Lacey mist clings to the forested watersheds that circle the city of Jingdezhen. Spindly smokestacks puncture the skyline like branchless trees, competing with modern high-rise apartments. Sports cars speed past endless shops filled with vases, bowls, cups, teapots, Buddha sculptures and any other shape that can be made from clay. Jingdezhen, like most cities in […]
Ken Weiderman
Posted inArts + Scene
The Prolific Hermit
“I swear from my very being by what I’m doing,” says John Motian. “You’ve gotta do what you are.” And Motian is a painter. Sitting on a simple twin bed, a glass of wine by his side, Motian is unabashed about a life lived through the end of a brush. Behind a strong Armenian nose […]
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Perfectly Imperfect
Settling onto a wooden stool, artist Lauryn Axelrod relaxes her shoulders and breathes in slowly. Exhaling, she clears her mind and dips her fingers into a bowl of water. Beneath her, a small lump of clay whirrs quietly. She leans forward and presses into the spinning mass, feeling it push against her frame, letting the […]
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Home Grown
Art enthusiasts are a tough bunch. Despite endless holiday events, a new year and buckets of rain, we’ve still got to get our fix. Arts Alive in January can seem like a chore, but it doesn’t have to be. Across from the Eureka Theater, one art house hums with excitement, color and mediums of every […]
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Sifting Images
According to some estimates, nearly 900 billion photos will be taken in 2014. By the time you finish this paragraph, more than 200,000 photographs will have been uploaded to Facebook alone. Local photographer Suk Choo Kim certainly adds his fair share to these numbers. He estimates that he snaps more than 100,000 photos a year, […]
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Fish Tail
Art is elusive, says local painter Micki Dyson-Flatmo. “It may entirely swim away from you.” It’s not that Dyson-Flatmo is unfamiliar with painting or art — she’s a fifth-generation woman artist. As a child, she hung out in her grandma’s studio surrounded by oil paints. In her 20s, Dyson-Flatmo would sit for hours at a […]
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Pigmented Memories
Drunken mobs and brass bands heave with sound and excitement. A matador is hooked in the armpit, his jacket torn open. Three horses drag a dead bull across the dirt. In 1965, painter Peter Holbrook sat in the stands at a Mexico City bullfight, taking photos and reeling at the spectacle. His memory of the […]
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Bird’s Eye on the Marsh
We’ll stop at 1,000 feet and circle right,” says pilot David Marshall as we lift off from Murray Field. “There might be a little bit of turbulence.” I’m in the back of a small, four-seater aircraft watching Ellen Land-Weber at work on her newest series of photographs. Clad in blue jeans and a pink V-neck […]
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A Bay in the Life of Humboldt
Rocky, man-made shores echo with barking dogs and squawking riparian life. Inky waters bob with seals, kayaks, porpoises and sputtering boats. Cyclists challenge 18-wheelers; hikers meet the homeless. High tide to low tide, day in and day out, Humboldt Bay is host to recreation, mariculture, economy and life. “Simply by dint of its geographical power […]
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Slab Experiments
White dust permeates the cracks in his forefingers and thumbs. Celtic music wheels away in the background. Dressed in a faded red shirt with leather elbow patches and a teal-blue hat that says, “relax,” ceramic artist Michael Pearce is lost in thought, assembling another slab-built teapot. He sponges down seams and files away the form, […]
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Lasting Impressions
Printmaking can be a nasty business. Traditional etching uses nitric acid to dissolve an image out of a metal plate. Inks are laden with solvents, and everything is cleaned up with turpentine or acetone. For nearly 500 years, artists have braved toxic chemical cocktails to create etchings, but the results are worth it. Metal plates […]
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Live Wire
The Wire Lady grips her cat’s nose with both hands. Deft twists keep the small object in constant motion as she defines subtle structures around its eyes. Almost imperceptibly, the 22-gauge, dark, annealed steel wire takes shape. While Elizabeth Berrien talks, ears emerge from a fistful of 14-inch strands in her left hand. Glancing down […]