Craft in America - Messages

Submitted by: Vivian Orr, Communications and Publications Coordinator

Part two of a glimpse of one of the videos in the Craft in America Series. 

For those of you who do not subscribe to cable PBS channels, or if you are like me, you don't even have rabbit ears on your TV, these wonderful videos are available through the public library. 

Craft in America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the exploration, preservation and celebration of craft and its impact on America's cultural heritage.

Messages: Explore how artists go beyond skill to personal and political expression
copyright 2011

Beth Lipman is a glass artist working in Wisconsin. Her work explores the symbolism of 17th century still life paintings through glimmering creations made of clear glass, symbolizing wealth and consumerism. 

Charles M. Carrillo is an artist, author, and archeologist known particularly for creating art using Spanish colonial techniques that reflect 18th century Spanish New Mexico. Carrillo has blended craft, conservation, and innovation throughout his career as a santero, a carver and painter of images of saints.

Joyce J. Scott is a versatile artist from Baltimore, Maryland. She is a printmaker, weaver, sculptor, performance artist, and educator, but she is probably most well known for her work in jewelry, beadwork, and glass. Her art, in whatever form, reflects her take on all aspects of American popular culture, her ancestry, and the immediate world of her neighborhood.

"It's important to imbue the work with something that will resonate and follow someone home."

"Art can be a tool that can change peoples' lives."

"I'm listening to my Mom tell me stories, and they are not just stories that talk about my family history but they are primers on how to start making artwork that matters."

Thomas Mann is an artist who works in the mediums of jewelry and sculpture. The primary design vocabulary which he employs in the making of jewelry objects combines industrial aesthetics and materials and with evocative romantic themes and imagery. He calls this design system Techno Romantic. Though it is not the only design mode in which he works, it is the one for which he and his work is best known.

"When you have a successful professional career as a craft artist there will come a moment where you making the thing becomes less important than you imagineering the thing. In order for it to benefit other people around you, you kinda have to move on to the point where you train people to make things the way you make them."

"I hardly ever use the word craft artist to describe myself. I just use the word artist. To me being an artist is about expressing yourself and manifesting objects out of your creativity that other people acknowledge as being important to them in some form or fashion and are willing to support your efforts to continue making them."

Craft in America – Family

Submitted by: Vivian Orr, Communications and Publications Coordinator

A glimpse of one of the videos in the Craft in America Series.
For those of you who do not subscribe to cable PBS channels, or if you are like me, you don't even have rabbit ears on your TV, these wonderful videos are available through the public library. 

Craft in America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the exploration, preservation and celebration of craft and its impact on America's cultural heritage.  

Family: Is talent inherited? What is it like to live in a household where objects are made by hand?
copyright 2011

Three generations of Moulthrop: Ed, Philip and Matt

Ed Moulthrop (1916-2003) was a self taught woodturner, known as the “father of modern woodturning”. His interest in wood began as a child and he bought his first lathe when he was a teenager. Although he studied to become an architect, wood remained a hobby during his time as an architect. In the 1970s, he resigned from an architecture to pursue woodturning professionally. He was most famous for his large scale turned bowls, made from domestic woods, usually spherical or elliptical with polished clear finishes. All of his equipment was designed and built by himself to accommodate for the size of his pieces.

Philip Moulthrop (b. 1947) is a woodturner who works in Marietta, GA. He started woodturning in 1979, learning the woodturning basics from his father, Ed Moulthrop. Philip is most famous for his mosaic bowls and pioneering his composite technique. He received his B.A. from West Georgia College and his Juris Doctor from the Woodrow Wilson College of Law. He studied and practiced law before beginning his artistic career. His work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Arts and Design, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, Renwick Gallery, White House Collection of American Craft, among others.

Matt Moulthrop (b. 1977) is a woodturner and son of Philip Moulthrop and grandson of Ed Moulthrop. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Matt turned his first bowl at the age of 7. Completing his BA at the University of Georgia and MBA at Georgia Tech, Matt tried his hand at work in the 9-to-5 world, but ultimately eased into turning wood as a career, making him the third generation of Moulthrops to carry on the craft.

"He's still my father. He can still get on my nerves, I'm sure I drive him crazy. It's just the dynamic of family." ~Matt

"Their close knit family is probably responsible for Philip and Matt having the same passion about working with wood that Ed did. They grew up looking at things differently because of their father and grand dad. Looking at things with a designer's eye or an artist's eye." ~Carr McCuitston - owner, The Signature Shop & Gallery

"They have, I think, transformed to a large extent the woodturning field by their level of sophistication which is in certain respects very deceiving when you first look at the work because there is a real simplicity to it but in that simplicity there is an exquisite quality." ~Michael Heller, Heller Gallery, NYC


The Marioni Family

Paul Marioni (b. 1941) is a glass artist whose work is about human nature and is often inspired by his dreams. Known as an innovator in the glass world, Marioni pushes his techniques to their limits, regularly redefining what is possible to achieve with the medium. “I work with glass for its distinct ability to capture and manipulate light. While my techniques are often inventive, they are only in service of the image,” says Paul.

Dante Marioni (b. 1964) is a glass artist. He is most well known for his freely blown, colourful, tall, and thin vessel forms. His work is influenced in its form by the Venetian tradition. He attended Pilchuck Glass School, Colorado Mountain College, and Penland School of Craft.

Marina Marioni is a self taught jewelery artist who comes from an artistic family. Marina creates jewelry that often plays with form and meaning, much like her father’s (Paul Marioni) sculptures often play with visual puns. Marina has experience working in many mediums, including metal fabrication, wood working and pattern making for foundries, painting, sculpting, jewelry making, ceramic under glazing, glass as well as tattooing, which has long been an inspiration to Marina.


Cliff and Holly Lee

Cliff Lee (b. 1951) is a ceramic artist who whose work mimics natural forms, creating imagery of flowers, gourds, leaves. As a young man Lee studied medicine and became a successful neurosurgeon but became a potter in the 70s. He received his MFA in Ceramics from the James Madison University.

Holly Lee is a metalsmith who creates one-of-a-kind pieces using gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stones. She creates pieces that are hollow constructed, pierced and hand-drilled. These drilled forms create texture and a sense of light passing through space. Lee studied painting under Barclay Sheaks at Virginia Wesleyan College and studied wearable art at James Madison University.

"Craft artists are just like family. We know each other. they see our children grow up. We all in the same boat: financially, personally." ~Cliff Lee