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October 16, 2008

Arts Council brings creativity to the table

EAST JORDAN -- Imagine you could invite anyone -- living or dead, imaginary or real -- to dinner. Then create a tabletop installation to represent that person.

That's the challenge the Jordan River Arts Council gave members for its new exhibition, "Invitation to the Table." Opening Sunday at the Jordan River Art Center, the show features 15 "tablescapes" representing famous and not-so-famous "guests," from Mother Nature to Mark Twain to Andy Warhol.

The three-dimensional tablescapes were created using media like stitchery, quilting, ceramics, sculpture, photography and paintings. Antique and historical props, including tableware, linens, centerpieces, invitations, favors and even the tables and chairs themselves, also were used in the settings.

"I have always liked the shows we have had that challenged our members to be creative," said the council's Nancy Carey, who based her idea for the exhibit on feminist artist Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party," an installation artwork depicting place settings for 39 mythical and historical famous women. "This is going to be really different and fun and creative."

Cynthia Tschudy was an elementary school teacher before teaching high school art and has an affinity for anyone who illustrates children's books. So the East Jordan potter chose to invite children's illustrator and author Tasha Tudor for tea.

"She loved to cook, she loved to garden, she loved animals and she loved children and those are all things I love," said Tschudy, whose tablescape will depict Tudor's old-fashioned life in the New England countryside.

Key elements of the installation include a handpainted table and quilted tabletop in a johnny jump up design, Tudor's favorite flower. The table will be set with a teapot and cups crafted by Tschudy Pottery in its signature slab-built style and decorated with johnny jump ups in a vase from nearby Otis Pottery. Completing the setting will be a basket filled with objects that represent Tudor's hobbies, like watercolor supplies, a seed packet and flower pots, recipe cards and a few of the illustrator's books. And watching over it all from a tableside perch will be a bird by Charlevoix potter Bonnie Staffel.

"For me the challenge was mostly just trying to narrow it down," said Tschudy, who also considered -- and rejected -- inviting Picasso, Matisse and Edgar Allan Poe. "Then I saw a story in a magazine about Tasha Tudor and thought, 'I have to make a teapot and do Tasha.'"

East Jordan watercolorist Kelly Britt invited John Lennon, one of her "all-time faves," to the table.

"I don't necessarily respect all of what John Lennon did, but I certainly think his ideas were incredible so he was the first person who came to mind. Plus I love his music," said Britt, whose tablescape will include a canvas tablecloth painted with an image of the world and a ceramic mug bearing the word "Imagine."

Britt said she also considered inviting Maya Angelou, Mahatma Ghandi and Greg Mortenson and calling the installation "Peace Talks."

"I would have a place setting for each person and they could talk about the situation we're in globally, environmentally, politically," she said.

Char Lynn Smith's tablescape revisits 1967 San Francisco and one of the best years of her life.

"I had just graduated from college in Ann Arbor and I wanted to go to San Francisco, so I did," recalled Smith, a fourth-grade teacher in Ellsworth who supported herself back then by sewing and tie-dying children's clothing and selling it on the streets. "I can smell the eucalyptus and the fog. I took classes at the San Francisco Art Institute and they had 'happenings.'"

The installation will depict that time with relics Smith brought back from the city, including "funky dishes" made by her then-boyfriend, a potter. It also will feature a tablecloth she sewed from pages in a 1967 photographic book of San Francisco, discovered in a used book store.

"The play 'Tiny Alice' was out, there was a (Jefferson Airplane) song 'White Rabbit.' I was just like Alice. So it's Alice in Wonderland coming to dinner and it's called 'What's on Your Plate,'" she said of the work's inspiration.

"Invitation to the Table" runs through Nov. 14. An exhibition of pieces from JRAC's 2008 Artists Gatherings will be held concurrently. The center is open daily from 1-4 p.m.

For more information, call (231) 536-3385 or visit www.jordanriverarts.com.

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