A Collective Portrait - The art of Derick Melander

“Derick Melander surprises with a stunning circular sculpture made of stacks of folded secondhand clothing. It raises, in my mind, all kinds of questions about affluence, idealism, social mobility – the kind of things that clothes signify in our culture.”
-Benjamin Genocchio, The New York Times, January 1, 2006

Derick Melander is a modern day storyteller without words. His work asks questions and set forth answers which each viewer discovers in themselves.
I have been having an inner dialogue about the difference between art and craft. I feel that I as an artists am working from the inside out and as a craftsman from the outside in. How utterly amazing is the fact that this idea is so easily explain by one glimpse of Derick's piece "Into the Fold". Derick reopens old and created new concepts of our society with the use of discarded clothing. The outcome is an expansion of personal and societal dialogues.

www.derickmelander.com

New Art Magazine Features SteamSmith

Congratulations to Mark Eliot Schwabe and his SteamSmith jewelry. I blogged about Mark in one of my first blogs. Mark is featured in the inaugural edition of Artizen Magazine. This new on-line magazine showcases the “eclectic array of artisans creating everything from fine arts to food."

Here is a link to the magazine, SteamSmith is featured on page 9:http://www.artizenmagazine.com/artizen1-1

Mark is also one of the artists at the New England SteamPunk Festival. This Saturday, SteamSmith will be traveling to the greater Boston area to vend product (including NEW designs) and demonstrate jewelry making techniques.

If you are in the area, please stop by.
Hear is a link to the Festivals facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Waltham-MA/Steampunk-Festival/234046964955

Check it out!