What's Latest in Ornamentum
mi’kmaq basketry
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Article by Joleen Gordon
If we could see beneath the forest floor, we would see that all the trees, the pine, the birch, maple and so on, are holding hands, regardless of species. We as people, regardless of race, must come together and hold hands and help...
the medium is the message
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Article by John Fleming and Marian Bradshaw
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arshall McLuhan’s pithy formula–“the medium is the message”–has become an ever-present cliché of the electronic age. This prescient concept can also be applied to the much longer human history of the decorative arts by a simple linguistic sleight...
the tall narrow canvas of William Grit Laskin
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Article by Judy Donnelly
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illiam Grit Laskin is one of North America’s pre-eminent luthiers and inlay artists. Since the early 1970s he has built beautifully-crafted guitars, and pushed the decorative element of the instruments by developing a unique inlay style, highly personalized to reflect his customers’...
art for art’s sake
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Article by Tony Luppino
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very time the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performs, jewellery designer Claudine Hannigan is one reason they sound so splendid. Through a program developed by Brinkhaus Jewellers, the CPO has acquired new instruments needed to create the music that makes it one of...
plain and fancy
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Article by Sheldon Posen
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n his classes at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s, anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell sometimes brought in objects to prompt discussion. One day he placed on our seminar table two duck decoys: one was essentially two pieces of log joined by...
music and the decorative arts
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Article by John Fleming and Marian Bradshaw
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an music be included among the decorative arts? Perhaps not. Yet the instruments that make non-vocal music possible, from the simple reed flute of some shepherd or mythical satyr to the polyphonous instruments of the major western orchestras, have...
shelf life
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Article by Michael J. Prokopow
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ondering the changing relationship between art and commerce, Andy Warhol, the onetime window-dresser turned artist, filmmaker, society fixture and rapacious yet discerning collector, offered the insightful opinion that one day in the not too distant future, “all museums will be department...
print in context
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Article by Chloë Catán
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orking from her studio in Toronto, Canadian textile designer Virginia Johnson has built a hugely successful brand of colourful prints on clothing, shawls, home furnishings and children’s wear. Founded in 2001, the collection is now carried in stores all over the world...
domestic devotions
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Article by Gloria Hickey
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icola Hawkins and her husband Andy Perlis are both seasoned travellers logging months in Japan and especially India to document – on successive years – the rural tradition of handicrafts and domestic decoration. But in 1999 a different, unadorned landscape and authentic...