Maker Crush Monday

Sorry for disappearing for a week. My classes started last Tuesday, and while I'm teaching more than I intended this semester, I think things will even out in another week or so.

This week's Maker Crush is Kathleen Janvier. I've loved her work since I got a pin made of white glue and chain at a SNAG pin swap, one of my all time favorites. Everytime I would see her work in a publication or on the web, I would immediately be drawn to it, each piece possessing the same simple sophistication of that first swap pin. I love her simple enamels, intriguing in their shape and use of negative space. There's a whole narrative in just a few lines.

Her graduate work from the Cranbrook Academy of Art is electroformed (girl after my own heart). Some works combine her previous use of plastics, but some are thin, flat, electroformed sheets. Titled All These Empty Pages, the reference loose pages from a book or series of books (again, girl after my own heart). I wish I could find some sort of artist statement for these works. Janvier's website isn't exactly forthcoming, and I find myself wanting more: More enamels, more works, more clues as to what it's all about. I'm drawn to the visuals, but sense there's something deeper at play here. I'm also interested in how she made the aesthetic jump from the enamels to the electroformed works. There are many mysteries to Janvier's work.

I can't wait to see what else she produces in the future.

Happy Monday!

Awkward Exchange

All These Empty Pages. 2013

All These Empty Pages, 2013

Untitled, 2011