Northeast Basketmakers Guild

Many thanks to the team of people who worked so diligently to organize the Northeast Basketmakers Guild's 2009 Gathering. They did a great job and pulled off another successful basketry event. This kind of event takes a huge amount of planning and the work put in by the entire team was evident. In particular, thanks go to Michele Graham and Carol Welch who were co-chairs of the conference. The three day event was packed with activities and as always there was just too much to take in completely.

I was so busy taking classes, manning my table at the marketplace and catching up with old friends that I didn't take as many photos as I thought I would, but here are a few that I hope will help capture a sense of the fun.

Rene works on a Nantucket Lightship basket purse in a workshop taught by Ann Lima.

Mary Jo is working on a Black ash miniature fishing creel in a class taught by Jo Ann Kelly Catsos.

This is a shot of the body of the mini fishing creel.

This basket maker is working on the body of a Black ash woodsplint cracker basket in another of Jo Ann's workshops.

Here Dianne Stanton explains the layout sequence of the hourglass shaped spokes in a double bottomed, cross spoke round basket base.

Eric Taylor instructing a student in his signature style that melds Black ash woodsplint weavers in a basket with a solid wood base, handle and rim.

Joyce works on an elm bark and Black ash basket in Alice Ogden's class.

Hopefully you will be able to participate in a basketry conference sometime soon. They are great fun, but be warned....they can be so filled with great stuff they can make you dizzy.

Off to Northeast Basketmakers Gathering

I am off tomorrow to visit family in Connecticut and attend the Northeast Basketmakers Guild 2009 Gathering in West Springfield, Massachusetts. I am looking forward to catching up with friends and taking classes. I will get the chance to interact with noted makers such as Dianne Stanton, Eric Taylor, Flo Hoppe, JoAnn Kelly Catsos, Polly Adams Sutton and many others. In addition to three days of workshops there will be a members exhibit, basket exchange, and a marketplace. I will snap a lot of pictures and post about my experiences upon my return. In the meantime, woven wooden wishes to you all.

Fred Ely Lecture at Glen Arbor Art Assoc

If you are anywhere near Ann Arbor, Michigan next week, make a point to attend the programs featuring local artists called Talk About Art at the Glen Arbor Art Association in Glen Arbor, MI. Fred Ely will speak about his unique form of basketry based on the Nantucket Lightship basket. The presentation will take place Thursday (April 23) at 7:30 p.m. Anyone who has ever seen one of Fred's baskets is sure to tell you they are above and beyond the norm.

Intertwined

Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection

Sara and David Lieberman, with their passion for collecting contemporary craft and their exceptional openness to new forms and ideas, have assembled one of the best collections of contemporary baskets in the country. The more than 150 baskets in their collection were at first collected for their “function and appeal” and their grounding in ancient traditions. But their selections soon included new works of great “vitality and vigor” that were more about “expression and communication” rather than function.

Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection opens at the New Mexico Museum of Art on April 24, 2009 and runs through September 6, 2009. The Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico will host an opening reception on the Free Friday Evening, April 24, 2009 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30p.m.

Intertwined and its accompanying catalog will provide an international look at contemporary basket making and its current level of innovation and experimentation. The baskets in their collection utilize a range of materials and techniques from traditional organic to commercial and often surprising media. Represented artists include the well-known international to the regional—four from Santa Fe—and they work in both functional containers as well as closed, sculptural forms.

Intertwined will include more than 70 traditional and non-traditional baskets, including works by some of the major figures in contemporary basket making: Ed Rossbach, Katherine Westphal, Sally Black, Kiyomi Iwata, Kazuaki Honma, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Carol Eckert John McQueen, Elsie Holiday, Ferne Jacobs, Norma Minkowitz, Fran Reed, Lisa Telford, John Garrett, Kay Kahn, and many more. Both Garrett and Kahn are New Mexico artists.

“This exhibition demonstrates how basketry has been redefined during the past four decades,” says Laura Addison, Curator of Contemporary Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art and local curator for this exhibition. She goes on to say, “Many of the works in Intertwined are unrecognizable as baskets; rather they are sculptures that employ traditional, and nontraditional, basketmaking techniques and materials. The Liebermans’ collection is exceptional in its quality and breadth. Included are works primarily from the United States, including Native American basketry, but also from Japan and Great Britain.”

The contemporary baskets of Intertwined are another sub-category of “crafts” that the Museum has been showing in recent years, including this summer’s exhibition Flux: Reflections on Contemporary Glass and several exhibitions on ceramics over the past decade.

Intertwined is curated by Heather Sealy Lineberry, Senior Curator, ASU Art Museum. Jane Sauer, nationally known basket maker and scholar, consulted on the selection process. The 48-page color catalog includes an essay by nationally-known curator and scholar Kenneth R. Trapp, and a short piece by artist Ferne Jacobs.

Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection is organized by the Arizona State University Art, Tempe, Arizona.

2009 Basket Calendar ~ April

2009 Basket Calendar ~ April,
originally uploaded by BasketMakers.

I have created a set of 2009 Basketry Calendar pages that are sized to print out on 8.5" x 11" paper. Here is the page for the month of March. You can view the rest of them on my flickr photostream and see more basketry graphics on BasketMakers.com