This is the fourth in our series of annual Penland School of Crafts ornaments. We hope that each of these ornaments will capture and share the spirit of creativity that lives within the school’s community of artists and friends. So far we have had two ceramic ornaments and one glass. This year we are proud to offer a little something from the book arts world.

Penland School of Crafts 2011 Ornament
Created by Margaret Couch Cogswell

Margaret Cogswell is a mixed-media artist who lives in Asheville, North Carolina. She received her BA from Rhodes College, and continued her education at the Rhode Island School of Design, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Penland School of Crafts, where she was a resident artist from 2008 to 2011. Margaret’s work has been featured in several publications, and she is currently writing a book about book arts for Lark Books, expected to be available in 2013.

You can click here to visit Margaret’s website for more information and images of her work.

“Book” is the structural form by which I tell stories. I define “book” broadly and the stories are often written in images rather than words. Using simple materials and techniques such as stitching, paper mache, paint, found objects, and cold connections, I create stories that are both intimate and public. I often employ humor and a child- like sensibility as a way to initially engage my “reader” with more sensitive or sophisticated content beneath the surface. Without sacrificing craftsmanship, the hand of the maker is always apparent in my work. This conveys my interest and appreciation of the rough, unpolished moments in our existence.

I made a crown a few years ago about village idiots. The text on the crown reads “Village idiots walk the streets in their own world. They have the freedom we long for. We turn the other cheek, open our hearts and judgment is suspended for a moment.” I often think of myself as a village idiot: a bit odd, a square peg trying to fit into a round hole world. I’m strange, but lovable – a beloved idiot.”

Beloved Idiots
2-5/8” high by 2-1/4” wide x 1/4” deep

This little ornament book is a limited edition made exclusively for Penland School of Crafts, containing original pencil and gouache drawings on Rives BFK paper.  It is bound using a drum leaf binding.

$50 each, plus tax when applicable, includes gift box
 as pictured.
Shipping is via USPS, $5.35 for one or two book ornaments (shipping cost adjusted for more than two).

To order:
Please call the gallery at 828-765-6211 or email penlandgallery@penland.org
.
We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
You may also purchase a book ornament in person at the Penland Gallery.

The Penland Gallery and Visitors Center’s Focus Gallery’s third show of the year, Pablo Soto: Incised Glass, is now open. A suite of the artist’s new work in glass, this exhibition is on view from Friday, June 1 through Sunday, June 24.

“My current body of work is, ironically, a reaction to the thousands of glass pieces made by me that required a flawless surface. I have begun to identify with the tool mark, and embrace the relationship between the optical qualities of glass and a visceral mark making process on the surface of the glass.  When light passes through the marks and incised lines on these vessels/panels it creates incredible projections much like a drawing on paper.  Pure glass is a blank canvas, and when you start to add or affect the surface of the glass it bends light into beautiful imagery. My attention was first focused on this phenomenon when frost on my skylight was projected onto my studio wall by the morning sun, much like a framed painting. It didn’t happen very often, so I started to make my own man made parallel attempts.

My development as a glass artist is clearly marked in stages that have become unified in my sensibilities and aesthetic of today. When I seriously committed myself to making, I already possessed a deeply ingrained sense of form, color, function, and design. This sensibility that I came preprogrammed with, was comparable to that of a folk artist. Someone that was not informed by an academic setting, rather the individual just creates what comes to mind. When you’re a kid growing up, you don’t study what is around you, so much as you absorb it. In retrospect, I was privileged to have grown up with, and around so many makers. I was constantly in a state of passive absorption.

When I was in college, I became fascinated with learning to move and create with glass. I immediately found my voice through the functional object, and sought out the skills to create what was in my head. At that point, I believed that learning technique, and different methods to meet my goals was of utmost importance. That idea has remained a constant up to the present.”

“In this moment my skills have become adequate enough, so that my mind can wander into and investigate the material more lucidly. I find myself searching out what people’s perceptions are about the vessel, so that I may more clearly make a statement with my work. The history of glassblowing is rooted in the vessel, and has developed a rich language through time. I consistently refer to these templates of form and technique that precede my own investigations with the material. I can no longer fall back on what was my inherent sense of form, color, function, and design.”

“My new path is to understand fully why I am drawn to certain ideals, and qualities that I find in peoples works, like Tapio Wirkkila, Charles Eames, Weiner Werkstatte, Lino Tagliapietra, Alexander Calder, Poul Henningsen, and Benjamin Moore. These designers’ and artists’ work awaken my senses on two different levels. On one hand they convey a sense of beauty that doesn’t need to be questioned or justified beyond that reaction. On the other hand, if I choose to dig deeper I find an amazing amount of content relating to a pursuit of perfection, and a kindred knowledge of what it is they are making. I seek to identify with, and understand these artists success, so that I can be honest when I say that I perceive my work as the result of love for form, and a persistent study of what formal qualities can co-exist in a harmony that is pleasing to the eye and other sensibilities.” – Pablo Soto

Click here to visit Pablo Soto’s website, where you can see more of his work.

Click here to visit the new and improved Penland Gallery website.

Penland’s Focus Gallery is a space primarily dedicated to single-artist exhibitions. Focusing on individual artists over the course of the year, it presents a larger selection of their work to gallery visitors and patrons.

Click here for more images from the show, and information about other Focus Gallery artists.