What’s in your forest?

Have you been watching what’s being submitted for the Into the Forest exhibit later this year?

Each leaf, bug and blossom is more intriguing than the last and it’s hard to wrap your head around how Emily Squires Levine, Laura Tabakman and Julie Eakes will combine all the colorful bits they’ve collected for this international collaborative project.

This week’s submission from Eriko Page may make you wistful for spring. Her tight round polymer buds are ready to burst into bloom. But wait, a second batch of Eriko’s flowers have already opened! See more of her hyper-real caned flowers on her sales site and FB.

A preview of Into the Forest will be on view at this summer’s Synergy4 with the whole shebang on view beginning in November, 2017 in Pittsburgh, PA. There’s still time to join and add your work to the project. Pieces must be postmarked April 4, 2017.

Read the guidelines on the FB page where nearly 700 polymer artists hang out, watching every forest fantasy that arrives from around the world.

Between our eyes

Portland polymer artist Meredith Dittmar has appeared on PCD many times, initially for her small sculptures, now grown into the show, Between Our Eyes, at Mirus Gallery in San Francisco from January 20 to March 3.

The gallery describes Meredith’s work as human-animal-plant-energy relief-like amalgams that contain threads of common elements and colors to express deep levels of union across themes of biology, technology, and consciousness. The characters are frequently involved in quiet expressive moments, or lounge facing an audience, sharing their inner space. Dittmar believes it is this space we recognize in ourselves, and through convening in that space, the interconnectedness of all things is revealed.

The gallery’s exhibits are edgy and modern and Meredith’s paper/polymer works are dynamic. If you’re not quite sure about the fantasy/technology/biology scenes that you’re looking at on Meredith’s Instagram, Facebook and Flickr, relax and enjoy the mix of paper and polymer, shapes and color on these large works. Let them hit you between the eyes.

Waxing colorful

Lindly Haunani’s Crayon Lei in Oranges and Greens is one of eight polymer treasures in the Spectrum exhibit on view through July 10 at the Racine Art Museum. The lei was created in 1998 when Lindly was experimenting with inclusions.

Wax from crayon shavings were mixed into the polymer and melted off during baking. The residual pigment colored the translucent polymer in a mottled pattern. Color is a central element to all three of Lindly pieces in the show.

Lindly gave me a Crayon Lei as an engagement gift that same year so it’s especially near and dear to my heart and I’m pleased to share it with you. Read more about her process in this PAA feature.

Pieces from Pier Voulkos, Dan Cormier and Jeff Dever are also part of the RAM show which focuses on works that use color as a defining principle in form and design. Read more and see the rest of the polymer works in the exhibit on the PolymerArtArchive.

FIMO50 Tiles

A heap of 4″x4″ tiles for the FIMO50 World Project is mounding up in my studio. Here are the project details.

I’ll forward my pile of tiles to Germany in one batch after April 30. You still have time! US artists can forward entries to: Cynthia Tinapple, 1 Hartford Court, Worthington, OH 43085.

An Instagram page shows a selection of entries. If yours hasn’t shown up on there, email me a photo and I’ll add it.

Dottie McMillan

The polymer community was saddened by the loss of California’s Dottie McMillan. She was one of the first people I linked up with on the Prodigy bulletin board way back when. She was a writer, artist and good friend in the polymer community. Here’s an earlier PCD feature about her work.

Quick trip to Germany

Today’s the last day to visit Georg Dinkel’s polymer reliquaries and shrines to technology in the Palace of Culture Anwanden. Georg mixes technology, architecture and religion into a delicious ironic stew. His digital devotional pieces ask what we really worship and why. Here’s his latest.

Georg’s carefully crafted, elaborate sculptures are positioned against cracked plaster walls next to a curving staircase in a beautifully aging empty building. The old and new, the serious and the sassy play off each other in this festival of light.

Georg shares his splendid photographs of the event, saving us the airfare. I’m snatching his photos from Facebook for those who’d rather examine them on PCD. Enjoy your free trip to Germany. Here’s the pdf of the program for those who know German.

He shares videos of works in process and other sculptures on his site, YouTube and Facebook.

Your vote counts

I need your vote! Every Fall, Crafthaus awards a micro project grant and my application is in the running.

Prison Polymer: Art as a Lifeline Back to the Community is a project I’d like to nudge forward. This summer Leslie Blackford and Tammy Dye taught one class in Ohio prisons, Maggie Maggio and I taught another. We were all surprised and fascinated by the impact that our medium had on inmates.

What could we do with polymer in prisons that would make a difference? How could our community help? That’s what I’ll use the grant to discover. Please vote for Project #2. Thank you for your help.

It’s hard to look at Leslie Blackford’s Elvis and not smile at his gold leisure suit and sparkling belt buckle. Here are the characters from one afternoon’s class. You can follow her on Facebook too.

Catalog giveaway

Would you like to have a memento from the ground-breaking Carthage College Re-Visioning exhibit? In the show catalog Rachel Carren writes eloquently about how polymer art is expanding and reinventing itself.

This slim full color publication would make an elegant addition to your bookshelf. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. I’ll pick five lucky winners on Monday.

Re-visioning polymer

Peek at the polymer exhibit that began this week at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. The opening reception for Re-Visioning: New Works in Polymer at the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art will be held next Thursday, September 18.

Gallery staff have posted snapshots of the works on Facebook as they arrived to get us excited.

Laura Tabakman’s On the Trail is a delicate installation of a field of blossoms that emerge from the floor and climb one wall.

You can see her sitting on the gallery floor arranging every petal in what turned out to be a 15-hour operation. She says of the show, “OMG, don’t miss it!”

Here you see Cynthia Toops’ So Much Yarn, So Little Time which includes tiny knitting needles that pierce one of the balls of imitative yarn wound in Cynthia’s fastidious micro style. At one time or another all knitters and artists have shared the sentiment of the piece.

The event is being held in conjunction with an October polymer symposium, labs, and (in)Organic exhibit at the nearby Racine Art Museum.

The first college level polymer studio class was launched last year at Carthage College. Professor Diane Levesque taught the class and curates this exhibit.

Polymer jitters

This week's theme seems to center around the jitters! We all get jitters about what lies ahead and sometimes those jitters lead us into new creative territory.

Today you're looking at Wendy Moore's necklace Tsarang Mala #4 that she created for the exhibit she mounts in two weeks at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery in Australia. It started with the stripes in Nepali aprons and then Wendy added the horn shapes that she remembered above the doorways on her latest trek in Mustang province. Then flowers appeared. Her story about this evolving creation is fascinating.

Her exhibit is described as, "…inspired by the contrasts of living in the Outback and her frequent travels to Nepal where she works helping women to create jewellery and objects to sell, enabling them to escape lives of poverty, trafficking and abuse."

If you'd like to try some of your own Tibetan style, check out Wendy's project in the new book! Or visit the Samunnat shop on Etsy.

Botanical polymer

Two polymer artists, Jeff Dever and Annie Pennington advance polymer’s reputation by appearing in The Nature of Jewelry:Botanical Design and Symbols exhibit at the Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek, Wisconsin.

In the show twenty-nine notable jewelry artists from throughout the US, Ireland and Canada display a sampling of process drawings and reference materials to trace the creative process for their works.

“They thought I’d add a bit of color,” says Jeff. He sent us larger pictures (gathered here) so that you could witness the color. This exhibit was a spinoff of the RAM’s Terra Nova and it runs until July 13.

Polymer up a notch

Maggie Maggio made a conscious effort to step out of her comfort zone when she applied for the Society of North American Goldsmiths’ (SNAG) virtual exhibit, The Body Adorned.

“In the same way a landscaper trains a plant to take the desired form, this piece is designed to be shaped to the body of the wearer,” Maggie says of her exhibition pieces. Polymer tendrils sprout from the model who happens to be Maggie’s daughter Monica, herself an urban farmer.

On her updated website and blog Maggie explains how a polymer symposium at the Racine Art Museum exhibit prompted her to take her work up a notch.

Watch Maggie playing with a early version of these designs in this Studio Mojo video from last spring. Join with others who want to take their work up a notch by signing up for StudioMojo.

Win the Terra Nova Tee

Something significant changes when an artwork is set on a pedestal and encased beneath a clear polished museum vitrine. The necklace that was once casually worn to a party is now handled with gloves and tagged with new meaning.

That shift in significance is what we’re all pondering after the opening of the Terra Nova exhibit at the Racine Art Museum. The weekend exceeded all my expectations and you’ll see more as soon as I unpack and catch my breath.

In the meanwhile, you can order the lovely book here. I brought back this souvenir black tee with irridescent artwork for some lucky reader.

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