We have a soft spot for folk art, which may be why we responded so well to the work of Mary Engel. Mary will be included in an upcoming book by Garth Johnson of ExtremeCraft.com, which will feature 1,000 ideas for Creative Reuse, we seriously can't wait for this book. In the meantime, we're making due with perusing ExtremeCraft in hopes for a taste of what will be in the book. Mary Engel is definitely one of our favorites so far.
Mary Engel is an Athens, Georgia based artists who uses little porcelain figurines to make amazing mosaic sculptures most of which are inspired by her two dogs and the tradition of African grave markers and old Southern "Memory Jars". (We actually have our own DIY art project inspired by Memory Jars that we hope to share soon!)
For more fabulous crafts, check out ExtremeCraft.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I think I would have noticed this article if it were here since Saturday, instead of inserted early Tuesday on page 5/6.
Uh... I can sort of appreciate what's going on here. A ceramic dog is a ceramic dog, even if it's made of other ceramic dogs. I can't even tell you what a nightmare chill/sweat I get when I imagine being covered with birds, but maybe that's just me.
view K T G's profile
I 'd love to buy a piece by Judy Onofrio. Check out her site.
view Kate (NC)'s profile
dont know why, but it creeps me out.
view Oneformybaby's profile
Creeps me out, too. Looks like a collection of old chewing gum scraped off the bottom of school desks.
view TheGoodBiGirl's profile
I like it.
view tenderleaf's profile
It looks like some sort of skin disease, especially that first one. Ewwww, I just can't appreciate it.
view tarah's profile
I've seen these in person, and they are quite cool.
view patrick (the other one)'s profile
It does sort of make my skin crawl for some reason.
view Abby-Sue's profile
I love it for some reason - but that is what makes art, art!
view Haunted_Studio's profile
I agree with Abby-Sue... makes me alt left.
view Fuzzyummy's profile
Oneformybaby--you beat me to it..it creeps me out too.
view animalhouze's profile
It reminds me of ticky tacky art cars I see all over Santa Cruz with Kewpie doll figures glued onto them.
view Hoonuit's profile
i love creepy.
view Seaside's profile
I want to like it but, I just ate and it's hard to keep it down when I look at the first one. It reminds me of "Pizza the Hut" from Spaceballs. I'm sorry but, I couldn't keep it to myself.
view modernguy's profile
Its horrible.
view silversurfer's profile
Oops, I've just broken my new year resolution to only make positive comments or else shut up.
view silversurfer's profile
I like weird art and I do mosaic's, but not this.
view colleen2009's profile
Sounds like a good plan silversurfer, I'm going to try that as well.
view modernguy's profile