Could I be any more excited to have received an invitation from Tobey Martin, the buyer and product development of the San Francisco MOMA museum store, to carry some of my work? And create a custom piece in honor of their upcoming retrospective of SF's beloved artist Ruth Asawa??
Feast your eyes on this photo of Asawa's house above 😍 and below her iconic wire sculptures, which I just learned are ONE CONTINUOUS WEAVING
I recently was in SF to tour the show with fellow-makers who also created works for the museum shop. What a surprise for the tour to be lead by Henry Weverka, Asawa’s grandson!! The exhibit is incredibly beautiful and his love for her work and legacy inspiring. Art really comes to life in person and with humanity when of the senses are engaged.
I was in SF to tour the show with fellow makers who also created works for the shop. What a surprise for the tour to be lead (after-hours!) by Henry Weverka, Asawa’s grandson!! The exhibit is incredibly beautiful and his love for her work and legacy inspiring. Art really comes to life in person and with humanity. All of the senses are engaged.
For the Nested Circle painting I was looking at Ruth Asawa’s most well-known and beloved wire sculptures, condensing her nested forms into a 2 dimensional pattern with color and negative space.
We painted the nested pattern on bells, candle lanterns and discs. Pulling in other studio templates for the discs to mimic her play of shapes- turning the Eye sideways and adding a tip to the circle to create a teardrop often seen in her wire sculptures. The wall hangings can hang flat or be suspended from a new wall mount made of white oak, notched and riveted.
My Firefly pattern, originally made to represent the light at the end of a firefly drawing, came into play when Tobey sent me this image of a ceramic plate made by Asawa.
The vessels were some of the first woven wire pieces she made while at Black Mountain College.
My constellation pieces are solid ceramic forms painted with lots of stars and raised white glazed centers. Amazingly Tobey saw a connection to the light and openness of Asawa’s pieces through a feeling of abundance, repetition and nature. I never would have even imagined.
The wall hanging hanging in the Museum shop also speaks to layering of multiples and metal, the Tucker clay sometimes appearing metallic when fired
bare, and the black manganese creating a dark and deep shine.
Read more about Asawa here. This quote jumped out at me:
‘She also experimented with other materials, making reliefs by folding paper, and prints from apples and potatoes. Though critics in the 1950s received her art warmly, they struggled to define it, often exoticizing her Asian heritage or emphasizing her domesticity, dismissing the work as merely decorative. “Asawa was very non-hierarchical,” says Bishop,“with inspiration coming from craft traditions, fine art, and many otherplaces.” The flouting of conventions she learned at Black Mountain made her art both powerfully distinctive and difficult to categorize.
This was such an honor and a gift to put my mind to.
See the Asawa inspired pieces HERE
In gratitude! Michele