Open Days
National Garden Scheme
Saturday and Sunday May 5th & 6th
We are in Devon, twenty miles south of Exeter, directions will be posted in April.
Come for the Bluebells and Spring flowers
Bring us Sunshine, see some new sculpture, and have a swing by the stream.
What else have we been up to? I don't quite know what the others have been doing but they've been hard at it in the office and the garden while I've been locked inside writing, reminiscing and listening to music and the fabulous Radio Paradise. If you don't know it, have a listen www.radioparadise.com
Read excerpts from my new book! I have written 70,000 words since October.
Not poems. You might find poetry in the garden
What else?
Every so often someone posts an image of mine on the web. This time it was on facebook. It inevitably leads to a deluge of emails. This is an example. I put most of the questions posed and my answers on the student page.
You might find some of them interesting
Heather,
I can tell you can draw. What beautiful gestural lines the driftwood provides. I came across your website by entering “wooden horses” as I wanted to see if anyone else is currently doing what I have planned after I retire a second time after returning to teaching for 5 years. Your work has the gestural ability of our Deborah Butterfield in the States. What are you able to sell your work for in dollars? How is the art market in the UK?
I have been called a “national treasure” and a “Master Ohio Craftsman” but that will just about buy me a cup of coffee. I think this time around I will improve my marketing in my remaining years.
I’m redesigning my website so forgive the helter skelter of a little of everything.
A How wonderful to have been called a national treasure, you should have no problem getting good prices but it might be an idea for you to seek guidance about that from Deborah Butterfield. She may be better placed to advise you about what you could ask in The US. If she can't she might suggest which galleries could best represent you. Or you could try her agent Greg Kucera.
Good luck with your venture.
Heather Jansch
Q
My experience with galleries is they are less likely to represent you if you have clients who contact you directly. Some galleries like to have total control and exclusive rights to the artist. Some clients prefer working with gallery to validate the value the art and the artist.
Among the “art elite”, is your work considered fine art or fine craft? I’ve accepted my recognition more within the company of the contemporary American craft movement…I don’t mind. It has a broader base, is more accessible, less elitist and less writing is required to justify the work.
A. I can’t say what the art elite think of my work; I am sure some would dismiss it as popularist and one-dimensional, some will consider it craft and others will laud it. Three of my life-size driftwood sculptures were chosen to feature in The Shape of the Century - 100 years of Sculpture in Britain, to celebrate the millennium in London’s Canary Wharf alongside Henry Moor, Dame Elizabeth Frink and other luminaries, so from that I guess my work is largely considered to be fine art rather than craft.
The defining distinction between craft and art is a debate that has gone on for years. The big money tends to go on fine art, generally on unique pieces or very limited edition bronzes.
Was Picasso an artist or a craftsman? Or even, according to some, just a con man. What about Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci? It was the Church of Rome and the Medici that commissioned them, gave them strict briefs, ensured their survival. Were they Artisans or artists, were they artists whose apprentices and assistants were craftsmen? Whose head would the axe fall on?
It is only in the 20th century that the possibility of even being able to think about an unrestricted life within the arts has come about; a life as an artist beyond the confines of portraiture for the court or other wealthy patrons.
My own thoughts on the matter are that most artists tend to be risk takers, and obsessives. They give everything to their art, everything else, including families is cast aside, they will live in in penury rather than not follow their passion. They do not care what others think, they are not motivated by profit. The terrible thing is a that not all of them are talented enough to look critically at their own work.
The best of artists make works of genius; works that take your breath away from sheer brilliance, works that shock, make profound social comment, visceral works that change the world, become icons that transcend fashion. Great artists will not be restricted by adhering to any one medium. Indeed the medium is of little interest to them other than being a mere vehicle for their expression...... Their creativity can flow in almost any direction; some artists span many disciplines moving freely between, for example, painting, printmaking, ceramics, photography, sculpture, filmmaking, landscape gardening, music, composing, writing almost anything you can think of….. They will not be trapped into repetition........their creativity cannot be confined..
Repetition could be said to be the province of the craftsmen for whom the ability to hone their skill is a matter of well-deserved pride and their interest in the medium is often of overriding importance. Most craftspeople tend to be better balanced and more conservative than artists
The craftsman’s road in buoyant economic times can be a relatively dependable source of income while at the same time satisfying their urge to make something original and creative with their hands. Craftwork generally appeals to the broader base of the population, is easy to understand, is not confrontational, and does not ask the viewer uncomfortable questions, prices are more affordable by most working people; but in lean economic times it is these people who feel the pinch more and stop spending. The rich don’t….. In some cases, they invest more heavily in art particularly while money markets are uncertain and not paying high interest.
The Road of the artist is uncertain, but the rewards can be very high, Their clients often number among the most wealthy in the world. Wealth is what enables artists to survive, it could be argued that without wealth there would be no art, as we know it, today.
BERT JANSCH
November 3rd 1943 - October 5th 2011
Legendary, unique, and genius were all words used to describe Bert Jansch by the time he was twenty six years old, and they were well deserved. It is no wonder that he was revered by so many great guitarists.
We married in 1968. I was truly privileged to witness first hand how brilliance came from absolute concentration and persistence, from fierce determination and refusal to quit. Until his fingers found their mark he drove them relentlessly, they were like spring loaded steel hammers. There was no mercy, but what was forged in his creative furnace was a fluidity and dexterity that was simply breathtaking.
His solo performances were riveting: he had a touch unlike any other, instantly recognizable and spell binding. They were truly awe inspiring.
He had no interest in possessions or in fame and was mostly oblivious to his surroundings so long as he had his guitar and a pencil. His was an intensely personal musical genius that could not be contained. It was, it seemed inexhaustible. He would play for eight hours and more a day, every day, practicing, always practicing until he caught the elusive combination of sounds and words fluttering on the edge of consciousness.
He was essentially a private, modest man with a gentle generous soul and a will of iron who graced many lives. He was always bemused by the accolades heaped upon him. None of those who knew him well will ever forget his unfailing kindnesses. He enriched this world for countless people.
I am glad that he found happiness in later years with Loren Auerbach whom he married. Loren survived him by only three months and is buried with him.