Blooming Alabaster Rose called ‘Decorative’!
Alabaster is the only material on the planet that can describe a Rose that looks like it’s blowing in the wind because of it’s softness, color and translucency. I just finished carving my 19th Alabaster Rose in 33 years of being a professional carver. It’s the ‘Golden-Pink Sunset Rose’ carved from the most delicate of translucent Alabasters.
A friend sent a picture of the piece to a friend who works in the Harvard museums. This is what she said….Hi Susan-
A friend who works at one of the Harvard libraries/museums had this to say about my query re. getting your work into a museum:
“As to your question regarding your friends carvings. The one in the image is a tour de force of the carver’s art; however, the problem is that this sort of thing, however striking, falls outside the modernist and post-modernist cannon. If it (or the equivalent, that is) was from 6th c. China, it would be a desirable work of art of interest to the Sackler Museum (but not the Peabody at all since it is entirely devoted to ethnographic art). This piece falls somewhere in the realm of contemporary decorative arts, and would have appealed strongly to my parents, both of whom were botanists, but is simply not the sort of thing that art museums are looking for, I’m sorry to say.”
My response………what is this need to categorize and what is ‘decorative art‘? Is that like jewelry on a body? What used to be new, according to this woman i.e. modern, contemporary, now feels very mainstream – like been there, done that. These Roses are at the heart of my process which is a celebration of the stone, a stretching of the medium, a deepening of my skill, a full expression of my sense of beauty.
What category does all that fit into?
I invite comment, enlightenment, illumination on this topic of my Roses and our work. Please enjoy our website. The new Rose will be on there soon.