Contact: 323-951-0610 rsvp@craftinamerica.org info@craftinamerica.org,

Joe the Quilter: Modern Musings

On view at the Craft in America Study Center from March 31- June 2, 2012

Opening reception and artist talk on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 6PM

“By origin, quilts are blankets that are meant to be useful. You can use them to

wrap yourself up, in case of the apocalypse.” -Joe Cunningham

(Los Angeles, CA) Joe Cunningham, rebel quilter with a cause, defies common perceptions of what quilts and their makers are. He creates art quilts that chart new territory in technique, composition and expressiveness. Utilizing the historic medium of quilting, Cunningham crafts thoroughly modern works of art. His quilts, which are intended to hang like tapestries on walls rather than to drape over beds, overturn traditional art hierarchies that have excluded textiles with functional origins from the category of so-called fine art.

Joe the Quilter’s creations prove that quilts can speak as powerfully and effectively as the painter’s canvas. His quilts carry a multi-layered allure that is much deeper than the transfixing colors, patterns, and designs he scribbles across the cloth. Using landmarks of 20^th century art as reference points in much of his work - Franz Kline, Abstract Expressionism and John Cage have entered into Cunningham’s approach - he pushes the craft into new realms.

Originally a rock and roll musician, Cunningham found his voice as a quilt artist when he learned and started experimenting in 1979. He soon poured his uncovered passion into researching, teaching and writing about quilts. Typically a female world, rare is the man who has ventured into these waters. Somewhere along his way, Cunningham learned about an 18^th century male English quilter named Joe who inspired Cunningham to create a one-man musical quilt show which he will perform at the Study Center when the exhibition is on view.

Craft in America is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and advancing original handcrafted work, through educational programs in all media, accessible to all. The Craft in America project includes a national primetime PBS documentary series, a 300-page companion book, traveling exhibitions, and an extensive website with teachers’ guides and video clips of artists at work. The Study Center is an extensive craft-focused library, an archive of video footage, and a gallery space with rotating exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary artists who work in craft media. For more information: www.craftinamerica.org

The Craft in America Study Center is located at 8415 West Third Street, 2 blocks East of La Cienega. The Study Center is open Thursday - Saturday from 12:00 - 6:00 pm. For more information and to RSVP: rsvp@craftinamerica.org or (323) 951-0610.

Richard Olsen's Handmade Houses lecture and book signing

Craft in America is pleased to present a lecture by Richard Olsen and book signing for Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design

March 24, 2012
5-7pm, lecture at 6pm

Craft in America Study Center: 8415 W. Third Street, LA, CA 90048 (323.951.0610)

ABOUT Richard Olsen: Working as an editor, Richard spent a decade conceiving and shaping books on residential design for others. His credits include Treehouses of the World, Living Large in Small Spaces, The Abrams Guide to American House Styles, The Abrams Guide to Period Styles for Interiors, Craftsman Style, Bungalow Nation, American Country Churches, and Cottages by the Sea: The Handmade Homes of Carmel, America’s First Artist Community. He is the author of Log Houses of the World and a co-author of Malibu: A Century of Living by the Sea. Most recently, Olsen was the senior editor in charge of architecture for Architectural Digest. He lives in California. www.richardolsen.org


Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design
By Richard Olsen

What if you could not only build your “dream house,” but you could both find desirable cheap land on which to build—land that you secured without the involvement of bankers—and design and construct it entirely on your own creative terms? During the international back-to-the-earth movement the 1960s and 70s, a time when the trying political, social, economic, and environmental circumstances had prompted a global face-off with the status quo, all of this was possible. Not easy, but at least possible. In the United States, it happened to coincide with the rapid decline of the buildings of our agricultural past—old barns, mills, and country churches stood abandoned. Some of that storied, richly patinated wood and hardware would prove to be still useful, however, as many back-to-the-earth homebuilders would go on to demonstrate. This was the soil from which the modern environmental movement grew, the beginnings of what we now call “green," the origins of a thoroughly idiosyncratic, made-from-reclaimed-materials kind of home that people had taken to calling a “handmade house.” Although times have changed, the handmade-house approach to homebuilding, that well-worn and infinitely warm aesthetic, never really went away. But it did evolve.

From deep in the redwood forests of Big Sur, California, to the craggy, pink-sand beaches of Sardinia, Italy, this book visits a wide selection of the greatest handmade houses built in the last century—houses built during and before and since the back-to-the-land movement, houses in which cost-cutting DIY improvisation, eco-consciousness, art, and craft harmoniously converge. It’s a book about real people building real houses—some for as little as $1,000 but always with a wealth of creative inspiration and determination.
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CRAFT IN AMERICA is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and advancing original handcrafted work, through educational programs in all media, accessible to all. The CRAFT IN AMERICA project includes a national primetime PBS documentary series, a 300-page companion book, traveling museum exhibitions, and an extensive website with teachers' guides and video clips of artists at work. The Study Center is an extensive craft-focused library, an archive of video footage, and a gallery space with rotating exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary artists who work in craft media.

"Sean, Nate and Maggie play tunes!"

"Sean, Nate and Maggie play tunes!"

Just a little pick-up pop/folk show this Friday for all you spontaneous folk out there. Requests, anyone?

Sean Pawling, guitar and vocals, singer/songwriter/trombone extraordinaire.
Check out his music at http://seanpawling.com/. He'll be accompanied by a lovely trombone quartet and...

Nate Vaughan, guitar and vocals, singer/songwriter/crowd charmer

Maggie Hasspacher, bass and vocals, oatmeal-peanut-butter-choc-chip cookie provider

ALL AGES, FREE

@ Craft in America Study Center
Starts at 8pm
Today, Friday 17, 2012

Craft in America Study Center

Craft in America Study Center is now open on Sundays for the month of December. So come on down to read a book from our library, we have a great selection of books or, you can come watch a video from our PBS collection that shows and shares the beauty and originality that art has to offer. Our 80s exhibition is still up so, if you haven't gotten the chance to view it there's still some time left. We hope to see you soon. May you all have a great Christmas!!! And we can't wait to ring in the New Year with you all!!!

Golden State of Craft: California 1960-1986

The Golden State of Craft exhibition is coming to an end on January 8, 2012. If you haven’t gotten the chance to view the show, now would be the perfect time. Don’t miss out on this wonderful experience and head down to CAFAM to view the exhibition.

Garry Knox Bennett

Tonight November 17, 2011 Craft in America presents a talk by Garry Knox Bennett. Bennett is a furniture maker who works in Oakland. He is most well known for his chairs and use of conventional woods and unusual materials such as plywood, aluminum, steel, and plastics.

The talk starts at 7pm and there is free parking behind the Freehand Gallery

Hand-built Traditions of a Northern California

Rooted in Place: The Hand-Built Northern California Studios of Craftsman Arthur Espenet Carpenter & Sculptor J.B. Blunk

A talk by Katie Nartonis, Junior Specialist and Business Manager, 20th Century Decorative Arts, Bonhams & Butterfields

Thursday, NOV 10, 7pm in the Study Center.

Parking behind Freehand Gallery.