Giovane Cedar Art
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  • PAINTINGS 1
    • Waterfall
    • The Frog Poet
    • Ginkgos & Waxwings
    • Eagle's Pride
    • Spring in Bloom
    • Flower Moon in May
    • Northwest Rain Kosode
    • Snow on the Beach
    • It Only Takes One
    • Scattered Fans
    • White Circle of Silence
    • In the Spirit of Serizawa & Kubota
  • Paintings 2
    • Autumn Introspection
    • Bats' Lunar Playground
    • Foxgloves Reaching for the Sky
    • Plum Tree on a Snowy Night
    • Autumn Moon by the Sea
    • Chickadee in the Snow
    • Down by the Stream on a Lazy Summer's Day
    • Towhee & Currant in Spring
    • Sparrow's Spring
    • Autumn Grasses (Oribe Tribute)
    • A Tribute to Itchiku Kubota: Ozette Sunset
    • Cathedral of the Trees
    • Baillie Scott Trinity
    • Raven's Forest
    • Eagle Embraces Her
  • Paintings 3
    • The Guardian
    • Crows at Sunset
    • Cormorants
    • Skagit Scene
    • Dream Birds
    • Curious Crow
    • Hydrangea's Final Bloom
    • Pine Island
    • The Four Guardians
    • Circle About the Moon
    • Eelgrass Nursery Rhyme
    • Cedar Green Man
    • Serizawa's Kimono
    • Cats United
  • Paintings 4
    • Dance to the Moon
    • As Autumn Approaches
    • Echizen Crows
    • The Spirit of Fallen Camellias
    • Temple Hawk
    • Goldfinch Dream
    • Autumn Carpet
    • An Eala Bahn (The White Swan)
    • Horse Ema
    • Lucia's Maple
    • Eagles Spring Dance
    • Watts Chapel Tribute Memorial
    • Voysey's tree
  • Blog Page
  • Other Work
    • Paintings 5 >
      • Cedar Waxwing
      • Spotted Towhee
      • Stellar's Jay
      • Evening Grossbeak
      • Red Breasted Nuthatch
      • Black-Capped Chickadee
      • Cardinal
      • Camellias in Bloom Woodblock Print
      • Hot Otter Love
      • č’u•? is Seal
      • Loons & Horses
      • Hawk on a Pine 1
      • Elk Along the South Fork
      • Spirits of Ozette
      • Lingcod Guardian
      • Plum Blossoms in Spring
      • Journey Home From Ozette Island
      • Tsooes Sunset
    • Boxes >
      • Rose Tree Box
      • Celtic Bread Box
      • Creature of the Box
      • Kells Cats Chest
      • Miyamoto's Rice Box
    • Trays >
      • Dragonfly Tray
      • Kaiseki Tray
    • Karakami Square Series >
      • Karakami Square #1: Cherry Tree
    • Screens >
      • Eagles 2-Panel Folding Screen
      • The Four Seasons Screen Series >
        • Winter Screen: Eagle & Pine
        • Fall Screen: Canada Geese & Maples
        • Spring Screen: Cherry Trees & Finches
        • Summer Screen: Swallows & Willow
      • Frog's House Screen
      • Waterfall Screen
    • Peacock Sconces
  • Resources List
  • Catalog
  • Sold Paintings
  • Gifted Art & Personal Collection
  • Night at Marymere Falls
  • Eagle on a Pine
  • Skagit Landscape of the Mind: Full Moon at Midnight
  • Eggplant Harvest
  • Tomatoes & Wisteria Entwined
  • Running the Waves
  • When the Salmon Run
  • Autumn Deer
  • Dunlin Flight
  • The Fox Spirit (kitsune)
  • Crow on a Snowy Branch
  • Skagit Landscape of the Mind V: Winter's Cool
  • Trees IV
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ROSE TREE BOX
ACRYLICS ON RED CEDAR W/ COPPER EDGES, HEMLOCK TOP & POPLAR HANDLE
(SUMMER 2012)
     The starting point of my development as a student of art began with my great interest in Northwest Coast Indian bentwood boxes.    Box and chest surfaces of western red cedar provided the “canvas” for the amazing two-dimensional designs devised by Native artists.  The end product of their efforts was a material object beautiful, functional, symbolic, and spiritual.  This aspect of my education still forms the structural foundation of my art.  The combination of beauty and functionality also is an important tenet of the Arts & Crafts Movement.  Both of these sources continually act as inspiration for my art. My Rose Tree Box is another attempt to blend these overlapping influences into an integrated whole.  The box itself is made of red cedar but, due to the limitations of the wood used, the sides are not kerfed and bent in the traditional method.   Instead, they are pegged on all four sides.  The four corners have been trimmed in hand-beaten copper strips; a reference both to Arts & Crafts metalwork and to Japanese tansu ornamentation.  The handle on the top is made of poplar.   The major designs on the front and back of the box show the rose tree motif, commonly used by Arts & Crafts designers, especially those who formed the Glasgow style.  According to Laura Euler in The Glasgow Style, “the rose tree was another popular Glasgow design.  It combined the Glasgow rose with an entrelac root system…” (Euler, The Glasgow Style, ©2008, page 15).  Inspiration for my rose trees came from an embroidered and painted panel from a firescreen and inlay from a mahogany bureau-bookcase illustrated in Euler’s book (pages 15 and 16).  Other inspiration came from George Walton’s “Eros” overmantel panel (see Elizabeth Cumming, Hand, Heart and Soul: The Arts & Crafts Movement in Scotland, ©2006, page 121) and M.H. Baillie-Scott’s staircase screen at Blackwell, carved by master-carver Arthur Simpson (see Ian Macdonald-Smith, The Houses and Gardens of M.H. Baillie-Scott, ©2010, page 53).  The roses depicted are my interpretation of the Glasgow rose, probably first designed by Glasgow School of Art embroidery professor (and wife of the school’s principal Fra Newberry) Jessie Newberry, and later made famous by C.R. Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.  The “lattice” on the side design was inspired by my favorite bentwood box, a Haida box from the village of Masset currently residing in Victoria’s Royal British Columbia Museum, to which I have made regular pilgrimages (see Bill Holm, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, ©1965, page 77).    The sides are also reminiscent of William Morris’s signature wallpaper design entitled “Trellis” (see Michael Robinson, International Arts & Crafts, ©2005, pages 28-29).  I have chosen to paint my roses red, white, and black in homage to the 2010 song “Blood, Ice, and Ashes” by the Burns Unit and sung by Karine Polwart.

KARINE POLWART     "BLOOD, ICE, & ASHES"  THE BURNS UNIT--SIDE SHOW  2010
DIMENSIONS:   LENGTH:  20 inches                  TOP:   LENGTH:  23 inches
                             WIDTH:      7.5 inches                            WIDTH:      9.25 inches
                             HEIGHT:    9 inches                               THICKNESS:  .75 inches
                                with handle 14 inches


                                                            PRICE $450


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