Irish Landscape

In 1993, when I was a very poor student at Mary Immaculate College of Education in Limerick, I first saw Giles Norman's photography. I was on a weekend trip to Dublin and found my way to his gallery in Powerscourt and absolutely fell in love. Poor as I was, I spent the 12 punts and bought the catalogue for 2 reasons - first, because I couldn't afford even 1 of his beautiful 8x10 prints and second, because even if I could have I don't think I could have chosen just 1! That catalogue has had pride of place on my bookshelf ever since, now sitting next to my bound copy of my Master's thesis, for which Giles graciously answered a slew of questions for me as I was doing my research. Now, 20 years later (ouch! has it really been that long?!), I find his work every bit as inspiring and lovely as I did then.

 

I love his clean composition, his appreciation for space, texture and especially his use of light. His use of light, for me, is what really takes me there. The lone boat on an empty sea at the end of day, the solitude, the silence. I feel like I am the one standing on the cliffs watching for that boat to return home from the sea. 

 

I find his inclusion of people and animals refreshing, particularly in contrast to much of American landscape image-making where people don't belong and anything man-made should be ancient and decayed if it must be included at all. For me, the people and the landscape of Ireland are part of the whole - separate them and you lose the richness of the place.That said, though, Norman's images of the wild parts of Ireland, the secluded coves and empty cliffs are beautiful enough to bring an ache to my throat and awaken a longing in my heart to be there, alone, feeling the mist on my face, smelling the sea and listening to the birds.

 

Yes, 20 years have past, but some things remain as inspiring as ever. Giles Norman's images are among them. To see more of his work, go here.

Without Fear

Carefree. Whimsical. Honest. Beautiful. Sensual. Joyous. Adventurous.
All of these words I would apply to the work of Yulia Ustinova, a Russian fibre artist living in Moscow, creator of a wonderful body of work that she calls Fat and Not Afraid. I love these sculptures, curvaceous women which she crochets in the act of, well, being real women. They dance, they sunbathe, they do acrobatics, they read the Sunday papers. Okay, so some of their occupations are not so everyday, but what the heck, why not? They are a joyous celebration of the female form as it really exists for at least half of the women in the world, which is part of what makes me love them so much. Here are some of her pieces and you can see more by clicking here. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

 

  

Just WOW!

On Pinterest I ran across this image, which at first just drew an "oh, that's pretty" and then I read the caption. "Woven glass?! What?!"  Was my next response followed my the immediate need to see more. So I clicked on it, as one does on Pinterest, and it took me to this blog post by Cathy Milliken, and then I clicked again and wound up here. Eric Markow and Thom Norris are amazing! They actually create pieces of art by weaving glass, everything from small bowls to 5' standing sculptures. How could I NOT want to share this? This just blows my mind. Here are a few more images of their work (click on the images and they will take you to their sources):

  

And a video interview with the artists.

Really amazing. Hope you all enjoy their work too!