The Penland Sketchbook

Jack Mauch in AC

By Penland on April 8, 2013 in Penland People

Jack Mauch, Tavern mug, 2012, pewter, 11 x 5 x 5 in. Photo: Jack Mauch

Congratulations to recent former core fellow Jack Mauch on his gorgeous spread in the April/May issue of American Craft magazine:

“It’s hard enough to pull off humor in art, much less combine humor and elegance in the same piece. The whole thing can end up a painfully awkward match, like a bad blind date.

“When it works, though, the union can be sublime. And Jack Mauch seems to have the touch. Not only can he switch effortlessly from one extreme (his exquisite salt and pepper shakers) to the other (the chicken-legged tavern mug), he can blend the two into one seamless whole…” – Judy Arginteanu

Click here to read the complete article.

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Kreh Mellick in NYT

By Penland on April 1, 2013 in Penland People

John Hodgman’s column in the Sunday New York Times is accompanied by a portrait of him done by former Penland core fellow Kreh Mellick. Too danged cool!

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Michael Bondi in the WSJ

By Penland on March 29, 2013 in Penland People

Penland instructor Michael Bondi was featured in the Wall Street Journal on March 28 in a nice article by Sarah Tilton. The article begins with this:

Michael Bondi didn’t set out to be a blacksmith. After starting a doctoral program in biology, the Washington, D.C., native took a year off to travel that led to an introduction to a blacksmith in Italy. Mr. Bondi then spent six months studying the craft, took a job with another blacksmith in Los Angeles and, eventually, launched his own studio in 1977 in Berkeley, Calif., with his brother, who also took up the waning art form.

More than three decades later, Mr. Bondi, 62, says he has never been without work. He is known for architectural blacksmithing using combinations of wrought iron, steel, bronze, copper, nickel alloys and aluminum. While most metalworking is now mass-produced using molds in factories, Mr. Bondi continues the tradition of working freehand, using the same tools that blacksmiths have relied on for hundreds of years. “I’m working directly on the metal,” he explains. “I’m not melting it into a liquid and pouring it into a mold.”

The story is accompanied by a beautiful slideshow of Michael in his studio (if you like tools, you’ll want to look at these pictures). You can read the rest of the story and see the photographs here.

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Photo of the Week: Chimney Builders

By Penland on March 29, 2013 in Classes, Photo of the Week

The spring clay class is building a new wood kiln (that is going to rock!). This crew is getting ready to work on the part of the chimney that sticks up above the roof.

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Photo of the Week: Needle, Thread, and Paper

By Penland on March 22, 2013 in Classes, Photo of the Week

Instructor Bridget Elmer demonstrating the Library of Congress longstitch binding during her spring books class.

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Focus on: Tina Mullen

By Penland on March 22, 2013 in Events, Penland Gallery

The Penland Gallery and Visitors Center presents its first Focus exhibition of the year, a new body of work in drawing and painting by Tina Mullen. This show is on view in the Focus Gallery from Friday, March 22 through Sunday, April 28th, with an opening reception Friday, March 22, from 4:30 – 6pm.

"Carolina Wren," watercolor and graphite on nautical chart, 6 x 6 in.

“Crosshairs,” watercolor and graphite on nautical chart, 14 x 11 in.

“I find that I use it often – the phrase “out of the blue” – to describe events, ideas, and the way things strike me. I wonder if I use it more than others, or if I’m just less prepared than others and things catch me off guard. Regardless, I enjoy contemplating the notion that things happen unexpectedly. That some of the best things in life are unplanned, unscheduled, and come to us by chance – out of the blue. The real beauty for me is what becomes of us because of them.

In my work, “out of the blue” represents migration, journey and the stories that happen along the way. Many of the drawings are done on maps. Maps of places traveled, Maps given to me by friends and Maps that come with their own history. Represented are maps of some of the places that I love – Florida, North Carolina, and Oregon.

 Other points of departure for my drawings might be a piece of paper found in an old book that contains the owners’ doodles or handwriting. Those marks, the age of the paper, slight rips or tears bear witness to a past unknown to me. I enjoy excavating through those marks, setting off on a new path – a new visual adventure.

Here’s to the journey.” – Tina Mullen

“Small Precarious Fate,” watercolor, pastel, and colored pencil on vintage paper, 18 x 12 in.

Tina Mullen is an artist who lives in Gainesville, Florida. She is also the director of Shands Arts in Medicine – a program that brings the arts to patients and families struggling with serious illness.

“I have painted and drawn pictures my entire life. I believe that the arts are a vehicle for transformation and personal expression, and my passion is to help others bring art into their lives in meaningful ways.”

Tina has been a drawing instructor at Santa Fe Community College and the University of Florida, as well as Interim Director of the University Galleries at UF. Tina is also a working artist who has exhibited her work throughout the United States. She has received numerous awards including the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Department of Cultural Affairs. She has been a visiting artist at Penland, the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming.

Tina has a BA from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and has an MFA from the University of Florida.

Tina Mullen

Click here to visit Tina’s website, where you can see more of her work.

Click here to visit the Penland Gallery website.

Penland’s Focus Gallery is a space primarily dedicated to single-artist exhibitions. Focusing on individual artists over the course of the year, it presents a larger selection of their work to gallery visitors and patrons.

Click here for more information about the Focus Gallery.

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Slow and Savor

By Penland on March 20, 2013 in Classes, Penland People

Our first one-week class at Penland this spring was a special treat, added to the schedule only a few months ago: Slow and Savor, a workshop on mindfulness and service in the craft arts led by beloved Penland neighbor and many-time clay teacher Paulus Berensohn and meditation teacher and former core student Caverly Morgan.

The class practiced daily meditation and mindful-attention to their actions from the walk to lunch to the studio bench, created handmade journals, made bowls for the Empty Bowls Project, wrote love letters to their future selves, and became more deeply acquainted with clay – its story, properties, and behavior.

The workshop reunited Paulus with one of his first students, Jeff Carter. Jeff took a class with Paulus at Swarthmore College (Paulus’ first, he says) many years ago. He came down to Penland in summer 1966 with Toshiko Takaezu and Byron Temple, staying on at the invitation of Bill and Jane Brown to manage the clay studio, in effect becoming one of the school’s first studio coordinators. He’s since had a long career as a physical therapist in Charlotte and Boone, and recently retired to Deep Gap, North Carolina.

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