American Craft Spring 2021

Shining Some Light. During the past year of uncertainty and loss, artists such as Jeffrey Gibson, Andy Li, and Roachele Negron of Rayo & Honey helped get us through. When times were dark, they went to work making textile pieces that highlight positive messages, inspiring us to keep seeing the good that surrounds us every day. We’re grateful. Mississippi Choctaw-Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson of Hudson, New York, doesn’t see himself as an activist. But his work and the messages this 2019 MacArthur Fellow incorporates into his acrylic and beadwork on canvas pieces are intended to create space for hope and reconciliation. jeffreygibson.net | @jeffrune Using a nylon marine flag and polyester thread, Boston-based Andy Li strives to capture those seemingly small but genuine moments of mundane positivity. The intimate phrases sewn onto each banner…

Social Justice Sewing Academy. For quilter and educator Sara Trail, the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, and the quilt world’s silence following it, was deafening beyond comprehension. Processing her grief and rage, she made a memorial quilt aptly titled Rest in Power Trayvon, which led to the creation of the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA). A grassroots, volunteer-run organization, SJSA facilitates projects aimed at building community and addressing the consequences of systemic oppression. One of SJSA’s earliest and longest-running projects, Community Quilts, involves creating intergenerational, 21st-century quilting circles for students and youth to process their feelings and thoughts around issues of social and racial justice. They design, cut, and applique the pieces for their individual blocks, which are sent to volunteer embroiderers and quilters who bring them to exhibition-ready completion. Once finished,…

Objects: USA was not only a defining exhibition in the American studio craft movement when it occurred in 1969, but it also produced one of the most important exhibition catalogs of the time. Organized in response to the exhibition’s 50th anniversary, this publication revisits and reframes it in the context of the present moment. Adamson focuses on 50 of the original participants and pairs them with 50 contemporary artists—including Katie Stout, pictured below—who represent the future of the field. OBJECTS: USA 2020 By Glenn Adamson The Monacelli Press, 2020 $50 A LABOUR OF LOVE By Lidewij Edelkoort & Philip Fimmano Lecturis, 2020 $70 Reflecting on lessons gained during the past year, trend forecasters Edelkoort and Fimmano refocus on a more mindful and altruistic approach to design. Highlighting material practices centered in sustainability, the book is divided into 12…

The American Craft Council Library & Archives in Minneapolis contains the country’s most comprehensive archive of contemporary American craft history, with more than 20,000 print publications, files on nearly 4,000 craft artists, four major archival collections, and a robust digital collection. Here, librarian Beth Goodrich shares recent acquisitions and highlights. ARCHIVES The estate of glass artist Marvin Lipofsky recently donated his collection of nearly 200 craft-related posters, dating from the early 1960s. The ACC library aims to have the complete inventory posted on the library website in the coming months. marvinlipofsky.com PERIODICALS Craft Desert is a subscription-based zine published biannually by craft artists and San Diego State University faculty Adam John Manley and Kerianne Quick. Each issue takes an expansive look at craft in the places “where innovative craft work is plentiful but oft en…

A Nourishing Moment. Handcrafted trays help create meaningful experiences—like enjoying breakfast outside in the sunshine, gathering the things you need to care for someone you love, or holding your most treasured objects. Wood pieces like these need protection from water damage, so use coasters when carrying drinks—or display the trays on their own to enjoy their beauty. Combining their love for Japanese and rustic Southern aesthetics, Eric and Lori Wright of ME Speak Design in North High Shoals, Georgia, created this tray from hand-carved and charred Georgia cherrywood. They added a hand-forged brass staple to stabilize the crack./$625 mespeakdesign.com | @mespeakdesign Infinite Abyss is a one-woman operation based in Wyoming. It’s run by Samantha Hartman, author of Wood Pallet Wonders. Hartman made this serving tray, painted with a modern mountain pattern, from reclaimed lumber…

Sarita Westrup. Weaver and sculptor Sarita Westrup was in high school in the Rio Grande Valley when she watched the PBS show Craft in America and first saw a loom on the screen. “I learned that craft was something in the world, and I wanted to be a part of it somehow,” she says. At the time, Westrup hadn’t taken a formal art class and didn’t know about looms, but she remembers thinking, “I’ll do whatever to get on that loom that I saw on television.” Westrup credits Ann Coddington Rast, who was a visiting artist when Westrup was in graduate school, with teaching her how weaving could become a three-dimensional form. Being exposed to Chicano art history and developing a formal understanding of the aesthetics of where she grew up also…