A Tree Swing, A Japanese Maple, and MURDER!

A few new pieces and happy holidays to all!

                                             



 a "murder of crows" that is

Flowers, Houses, and Mr. Bob Dylan

The World

As I imagine the good Lord himself doing a few million years ago, I climbed the steps from the basement last week and announced to my wife that "North America is complete!" 

And for a second or two I felt powerful.  But as is often the case, my wife then rolled her eyes and reality reaffirmed itself.

The world map is finished and was given as a gift to a geography teacher.

Also, I slumped a Kalamta olive jar in the kiln and "slipped a few daisy's inside."

Bottle Slumping

I contacted my friend Bill a few weeks back, because I remembered him once mentioning he owned a kiln. I had an idea that would incorporate a slumped bottle into a mosaic, and I was hoping to experiment using his kiln.  With this phone call I sort of envisioned an afternoon in Bill's garage, drinking beer and melting wine bottles.  But what I ended up with is so much more.

My friend's kiln had originally belonged to his grandmother, she made ceramics.  When grandma passed away, several years prior, the kiln went directly into storage.  And as large heavy objects often do, the kiln had begun to "wear out its welcome" in that storage location.  Come to find out, Bill was actually hoping to locate a more permanent home for the kiln when I came calling.  Fast forward a few weeks, I now have a functioning kiln in my basement.

Long before the kiln idea, last fall, I found a window under the back steps of the MAT house on the campus of Hamline University.  It was in rough shape.  But sometimes old windows in rough shape are right up my alley.  After receiving permission from the university to take the window, I brought it home and replaced one pane of broken glass. I then slipped into full "haz-mat" attire and sanded off enormous amounts of loose paint.  Then over the top I applied a couple coats of polyurethane. 

The window then spent a year in the rafters of my garage, but has now become the backbone of my first kiln incorporated piece. I slumped a Fuki sake bottle, mounted it to the window, and created a Moonshadow sunflower mosaic with the stem extending from "inside" the bottle.  On the left you see the window as it appears without back light.  And on the right with back light as it hangs in the dining room of my house.

A second piece can also be added to today's post, a large cityscape with terrible traffic, 40 x 28 inches, I started working on this one several weeks ago and finally got around to wrapping it up. 

A Large Ropey Vine and Some Creatures From a Long Time Ago

Awaiting inspiration this door sat in my basement for well over a year, inspiration finally struck and the piece is complete.  The door itself is 15 x 68 inches and the vine, in a sea of aqua, is home to a small blue bug (difficult to find in this picture).

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

And although all I really do now are "glass on glass" mosaics (I think they're more fun), I used to do a lot of "glass on wood."  Below are a couple of the creatures I made long ago, they proudly watch over

my workspace.  I thought it might be fun to throw them up on the blog since it is Halloween.

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist and protagonist, loved by millions for his creativity and opposition to the government that forever tries to put him down.  I made this little glass mosaic and it hangs in the window of my workspace.  Ai Weiwei inspires me.

Frontline on PBS aired a small (20 minutes) story on Ai Weiwei last spring, it can be viewed here

Glass-O'-Lantern

Glass-O'-lantern is here.  He's 20x40 inch or so.  In hopes of terrorizing the neighborhood kids this guy now lives (till November 1st) in the window of our sunroom . 

Four new 4"x6" added as well.

Japan



In the Spring of 2011, following the massive earthquake, I created a Japanese flag design and sold them in support of the heavily damaged pottery town of Mashiko, Japan.  Approximately 42 were sold, several people purchased more than one, others paid more than asked.  We sent a check in the amount of $1,500.00 to the Tatsuzo fund, which was set up to aid  the artists who work and live there.  Thank you to all who participated!!

The pottery village of Mashiko, Japan occupies a charming slice of countryside a little more than an hour north and east of Tokyo. The town is known for a simple rustic style of pottery first made famous in the 1930’s by Shoji Hamada and later by his student, Tatsuzo Shimaoka, both of whom, before they passed away, were designated by the Japanese government as National Living Treasures. 

Mashiko, unfortunately, also sits just 50 miles from what was the epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck on March 11, 2011 and 80 miles west of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.  The village suffered catastrophic damage.  Until the earthquake, potters from all over the world came to this village to train in the Mashikoyaki style made famous by Hamada and Shimaoka, many of these artists lost everything but their lives and all lost their livelihoods.  Of the 400 kilns in the village none survived unscathed, and most were damaged beyond repair. 

The Tatsuzo relief fund was established in an effort to assist in getting the village back on its feet.  With the revitalization of the kilns the artists of Mashiko will once again have the means to earn income and rebuild their town, this revitalization is literally taking place one brick at a time.

I completed a few new pieces this past weekend.  Four 4x6 inchers were wrapped up along with two full sized windows (a ropey vine with flowers and my good friend, the Little Red House on the Hill).

This site displays pieces that range in size from 4x6 inch to large double hung windows rescued from the construction dumpsters.  Visit often, newly created pieces are frequently added.

All are one of a kind (I couldn't make an exact copy if I tried).    

Feel free to contact me with any questions, cmill2003@gmail.com , and thanks very much for having a look!

Sincerely,

Chris Miller