These past two days I’ve featured a couple of inspiring individuals on the blog that I happened to run into over the weekend. Maybe I should give this out and about ‘design hunting’ more of a go in the future! Today I decided to select some inspiring work by Japanese ceramic artist Shinobu Hashimoto, who was featured amongst many talented creators at the Ceramic Art that took …
A selection of beautiful bowls and antiques from a shop called Hotoke, located in Isumi, Japan. Their website yesterday offered a great amount of inspiration, particularly on the ceramic side of things, but I was also interested in the other objects that had cultural significance to the orients. This comes of great value to me after studying Soetsu Yanagi and reading the fantastic book that is ‘The Unknown Craftsman’, also getting more …
I’d like to turn our collective attention now to an American sculptor who has altered his medium of creativity and found heart in the art of printmaking, not through illustrations of his own but that of the natural world with an ongoing series of woodcuts from a great diversity of tree species. The individual I’m referring to is Connecticut born and based Bryan Nash Gill who’s works document the life and growth of one of the worlds oldest living …
The function vs non-function debate is one that I regularly battle with, as a designer my urge to make things structural and quite conformative is a very natural one, I like the idea of ordering disorder. But one thing I’ve been trying to do lately is to step outside this mindset and be more free and creative in other fields where it sees fit. Obviously, I’ll still have that element of functionality inside of me …
I thought we’d return with a little update on Erskine, Hall and Coe today as they run a great deal of exhibitions that are well worth making a trip to see. They introduced me previously to the work of Mexican artist Gustavo Perez, which I highlighted to a few of you here, and today I was pleased to come across an artist working a bit closer to home, Sara Flynn who’s based in Cork, Ireland. Her exhibition at Erskine closes on Thursday so I …
My fascination with Mingei, the folk arts, and craft in general has made me delve deeply to find individuals with the same thoughts and aesthetic as myself. As mentioned above, Mingei has set the tone ever since I read Soetsu Yanagi’s book The Unknown Craftsman, Sori Yanagi’s father, who examines the Japanese way of viewing and appreciating art and beauty in everyday crafts, such as ceramics, lacquer, textiles, and wood …
