GET CRAFTY Intown artisans get ready for American Craft Council Show

By Collin Kelley INtown Editor

e American Cra Council Show is set for March 15 -16 at the Cobb Galleria Centre with more than 225 of the nation’s most respected cra artists on hand and thousands of visitors expected to take in the 25th anniversary event.

Cra ers will exhibit and sell their latest one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry, furniture, clothing, home decor and more.

As the Southeast’s largest indoor cra show, artists are selected through a rigorous jury process to ensure admission of the highest quality work. Founded in 1943, the Council is a national, nonpro t educational organization.

We asked three Intown artists selected to participate in this year’s show to talk about their work in their own words.

Kathleen Plate, Furniture & Lighting

Creating works of art from empty wine bottles is the ultimate alchemy and way to combine my love of ecology with my love of art and architecture. I always love nding the beauty in the unexpected, and breaking what others call “rules.” is led me to combine processes from di erent mediums (glass, ceramics, stone work) and develop a new material derived from recycled glass bottles that I was able to patent and use as the building blocks of my chandeliers. e entire process, from dumpster diving for empties, to dimming the lights for the perfect e ect, are part of my art. My lighting stops people in their tracks because it is simple and beautiful, and when I tell them I made it from empty beer bottles, or sake bottles, they can’t believe it. at’s what a love, keeping a bottle in its original shape, color, and size, yet transforming it so radically people are stunned by its beauty. is work is 100 percent custom.

Alfredo Rodriguez Trio

Friday, March 7 8 p.m.

“Rodriguez’s talent for finding emotional truth in the split-second fall of a piano key has brought him to the verge of an improbable success story”

–Los Angeles Times

ShUFFLE, ShAkE AND ShATTER

by SANFORD

bIGGERS

Friday, March 28 8 p.m. Atl A ntA Premiere

“A quiet force in the art world” –Art in America

PILObOLUS

Saturday, April 5 8 p.m.

“The best Pilobolus works, with no loss of wonder or pleasure as popular entertainment, are sustained flights of poetry and drama”

–The New York Times sponsored by ferstcenter.org

Lynn Pollard, Paper

Breathing deeply, to experience the serenity of simplicity, to experience these subtle indigo markings on paper, life relinquishes the harsh realities of contemporary life with its brutal murders, humans lashing out at one another without forgiveness, terrorism, war, and the clutter and stress of our daily existence and hears the silence of solitude. My work addresses pure beauty and ideal nature and escape. It exists solely for beauty, for visual experience, for tactile luxury. And why blue? e complex nature of this particular dye, the ancient practices of dyeing blue, the traditional experience and symbolism, and the superstitions that developed around it for many ancient cultures all add to the signi cance for me. e connection to these other dyers working before me and superstitiously dying the color of royalty or traditional beliefs or war practices and to those working now to serve their beliefs and traditions and family moves me to work under the sway of the indigo vat.

Lucinda Carlstrom, Paper

I sew Japanese papers, new and recycled silk from antique kimonos and thri store dresses, paste papers and bronze and 23k pure gold leaf (thin metal which is rst adhered to paper before being cut up). is work, which has its foundation in traditional quiltmaking, is done on a much smaller scale than most quiltmakers. I o en sew 1/2” strips of paper with 1/10” seams. My larger pieces o en contain several thousand pieces. My work is blocked and sewn to museum board for permanent installation and framed under glass.

For more about the show, visit cra council.org.