Bound 2B Round

 For several years Yellow Springs Village Artisans has challenged artists to “Dare 2B Square” and create square art for our community show.  This year, our brains have hit a curve, and we ended up “Bound 2B Round”!  We challenged artists to let their artistic creativity explore “round.”  And did they ever!  We received  41 entries from 28 different artists.  They have created two or three-dimensional art that is on display for the month of October in the Village Artisans Gallery at 100 Corry Street.  Drop around weekdays from 11-5 and weekends 11-6 to see the show and circle your calendars for Friday October 18 from 6-9 for the artist reception. Come and meet these well-rounded creative artists and join us for a round snack and drink.  There is also an interactive corner so you can create a round piece of art and add it to the show!

Meet Dianne Collinson

Artist Statement

I am drawn to hand building as a primary method of making. From flat slabs of clay I enjoy creating pieces with natural curves, organic forms and the richly textured surfaces found in nature; the shape of a leaf recorded like a fossil in clay, the colors of the forest floor, ancient and rich, the ivory patina of old bones, reflected in the crafted object. Because all of my pieces are hand built rather than wheel thrown, the naturally occurring irregularities that happen with clay during firing add to the the organic feel of my work.

My main body of work is made from porceline clay.  Often I impress leaves and flowers into the piece and then use this natural material as a resist for the dark slip or underglaze.  After bisque firing, color is added to the botanical impression, clear glaze is applied, and the piece is fired yet again creating a detailed, highly contrasted result.

Recently I have become interested in the colorful decorating technique referred to as Majolica.  This style pottery is found in many cultures and each culture has a distinctive style.  All are made from terra cotta clay covered with an opaque white glaze and then painted with a bright design which, when fired, becomes part of the surface.  My more contemporary form of Majolica is made in this same traditional way.  

I love the contrast of the brightly painted, exuberant Majolica with the more subdued and carefully arranged porceline pieces and both clay bodies, the clean, white porceline and the earthy, red terra cotta, have great appeal.  Each piece stands alone as a piece of art or can also be used for serving food.  All of my materials are lead free and food safe and although the porceline pieces could go in the microwave or dishwasher, the terra cotta should be hand washed.

I also enjoy the opportunity to create wood fired and barrel fired work from time to time. These ancient techniques use the direct effect of the smoke on the clay to create surfaces found nowhere else in ceramics.  From time to time you will find work of this kind on my shelves as part of my Faux Bois, or false wood series.

Additional images can be found on my website www.diannecollinson.com 

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Meet Libby Rudolf

I paint color and light in watercolors because it is a way to directly connect with the beauty surrounding us here in Ohio and in the world. I delight in brushing in the shapes, shadows, hues and values which make up the intricacies of a scene. Often, I go walking or bicycling to find a particularly arresting spot. If at all possible, I stay to paint outside, plein-air, because it is by far the best way to achieve immediacy and luminosity with watercolors. Somehow, the feeling of place, person or animal comes alive on my canvas if I am surrounded by their scents, sounds and movements. I’d love to paint the song of the wood thrush.

I have studied art throughout my life, first at the side of my Grandmother Lillian, then in college courses and many workshops with wonderful teachers. I currently live in Yellow Springs where I occasionally teach, lead an art group, do art residencies in the schools and endeavor to paint daily. I belong to several art organizations; Western Ohio Watercolor Society, Fairborn Art Association, Yellow Springs Arts Council. I am part of the Yellow Springs Art Studio Tour 3rd week of October and show in group as well as solo shows in our region.

I am especially fond of two quotes…

“I am conscious of expressing myself by means of light or rather in light…” Matisse

“Color is where our brain and the universe come together.” Cezanne

Libby Rudolf
937-767-1068
Libbyr@sapphirecomp.com and libbysart.blogspot.com

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Gift of Art Basket

Topping off the 30^th anniversary celebration of their Art on the Lawn show in Yellow Springs, the Village Artisans co-op will give away a huge “Gift of Art Basket.” On display throughout the show, the basket will be filled to the brim with hand-crafted art from the twenty artists in the Village Artisans group: everything from paintings to jewelry, wood carving and word turning, photographs, books, calligraphy, a journal, fabric art, glass work, ceramics and so much more.  

From 29th Annual Art On the Lawn

Everyone attending Art on the Lawn is welcome to sign up for a chance to win the "Gift of Art Basket," and a winner will be chosen at random at 4:30 p.m. on the 10^th. Even the vendors get to put in their name for the drawing, and a person does not have to be present in order to win! So come on out to Art on the Lawn and sign up for an opportunity to do all your Christmas shopping in one basket!     

For more information, call Village Artisans at (937) 767-1209

2013 Art On the Lawn welcomes back 2012's Best of Show - Kotah Moon

The Village Artisans will host their 30th annual fine arts and crafts festival, Art on the Lawn, on the Mills Lawn green, 200 South Walnut Street, in Yellow Springs on Saturday, August 10, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Scores of new and returning artists will have their work on display at the show. Their specialties include jewelry in gold and silver, beadwork with seeds and metal, paper-craft  watercolors and acrylics of nature and landscape scenes, drawings, caricatures, beeswax candles, garden and yard art, ceramics, stained glass, pressed flowers, masks, fiber art, leather accessories, scarves, and fused glass bugs! The setting is idyllic, and food vendors will be there to complement the outstanding artwork.

The featured artist for this year is Kotah Moon, a spiritual Eco-Artist, who specializes in sculpture and the reformation of previously used metals. Kotah won the Best of Show award at last year’s Art on the Lawn, and she is returning not only because Art on the Lawn is “well organized” and “attracts good artists,” she stated, but because Yellow Springs is a “good energy town.” Moon has even researched that energy and has found convincing evidence that shows Yellow Springs to be located in an “energy vortex.”  And energy, say Kotah Moon, is a major part of her life and work. Traveling to art shows throughout much of the year, Kotah and her wife, Suzy, spend winters in Florida, working and looking for the used or scrap material with which she creates her eco-art.

She finds used metals wherever she goes, says Kotah, and “each piece has its own story.” New metals, she explains, “don’t have the energy that comes with used metals. They don’t speak to me.”

So she looks for “metals that have had a life before...that have had life experiences” Those experiences, says Kotah, can come from the soil and the place where the material has been used, and from the people who used it.

“When you deal with recycled metals, you don’t know what is going to come out of it until you start working,” she says. Sometimes the energy of the materials contributes to the creation process. Sometimes there is other energy at work: “I love waking up every day and not knowing what’s in my head,” she says. “I dream some pieces, and I wake up and have to go and make what I’ve dreamed.”

Kotah’s relationship with the metal she finds complements the history of the metal itself, and, she says on her website, “Most people who visit my booth leave with more than just a piece of art, they leave with some of the energy God has given me, they leave with a story, and they leave wanting to share this experience with others.”

In addition to Kotah Moon and so many other artists, this year’s Art on the Lawn will feature music by Bettina Solas: “My musical repertoire consists of quite a variety of music,” writes Bettina. “My style is generally relaxing. I play a lot of Celtic, traditional Americana, folk, gospel and even some more modern selections on the autoharp and mountain dulcimer and I sing.”

In addition to Bettina’s music, Mark Camban, an artist who makes a Native-American style flute, will have a booth at the show and will be playing his flute throughout the day when he is not talking with customers.

For more information, call Village Artisans at (937) 767-1209 or visit www.villageartisans.blogspot.com

Less than a month away!

 We're excited!  Are you?

Parting is such sweet sorrow

We are sad to announce that The Village Artisans will be saying good bye to two of its members in the next few weeks.   We will certainly miss Jennifer Float and Sue Huff-Pleiman and their beautiful art work.  

There are only a few days left to pick up one of Jen's works, but Sue's work will remain in the shop through July.