EngAGE Stories

Indonesian artist Sumarsono, also known as Ono Gaf, 64, used old, discarded tools, car parts, and scrap metal to create an amazing giant tortoise sculpture! Read more and see photos here.

The nation’s highest honor for folk and traditional arts has been awarded to Yvonne Walker Keshick, a porcupine quillworker from Northern Michigan, who is among the 2014 honorees joining the ranks of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowships, a lifetime honor awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.

“Because Yvonne Walker-Keshick was born in the autumn of 1946, her tribal name is Falling Leaf. One of the five children of Levi and Josephine Walker, she is the descendant of a long line of excellent quillworkers. Her grandmother, Mary Anne Kiogima, was reputedly one of the finest quillworkers of the early twentieth century. Quillworkers embroider designs on birchbark containers with natural and dyed porcupine quills. Walker-Keshick began making porcupine quill boxes in 1968 with her aunt and teacher, Susan Shagonaby.” More here and here.

“ICHEON: Reviving the Korean Ceramics Tradition” was an unprecedented exhibition organized by Icheon, South Korea, and presented at the American Museum of Ceramic Art last year. Icheon Ceramics Village in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, has a history of ceramic culture that began over 5000 years ago and has a reputation for its internationally renowned ceramics cultural events. It is home to over 300 ceramics studios where artists use traditional techniques to produce a wide range of functional pottery and artwork. Nearly 40 of the studios still use wood-fired kilns. This series of six videos, made by the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA, shows five ceramic masters from Icheon at work in their studios. It is truly beautiful — and time well spent! — to watch the creative process of each artist.