Alicia Benoist: Black and White Maiolica

Currant bowl; black Maiolica. By Alicia Benoist, from the Facebook album “Pots”, September 2010. Photo by Russell Dian.

We recently met Alicia Benoist, a studio potter from New York City whose work stole our hearts! Her hand is expressive and robust, and the way she paints her glaze brought to mind the impasto strokes of Vincent Van Gogh and the stained glass of John LaFarge. But on second look we saw that she was fluent in two different glaze-painting styles: black and white maiolica. Her white pieces are subtly different. Fresh but subdued colors are stroked onto a white ground. They resemble watercolors, especially those of the Omega Group from England in the early 20th century.

Her inspiration comes from her garden: irises, lily of the valley, floppy poppies, fiddlehead ferns and an array of fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition to being a potter, Alicia is also a cellist and choral singer.  She draws a parallel between music and ceramics.  “You use the same vocabulary to discuss both, such as ‘color’ and ‘rhythm’.  One tends to describe both the same” she explains. Continue reading →

Charcoal: material / immaterial

Binchotan white charcoal. Photo courtesy www.livingcharcoal.com

It is a material and at the same time, the remains of the destruction of material. It is both fuel and medium for creativity. And its name has become synonymous with all shades of grey-black. The word “charcoal” brings to mind many things: a smoky, dark shadow of a color, a medium for artists, briquettes that you put on the barbeque, a filter to purify water or a natural remedy for a stomachache.
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Bling Your Baked Goods!

A cake covered in silver dragees adds sparkle and modern elegance to a holiday celebration. Photo courtesy Homeklondike.com

All that sparkles may not be gold, but it certainly can be sweet!

Is the icing on your cake just not all that? Maybe it needs a little bling! Consider dragee (properly pronounced dra-ghays), Remember the little silver balls that were the buttons for your gingerbread man over Christmas? How about that little packet of sugar coated almonds you received at the last wedding you went to? Those are dragee: the festive decorative confectionary that are traditionally given as favors, and used as adornment on baked goods. The origins of the word are unclear, it may come from the Greek by way of French, or from the Latin tragemataor Continue reading →

Summer Fun At City Museum, St Louis

Built within a historic shoe factory's spiral conveyor tunnel system, the City Museum features a system of imaginative concrete caves, filled with dinosaurs, stalagtites, and many other exciting surprises.

Playscape: Walk, Climb and Crawl at the City Museum

Wonderland in St.Louis.

The City museum is like one of those MC Escher puzzles: what you think you see changes at every turn. One part museum, one part Exploratorium, it is an educational facility and an amusement park all at once.

If you only have time to do one thing in St. Louis then “GO HERE!” Housed in the former International Shoe Company building, this 750,000 square-foot museum was conceived by artist and entrepreneur Bob Cassilly. The City museum is a “whole city in microcosm”; one that is both “hyperactive and interactive”. Continue reading →

A Garden of Earthly Delights: the work of Roberto Capucci

Sculpture Dress, 1992. Designed by Roberto Capucci, Italian, born 1930. Satin, 72 x 60 x 40 inches (182.9 x 152.4 x 101.6 cm). Fondazione Roberto Capucci. Image Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

An Italian Maestro of sculpture, architecture, and fashion comes to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Upstaging nature’s brightest spring flowers this season is the first American solo exhibition of a groundbreaking and seminal Italian fashion designer of the 20th century. A “designer’ designer,” commonly known by big name industry insiders such as Yves St. Laurent, Valentino, and Oscar de la Renta, but little known by the general public, Roberto Capucci has created vibrantly colored, intricately constructed forms that defy gravity and leave one breathless at the sheer complexity of their fabrication. From now until June 5th you can see nearly 80 of his gowns as well as sketches and archival footage of his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Continue reading →

The Newly Restored Boucher Room at The Frick

The name François Boucher (September 29, 1703 – May 30, 1770) is synonymous with the Rococo style of the mid-18th century in France. A painter, engraver, and designer, Boucher was the favorite court painter of King Louis XV, painting several portraits of the King’s mistress Madame de Pompadour. Today, we consider Boucher to be the quintessential influence on the decorative arts in 18th century Europe. While Boucher designed tapestries and porcelain, his decorative style was disseminated across a spectrum of decorative arts from textiles to marquetry.

The Boucher Room; The Frick Collection, New York; Photo: Michael Bodycomb


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