Tang Dynasty Tomb Guardians

China’s Tang Dynasty (618ce to 907ce) is among the greatest periods for art making in the world.  The relative peace enjoyed by the people and its outward looking and accepting culture where art was highly valued, created the perfect environment for experimentation and growth by artists. China hosted flourishing trade along the silk road, that …

Ai Weiwei and The Art of Destruction

The pottery of Neolithic and Bronze era China have inspired many artists over the centuries since it was first created, but none to such a controversial degree as the work of Ai Weiwei.  Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist who has risen to the apex of the international art scene with his thought-provoking social commentaries. …

Gansu Jars of Neolithic China

Neolithic culture is a period that begins worldwide about 8000 bce and is defined by humanities move from hunter-gather culture to settled agriculture centered around small villages.  Important innovations and technology of the time were stone tools and the regular manufacture and use of pottery.  It is in fact through pots and fired ceramic objects …

Inventing the Modern World

Rozenburg Haagsche Plateelbakkerij, The Netherlands (The Hague), 1883-1914. Milk Jug, 1900. Glazed porcelain with enamel. 108 x 40.6 x 33.7 cm. Designmuseum, Danmark, Copenhagen, 793.   One of the best things about the Ceramics Art and Perception assignment this semester is catching up on events in the ceramic community that I missed.  One of these …

Minoan “Snake Goddess” Figurines

The Minoan culture, Lasting from approximately 5000 bp to 3450 bp is commonly thought of as the beginning of the group of cultures commonly referred to as Western Civilization.  Located on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean sea, the Minoan culture is known today by the many wonderful artifacts left behind following the cataclysmic …

Beatrice Wood

  “We are here on account of sex, though we do not understand its force.   There is glory when the sexual force is used creatively, when it is open to the magic of the universe” The above quote and photo were taken from Playing Chess with the Heart, a book of photographs by Marlene Wood taken …