed far apart. A finely crafted period chair standing alone in a gallery is perceived differently if a non-utilitarian sculptural chair is place next to it. In each case we ask different questions, appreciate different things. Likewise, a collection of works, in the same gallery, take on new meaning when rearranged. Williams College did this very thing, inviting different people, one of them being their football coach, to "re-curate" the same show several times. The results are different, the experiece for the viewer is different, and, in spite of the artist's most ardent belief, the art itself is different.

So, what does this mean to the rest of us?

That painting you brought home from the gallery might not look the same on your own wall. Then there is the couch <wink>. Finding the same love for a work as you had in the gallery might require a complete rearrangement of the room, not to mention a new paint job.

For us artists, the caution is even stronger. That work that looks so good sitting alone in our studio, with space all around it and natural light pouring in, might be unrecognizable in a gallery. Artificial light, or the wrong light, or being crowded salon style, or on a red carpet, or wood floor, or who-knows-what, will (not can, but will) be perceived differently there than where we created it. Then there are the neighboring objects.

The lesson is to pay attention to the placement of our work in a gallery. Talk to the curator about how it's going to be shown. Speak up if you think the interpretation of your hard work will be distorted by the curator's choices. Insist that your work convey the response you intended. It's only fair, not only to you, but to the prospective buyer.

Commissions Accepted

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

David Arruda, Jr., Rochester, MA and the artist.