You searched for the bowl breaks

Blog

Search Results

the bowl breaks (1)

3:42 pm in Home, Photoworks, Textures by Marja-Leena

… an addition to my ‘breaks’ series of a sort, with more photos to come…

Added the next day, this note from Elisa, whose bowl this was:
One of the casualties of our return from the English countryside to the Pacific coast. Three months boxed up in a boat and rattling across the length of Canada proved too much for my beloved Mason Cash mixing bowl. I used it lovingly for sourdoughs and homemade mozzarella and birthday cakes, and often let it sit out on the counter as it was ever so good-looking. I’m sure it is glad that my mother has transformed its shattered state into art, and that we will bury it at the base of a potted plant. Not a bad life, surely, but I’ll miss it.

View it whole here

11 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the bowl breaks (3)

3:55 pm in Photoworks, Textures by Marja-Leena

I love the more abstract images where one doesn’t know what one is seeing… just enjoying the shapes, textures and tonal variations.

the promised links to other ‘breaks’ (oh my, too many!):
broken,
butter dish
the broken bowl
broken glass
everyday object
reflections in broken glass

8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the bowl breaks (2)

1:27 pm in Home, Photoworks, Textures by Marja-Leena

More fragments, shards, the saving of memories present to past… all themes in my printworks and photoworks

Please see the bowl breaks (1) for the update should you have missed it.

5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

broken bowl

3:42 pm in Found Objects, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

Other breaks:
another broken bowl
reflections in broken glass
broken glass ornament
the butter dish

9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Ihaya and Chang at RAG

12:06 am in Art Exhibitions, Other artists by Marja-Leena

Another intriguing exhibition opening this week!

Richmond Art Gallery presents two exhibitions that explore what it means to be a citizen in a global world where identities are ever-changing and fluid.

Amy Chang: Donated Organ and Tomoyo Ihaya: Water, Rice and Bowl
Exhibit Dates: April 26 – June 1, 2008
Opening reception Friday, April 25, 6:30 – 9:30pm.
Artist Talk: Saturday, May 24, 2pm
Curator Talk & Tour: Thursday, May 1, 6:30pm 
This exhibition is accompanied by a RAG publication by Ann Rosenberg

Amy Chang, Organ

Tomoyo Ihaya, Sketches for Water, Rice and Bowl

Amy Chang’s Donated Organ and Tomoyo Ihaya’s Water, Rice and Bowl consider the meaning of global citizenship in a world where elements of basic human survival have become commodities. Chang’s ceramic works take the shape of severed human organs, and call to mind the anonymous and often destitute people who are preyed upon to supply the constant demand for organ transplants. The ceramic organs are also signifiers of life and its cycle, and the tubes that connect some of the organs point to the interconnectedness of human lives. Ihaya’s combination of mixed media works and a documentary film show how water is collected drip by drip, and used in daily rituals such as cooking and washing by families in Ladakh, India. This process of collecting water and its thrifty usage are a reminder of the preciousness of water, which is an essential resource that is increasingly becoming scarce these days.

Amy Chang received a Bachelor of Business in Taiwan in 1980. She found a passion for art while working for the Cloisonné Company for eight years, and studied ceramics in a private pottery studio. She received a Diploma of Studio Art from Capilano College in 2003, and completed a BFA from Emily Carr Institute in 2007.

Tomoyo Ihaya received a BA in German Literature at Rikkyo University before attending Mount Allison University’s Fine Arts Program. She received an MFA at the University of Alberta in 2002. She has shown internationally for a decade and has received numerous awards, grants, and residencies. Her work is in collections in Canada, the United States, Italy and Thailand.

Tomoyo and I have known each other many years. With her busy exhibition schedule, she’s been featured in these pages several times.

2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the butter dish

4:32 pm in Found Objects, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

Or, the ex-butter dish. I still have the little pitcher. Both were made by a local potter long ago and were gifts from my husband.
Other ‘breaks’ featured on these pages (this is getting embarrassing):
a broken bowl
another broken bowl
reflections in broken glass
broken glass ornament

20 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Peter Frey exhibition

3:00 pm in Art Exhibitions, Art Institute (Printmaking), Other artists, Printmaking by Marja-Leena

I am very pleased to introduce friend and fellow-printmaker Peter Frey. Peter is presenting Threads and Fissures, an exhibition of his photographs and prints at the Capilano College Studio Art Gallery.

Opening reception: Thursday, November 9th, 4pm – 7 pm.
Exhibition runs November 9th until December 5th, 2006
Gallery hours: 8:30am – 4:30pm Monday – Friday
Capilano College Studio Art Gallery
2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, BC
A Google Map for directions.

Here is Peter’s artist statement:

I began expressing myself through art quite late in my life, when I was living in India, where I studied and practiced a form of yoga called Darshan Yoga – Yoga of Perception. Ideally, when one is in a state of perception, one is fully engaged and the thinking mind is quiet and the exquisite richness of life, the inner and the outer world have an opportunity to touch us.

For about 4 years in India, the photographic camera took me from the inner world of meditation outside into fields, villages and mountains. Photography became a means to look at and admire the world in a simple and direct way. When I left India, I began to study photography in a formal way, both in New York and later in Chicago, and my work became more self-reflective. I began to include my own body in the work to speak of the relationship between the self and the world, between the inner and the outer.

I have chosen for this exhibition a few works from that period. Most of the work shown has been made since becoming a member of the art institute here at Capilano College.

I have used the word ‘threads’ for one of the names for this show to indicate the idea that there are common threads, or themes linking together these pieces, which span a period of about twenty years. But the threads that link and hold together, that hold my attention fully engaged in my creative work, sometimes break. These threads that link become the fence that separates, what has been flowing easily is interrupted, what has been whole breaks – and I am disappointed. But there is an other side to such breaks, fissures, cracks, ‘mistakes’, which is perhaps expressed when we speak of breakthrough and which Leonard Cohen has so beautifully put in this line:” there is a crack in everything, that’s where the light shines in”. A crack is also an opening.

Recently I attended a sweatlodge, where volcanic rocks, heated in a fire, are used in the lodge. One of these rocks, redhot, had a crack halfway through, and it was through that crack that the red glowed with the greatest intensity. In a way the material disappeared and only the light remained, and one was able to look deep inside. Just like the intense glow of this rock soon dimmed, moments of creative intensity, of deep connectedness, of glimpses deep inside the fabric of something, rarely last very long and the sense of loss, the breaking of this connection, this fissure, I think can be seen in some of the figures that appear in my work.

A word about my choice of materials and medium:
Printmaking provides a means to create very fine textures. For my eye, fine texture acts in a similar way as very fine fabric, it is sheer and does not cover. Like a veil it allows us, hopefully, a chance to see a little inside, behind the surface, behind the picture plane. In this way I also see the series of leaves shown here less as forms and more as openings, or windows through which one might gaze into a landscape that is at once minute and very large in scale.

Spontaneous Alchemy: OM/MO 2002. ©Peter Frey, monoprint

UPDATE Nov.9th: We’ve just come back from the opening. It’s a stunning show with a large body of work, consisting of photographs, mixed media works and inkjet prints. If you are in the area or coming to town, do come see it! Here’s Peter next to his piece Leaf from Petals/Reversal, an inkjet print with coloured pencil:

9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

August

4:38 pm in Being an Artist, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Home by Marja-Leena

The days are still very warm but there’s a very noticeable change to the light. With shorter days, the sun’s angle is getting lower, shadows longer, evenings cooler and the nights heavy with dew. In the park, yellow leaves on the ground, fallen early due to drought, give a distinctly fall-like air. I remember my mother often saying to me that this time of the summer is Mätäkuu, when food quickly begins to rot, a term common to pre-refrigeration days. In my kitchen, the fruit flies are quick to appear with any slightest bit of ripe fruit in the bowl and in my compost pail under the sink.

August is the month of my late father’s birthday (he’d now be 86 if alive), and just now it dawned on me that his name, Kusti, is derived from Augustus, after whom this month was named. I’d not made the connection before between his name and his birth month. (This month is called “elokuu” in Finnish.) According to Nordic Names, Kusti comes from the Swedish name Gustav, which was also the name of a few Swedish kings including the present one. Then at Behind the Name I find that Kusti is the pet form of Kustaa or Aukusti, the Finnish form of Augustus.

This makes me smile. You too, Dad?

And I see that while I’ve been doing my own ruminating here, there’s been a wonderful conversation on August and summer holidays over at Cassandra Pages, and there are some great poems on August at Via Negativa. Enjoy these last days of summer!

PS. Dave, in the comments below, reminded me that there’s another “August” post written by Leslee at 3rd House Journal. I’d enjoyed it earlier and maybe that inspired my own nostalgia.

2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

January tree fest

8:29 am in Blogging by Marja-Leena

The holidays are not quite over yet, today is the 8th day of Christmas after all, AND there’s also a new Festival of the Trees to cheer us.

The Festival of the Trees is a monthly blog carnival devoted to all things arboreal. Like other blog carnivals, it’s a collection of links to blog posts and other sources, hosted each month on a different blog.

Festival of the Trees #19 is a real holiday treat. Mull some cider, pop some corn and cuddle up with a warm laptop. Lorianne has gathered a forest’s worth of links for your browsing pleasure.

Indeed, there are a lot of trees in that forest! I’m pleased to be part of this January’s festival and will savour the links slowly during my breaks. I hope you enjoy this tree fest too!

5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

purge or save?

11:47 am in Being an Artist by Marja-Leena

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m going through some major shifting and sifting of stuff in our house. One area of purges is through my very old issues of art magazines, mostly from the 90’s and a few older. The majority of these are Canadian Art, Vanguard, an art criticism mag published between 1976 and 1984 by the Vancouver Art Gallery, and Border Crossings from my old home city of Winnipeg.

There are also some Finnish design magazines and small exhibition catalogues from around the world passed on to me over a decade ago by a good friend whose well-travelled and arts-loving Finnish mother was moving into a care home at that time. Inside one of the magazines, I found some delicate and lovely pressed leaves that I will preserve digitally. During breaks, I’m enjoying rereading a few articles, such as about the rebirth of Marimekko in the 90’s under the creative and brilliant direction of Kirsti Paakkanen.

I’ve hung on to these for too many years thinking I will reread them, but since I have not, it’s time to say goodbye. I love well-done print design and articles about art and artists and hate to just throw them into recycling, so I hope to find a new home for them, via something like Freecycle. Instead of the more violent act of purging, I can choose the gentle act of sharing. Is there an art student out there eager to have them?

What do you do with your old but good magazines and catalogues?

16 Comments »

Marja-Leena Rathje

PRINTWORKS

PHOTOWORKS

RSS Feeds

Blog

Search Results

the bowl breaks (1)

the bowl breaks (3)

the bowl breaks (2)

broken bowl

Ihaya and Chang at RAG

the butter dish

Peter Frey exhibition

August

January tree fest

purge or save?

RECENTLY

THEMES