day 318 – four Harry Bertoia obits
Posted: October 8, 2011 Filed under: mary thorp | Tags: art, book, Harry Bertoia, heart, love, Mary Thorp, metal, nature, obituary, photo, sculpture, sing, thank you, Writers Leave a comment
It’s hard, in merely a week, to say much about this man and his work I fell in love with.
He was born March 10, 1915, the same year as my mother. He left, transitioned, November 6, 1978.
I thought this appropriate to end the week.
What else do you want to know about him?
What sculpture speaks to you?
Keep posted for a book: The Man Who Makes my Heart Sing _ A personal journey & discovery of Harry Bertoia
PS A special thank you to Arden for making this possible.
day 317 – four Harry Bertoia early sculptures
Posted: October 7, 2011 Filed under: mary thorp, Uncategorized | Tags: 1950's, art, Harry Bertoia, heart, love, Mary Thorp, metal, nature, sculpture Leave a commentAm surprised this week has gone so quickly.
These Bertoia sculptures are from the 1950’s.
What do you see in these? How do they relate to Harry’s later sculptures?
I have been locating & documenting all Bertoia sculptures since 1998 in preparation for a Catalogue Raisonne`. Someone asked me what’s my favorite sculpture. I realized every sculpture counts equally for me. I’m excited every time I find a new sculpture. Others are more critical of different sculptures. My job is to locate every piece he did so I don’t give any one sculpture more weight than another.
Do I have a favorite? …A favorite? No way. I suppose my favorites are my first pieces, the ones that made this project possible. I also really like the sculptures I showed yesterday, the ones with welded rods like the fountain maquettes. There are others I love but there’s no particular theme. I’d say the vibration in the piece is more what I’m attracted to.
If you have a sculpture or know someone who does, please contact me so it can be registered with the Harry Bertoia Research Project.
www.hbrp.net
This week has been a fabulous adventure for me. Thanks for reading this . . . .
day 316 – four Harry Bertoia fountain maquettes
Posted: October 7, 2011 Filed under: mary thorp | Tags: art, fountain, Harry Bertoia, heart, love, Mary Thorp, metal, nature, photo, sculpture Leave a comment
I love these metal creations. They were done by Bertoia as models for fountains he was commissioned to make. The fine metal rods are welded together & shaped. The full-size fountains range in size from 6′ high to 13 ‘ high x 14’ structures and made of different-sized hollow copper tubing bent & welded to match the lines of the maquette. It was really fun seeing the Philadelphia Civic Center scupture move through the city streets on a rig going to another location.
I visited the Marshall University Memorial Fountain in Huntington, WV. I will always remember walking on the sidewalk, seeing the fountain come into view. It took my breath away, like seeing a long-lost-friend. I spent several hours with it, photographing it from every angle and in different natural lighting settings, watching the light play on it as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.
And, the day I drove into foggy Buffalo, NY, into the M&T Bank Plaza, I was dazzled by the sculpture in the oval fountain. The sculpture was one of 7 commissioned by Minuro Yamasaki for buildings around the country. I was on my way home from a 6 week trip to Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Detroit where I’d been doing research and photographing pieces. I had only a short time there so I took photos of the sculpture in the fog. I was dubious about them turning out. They are, in fact, some of my favorites.
I was rushing back to Philadelphia to see my son race in the Dad Vale Regatta on the Schuylkill River. He rowed for Roman Catholic High School. I arrived as he was crossing the finish line in first place, just in time to photograph the awards ceremony.
All good.
day 315 – four Harry Bertoia sounding sculpture details
Posted: October 6, 2011 Filed under: creativity, mary thorp | Tags: art, details, Harry Bertoia, heart, love, Mary Thorp, metal, sculpture, sing, Sounding Leave a comment
The man, the sculptures, make my heart sing . . . .
I love the details. If God is in the details, what do you see?
I have thousands of these images. I get lost, caught up, in them for hours. I love to be up close and personal. I love that I can see what Harry could see. Can you hear it? Does it touch YOUR heart? What touches YOUR heart? That is what this whole exploration has been. Listen to my heart & hear what it’s telling me.
Now, how can I tell? When my heart is singing, JOY is there. Did you know you can learn the same lessons in joy as you can learn in pain & struggling? I remember the day in 1997 I made that choice: “I will live the rest of my life in joy. I will only do what brings me joy.”
At the time I couldn’t even tell you what was joyful to me. But I definitely knew when I wasn’t in joy. That’s all I needed to know. I began a practice of noticing when I wasn’t in joy. In that moment, I’d see if I could transform my experience to joy. If I could not, I’d leave & find something or someplace where joy was again present.
The first thing that showed up in that space of joy was a driving trip to Iowa to say goodbye to my mother who I knew would be transitioning soon. Before that trip, I got sleepy when I drove any distance. I used to say, “The angels got me here when I’d arrive at my destination. I kept falling asleep.” In this trip I drove 3,000 miles, saw aunts/uncles/cousins/friends I hadn’t seen for 30 years, visited 8-10 skateboarding parks with my kids and had a great time. Don’t think I dozed or fell asleep once.
Next, I found a space for my design studio in my neighborhood. It was the first one I’d ever had outside my house.
Then someone said to me, “You must have a new man in your life, you’re smiling alot.” I replied, “No, I got joyful and began smiling and then a new man showed up in my life. I’m clear the smiling happened first.”
As my practice of living in joy continued, my Harry Bertoia sculpture(s) and falling in love with Harry occurred.
My life altered as I listened to, and followed, the joy in my heart.
What did you say makes YOUR heart sing?
day 314 – four Harry Bertoia ‘bush’ centers
Posted: October 5, 2011 Filed under: mary thorp, objects | Tags: art, beauty, bronze, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Harry Bertoia, Italian, Mary Thorp, metal, nature, sculpture, welded Leave a comment
A series of sculpture Harry Bertoia is known for are the “bush” pieces. These images are different centers he created in this category. Look at the detail, the intricacies, the fascination with nature that appear in them. Bertoia’s work is all welded metal with the exception of the “spill cast” group he made by spilling molten metal into beds of sand where he often imbedded stones or moved the metal with tools as it cooled.
He was always interested in what metal would/could do. He followed the flow of it rather than forcing it into some unnatural design. It was one of the gifts Bertoia brought in his work. An extra ordinary, simple (not complicated), complex, extraordinary man.
The thought of him makes my heart sing . . . .
You?
day 312 – four photos of Harry Bertoia
Posted: October 3, 2011 Filed under: creativity, inspiration, mary thorp | Tags: art, Harry Bertoia, heart, love, Mary Thorp, sculpture Leave a comment
I share with you four photos of the man who makes my heart sing, Harry Bertoia….
My mother died in 1998. I wanted to do something special with the money I received from her estate. Several weeks passed as I explored possibilities that might be ”special” for me. One morning, in a conversation with my partner, a LOUD thought came to the fore of my thinking, “Buy a Bertoia sculpture!” was what I heard.
I had seen only one of his sculptures in the mid-70′s at someone’s home. It was a piece whose sound touched my heart. The moment I heard the message, I said, “I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to buy myself a Bertoia sculpture!” Pascal said, “What a good idea.”
Within 2 weeks, I owned 2 sculptures. It all happened magically. It has continued to be magical. As I found more of them & read about Harry, I began falling in love. First, with the pieces, then with Harry. (He died 20 years earlier, in 1978.)
I was selling high-end furniture through architects and interior designers in Philadelphia when I met the first Bertoia sculpture. Until then, I knew Bertoia only from selling many Knoll chairs. I was also on the Collab Committee which supported acquiring pieces for the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s 20th Century collection.
In the weeks following my first sculpture purchases, I made a request to collect all the data to prepare a Catalogue Raisonne`. That was 13+ years ago. In the process, I learned to follow my heart, traveled the US & Europe, became an expert on Bertoia, discovered the architects and artists of the Mid-20th Century, lectured at universities & for art audiences, learned digital photography & filmed those I interviewed who knew Harry directly.
…a life worth living.
day 297 – four transition sites
Posted: September 18, 2011 Filed under: broken, creativity, found, Karen Wardle, Uncategorized | Tags: art, nature, photo, winnipeg manitoba canada 1 Comment
The central image is one of my favourite images. A bird had built a nest in an electrical box at the site of an abandoned bottling factory. This factory comprised of a steel shed with a variety of tanks, equipment and conveyer belts scattered about the grounds, is now overtaken by vegetation and wildlife. All the sites shown here illustrate spaces that are in transition; places once habited by man that are now being reclaimed by nature. If these sites are no longer exclusively nature made or manmade then what are they?
The study of cybernetics can be used to achieve a deeper understanding of complex biological, social and ecological systems, and is used to help us understand the world around us. It is also a term used in reference to artificial enhancement in many ways including biological and social structures. As humanity expands, our social, political, architectural and transport networks spread across the globe and our influence over the planet increases. We implant structures on top of and under the ground, into the oceans and into the space around us to enhance our capabilities. Our influence can even be seen on a genetic level as we experiment with plant and animal life. The impact of our chemical pollutants can be seen across the planet. If we can refer to ourselves as cyborgs because of our technological implants, pace makers, artificial limbs, wheelchairs, or ipods then can we not go so far as to say that our planet too is a cybernetic organism?
day 296 – four circles
Posted: September 17, 2011 Filed under: broken, found, inspiration, Karen Wardle, Uncategorized | Tags: art, damaged, found, nature, winnipeg manitoba canada Leave a comment
There is symmetry in circles like these two ant holes, the squashed aluminum can, and the manhole covers. These images make me consider it is apparent that we impact on the landscape and that it impacts on us. Virtually all ecosystems on Earth have been affected by our presence. We have the ability to adapt to our environment and to adapt our environment to us in ways that significantly affect the planet. As our population increases our draw upon the planet’s resources increase.
We are a part of the ecosystem of our planet and rely upon a healthy ecosystem to supply our needs for survival. While a great deal of our impact on the planets resources has been detrimental to the ecosystem our habits can change and are very slowly changing to reduce human impact and preserve our resources.
day 295 – four spokes
Posted: September 16, 2011 Filed under: broken, found, inspiration, Karen Wardle, objects | Tags: art, broken, damaged, natural wood, nature, winnipeg manitoba canada Leave a comment
There is a cosmology of destruction and re-growth that stems from the things people throw away. These objects become part of a microcosm that is growing and/or decaying, and being consumed and consuming. On the larger scale this decomposition is an evolution of space. These sites can neither be considered pristine nature nor cultural landscapes; rather they represent a state of harmonious decline and re-growth.
On one level I am captivated by the beauty of these spaces, on another I am also fascinated by their entropic evolution. Entropy tangles and erodes the contours of the landforms and the built environment; it blurs distinguishing lines between interior and exterior, nature and culture redefining these spaces as other than nature made or human made.
day 294 – four grasping things
Posted: September 15, 2011 Filed under: broken, dead, found, Karen Wardle | Tags: art, found, nature, winnipeg manitoba canada Leave a comment
The clamp at the top right I found at an old abandoned bottling factory was inexplicably draped in a tree just as shown here. The top left door knob was still attached to the door as was the car door handle below. The vegetation pretty much over took the doors attached to both handles. While most of these items were obscured by natural re-growth, because they are metal they will take many years decompose.
Even though nature reasserts its presence in spaces impacted by man’s presence, the natural landscape has been irrevocably changed. Each piece of garbage that we leave behind is the seed for change in the evolution of our planet. Not only is the full potential of these plantings only just beginning to be realized, but what does become apparent is that as man made objects and spaces are enveloped in natural re-growth, they combine to make a new space that is both nature made and man made.
four for the day 