Take a look at this beautiful room designed by uber-designer, Carole Weaks from Atlanta, GA. Carole included my sculptural art baskets in this covered porch during the Cashiers Designer Show House and Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles just did a feature article on the house. Here's the link to read the article and see all the other fabulous rooms:http://atlantahomesmag.com/article/carolina-cool/
0 Comments
If you're an artist, the thought of collaborating with another artist whose work you love is something you've entertained from time to time. As with most great ideas, it's not the "if" questions, but the "how" questions that can end up in lots of head scratching! Let me share 5 things I think are super important when collaborating with another artist.
1) Make Sure You Like Each Other's Work This might go without saying, but when you're collaborating with another artist, it's important that you're into each other's work. Don't be nice. Don't just say yes to a collaborative relationship if it's not ringing your artistic bell. Otherwise, you'll be sorry! A new client came to me last fall with a request to create a special, sculptural hearth basket for her all-seasons room fireplace. They built a beautiful home nestled in the mountains of the upstate - Landrum, SC - at The Cliffs at Glassy Mountain and the home just exudes mountain elegance. Situated among the rhododendron and flowing mountain creeks their home was the perfect setting for one of my sculptural baskets. Even more exciting was the fact that I was able to create the piece in a way that was upon first glance sculptural art but upon closer inspection, a functional hearth basket. I delivered the piece today and enjoyed seeing it in it's forever home, accompanied by a hand-carved stone bear from Yellowstone. It looked right at home!
In late 2015, I received an email from a wonderful interior designer down in Florida who had some clients in Aspen, Colorado. They were looking for some accents to feature in their modern rustic decor and luckily, found me on the internet. After taking time to peruse the website, she emailed me and we connected by phone. I created 3 pieces for the living room including a bark, vine and clay vessel for a side table and 2 pieces for the fireplace hearth; a woven pod with 7 baskets and a nested basket in laurel branches. They turned out beautifully and were safely shipped before Christmas! A couple of weeks ago, the interior designer had the opportunity to visit the home for another project and was kind enough to snap this picture for me. Hopefully, these fireplace mantel sculptures are the first of many home owners in Aspen, Colorado will have in their mountain homes.
It never fails. Every time I create a commissioned work for a home, another client comes in and says something like "Oh my gosh, I've just got to have it!" I laugh and say "Well, I'm sorry, but that one is sold. However, I'd love to make you something in that same style!" That's what happened here and I thought it turned out really beautifully!
This 7 piece sculptural collection was created for a client of mine who has homes in New Jersey and here in Asheville. They enjoy the serenity and natural beauty of our mountain landscape and wanted to have art in their home that enhanced their modern rustic aesthetic. Sculptural baskets are a great way to do that because my work is created from 100% locally harvested natural materials like bark, vines and branches but it doesn't stop there. Over the 23 years I've been creating sculptural art baskets, I've learned to refine the materials in such a way that they honor nature but also really take it up a notch into what I call rustic elegance. For those of you who might be wondering "how does a collection like this stay together", let me share some insider secrets. Almost all the baskets are wired together with the main bark and wire piece as the anchor. I then added the branch to the left, wiring that basket on and then everything else falls into place. This make it easy to clean and transport to a different location, if needed. Dusting you ask? Forced air or feather dusters always do the trick and are easy on the materials. For more of my sculptural art baskets, check out my current inventory page or some of my other featured work like fireplace mantel sculptures, tabletop collections or wall hangings. I'd love to create something special like this for your home, too! One of my favorite things to do as an artist is sharing my art with eager students from around the world. I've been privileged to teach at places like the John C. Campbell Folk School, Arrowmont and a host of basketry conferences and conventions around the country but nothing is more fun to me than teaching students in my studio in Asheville's River Arts District. As a professional artist, it's easy to take for granted the blessing of having a spacious studio in one of the country's largest and most vibrant working artist communities. Over the years, my students have told me that getting to take a class in my studio while surrounded my the huge amount of locally harvested natural materials like vines, bark and branches is both inspiring and exciting! In 2016, I'm excited to offer 5 basket weaving classes at my studio teaching various things from grapevine harvesting to vine basket making. Each class is a 2-day workshop held from 10am-4pm with a break for lunch and every student will return home with 1-2 completed baskets, depending on the class. One of the questions I get a lot is "Can I take one of your basketry classes even if I've never woven a basket (or haven't woven in a long time.... or have never woven natural materials)?" The answer is a resounding "yes"! Each of my classes are appropriate for beginners but are also rewarding for experienced makers as well. If you're new to basketry, there's no need to be nervous... you'll have a blast! And, if you're an experienced maker don't worry, I can help you hone your skills and challenge you throughout the class as you're comfortable. Here's the list of basket weaving classes I'm offering in Asheville in 2016:
For more information on each basket weaving class and to register online, please visit my basket weaving classes page. Classes fill quickly, so please register soon! This special collection started as an idea in the mind of my clients. They loved all the styles of sculptural baskets that I create, but couldn't decide on one particular style for a new entry table in their Cashiers, North Carolina mountain home. Our solution was to create a collection of various styles that would work together in this beautiful home.
A large part of the aesthetic I create in my basketry work is rooted in nests and how natural forms work together to exist in harmony. Although very contemporary, this collection most definitely pays homage to it's rustic, nested origins. From left to right, I created a random weave basket from kudzu and grapevine, an iris foliage basket, a kudzu pod-style basket surrounded in honeysuckle vines, a bark and copper wire freeform basket in the center, a kudzu and pine-petal basket and then a couple of smaller baskets in the rear all nested in and around contorted filbert branches, commonly known as "Henry Lauder's Walking Stick". So, the moral of this story is if you can't choose just one style of sculptural baskets for your home, choose them all! Incidentally, this home has a beautiful fireplace mantel sculpture I did for them last year as well as another single sculptural basket. I'd love to create a collection like this for your home, too! Well, there's a first time for everything! A dear friend of mine emailed me back in November asking if I might be willing to take on a bit of a unique project for her as a surprise for her husband and a feature in their mountain house. Her husband is a big hunter - pheasant, turkey, deer, elk, etc - and had created a candelabra for their fireplace mantel using a large, beautiful elk antler. My client wanted me to take it up a notch and so she send me the antler candelabra along with some feathers and wasp nests they had collected over the years. Her request: make something beautiful! The result is a very unique, collaborative fireplace mantel sculpture using my normal materials - mountain laurel branches, copper leaves, vines and bark - along with the non-traditional materials of the elk antler and feathers.
SHH! This one is going to be a surprise for Christmas! I can't wait to hear the reaction to the new piece once her husband sees it! #fingerscrossed |
AuthorMatt Tommey is a sculptural basketry artist and basketry teacher working in East Texas. His work is commissioned and collected around the country. Archives
March 2024
Categories |