Distance: 2.9 miles, Pickleball
On her way to Palm Springs Ciwt noticed an excellent art exhition at SFO: California Studio Craft, featuring works from the collection of Forrest L. Merrill.*
Studio craft combines traditional handmade craft with refined qualities of fine art and includes both utilitarian and purely aesthetic pieces. Most craft in the United States dates back to Native ceramic and weaving traditions and is regionally diverse.
By the 1930's specialized schools such as Oakland's California College of Arts and Crafts began offering specialized training in crafts. The G.I. Bill of 1944 fueled growth in studio craft, and thousands of artist-craftspeople enrolled in expanded curricula and were trained during the postwar period. Thus the 1950's and 60's were groundbreaking years, and craft provided an alternative to mass-produced products by offering artistic-yet-stylish handmade items for the home.
Magazines at the time featured craft items for the home showcasing their informal, natural appearance and the ways in which they softened the stark lines of modern interior design. Following suit many people collected and furnished their homes with original ceramics, sculptural furniture, on-and off-loom textiles, old-world metal works and glass created by entirely new hot-glass techniques. Slowly these craft works began to be accepted into the once rigid fine arts museums which had considered craft 'women's work' and 'lesser' than the 'aestheticlly superior' painting and scurlptural arts.
* Ciwt really likes the way airports have embraced art displays in their terminals.
