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| Address: |
AC# 2225,
Amherst College, |
Current work (updated July 2008)
Contents
Concerning "The Imagined Landscape"
1998 Syllabus or 1996 Syllabus
Work-in-progress: a book based on the course
Concerning The Sound and the Story
Excerpt from the book
Concerning New England Almanac
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BRIAR CONTEMPLATIONS Studies of Danish and Japanse pipe-makers. Since 2004, I've been pursuing a line of study and research in this country, Denmark, Japan, and Italy that explores cross-cultural influences and "imaginative conversations" in the work of several brilliant briar carvers from Japan and Denmark. Their pipe-making skills and unique creativity result in extraordinarily beautiful and original works that blur common distinctions between art and craft. I've been presenting some of my preliminary ideas in a series of exhibits at shows in Chicago (2004-2008), Copenhagen (2004), Bologna (2006), Montalto Ligure (2007), and Tokyo (fall 2008). I am writing a series of essays in preparation for a book on the subject.
For more information, see the exhibits and discussions on my
web site, |
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Hiroyuki Tokotomi says that when he sits at his sanding disk, his intention is to "play elegantly with briar."
Creative pipe-makers like the Japanese Tokutomi and the Dane Teddy Knudsen embody in unexpected ways the universal human impulse to transform that which is useful into that which is also beautiful.
(from "Contemplating Briar," 2006) |
Last revision: August 1, 2008
