Wendy Yothers’ silver and engraved glass, “Baba Yagga’s Teapots for brewing Light and Dark Spells,” were deemed bewitching enough to join the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s permanent collection last year. Now the FIT professor’s latest teapot designs will be on exhibit at the Hot Tea Bienniale, an invitation only exhibit at the Craft Alliance in St. Louis, March 9-April 22. 
- “Rain Forest Teapot,” made of rain forest woods and deer antlers.
“She’s just phenomenal. She’s a sculptor and an artist. Her teapots are beautiful. They’re contemporary realization of ancient skills,” says FIT Jewelry Design Chair Michael Coan”
Artists are chosen for the Hot Tea Bienniale with a two-year lead time–plenty of time for inspiration to brew. “I loved re-thinking teapots and tea to create new work, ” says Yothers. “Everything I make is inspired by its function–its use in daily human society.”
- “Teapot 1″ for the Hot Tea Bienniale in St. Louis
Yothers hasn’t made tea in her teapots, but says they are all “tea-worthy.” “Most people would rather look at them than use them.” Her own preference is for a good cup of fresh brewed tea. But “tea bags are fine if that’s what’s available,” she says.
- “Teapot 2″ for the Teapot Biennial in St. Louis
Yothers’ pair of tea caddys she made for the Bienniale were constructed from camoe engraved glass, silver, a pearl, and a black Tahitian pearl. 
- “Teapots for brewing Light and Dark Spells,” in the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Yothers, a silversmith by trade, makes, designs, and restores teapots. “It’s not my first rodeo with tea vessels, sacred and profane,” she says.
Images used with permission
For Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design Professor Veronica Romano, “presentation and packaging is everything.” Except that Romano has a discernible palate, and an herb garden in her backyard, so what’s inside has to taste great too.
- Veronica Romano with Temptress Truffle Popcorn
The excellently packaged and deliciously tasting Temptress Truffle Popcorn is a product right out of Professor Romano’s kitchen and garden.
“Just making popcorn one night for friends, loving truffle oil, and wanting to create a popcorn that was healthy and not full of fat,” is how Romano describes the origins of Temptress Truffle Popcorn.
Temptress Truffling
“I brought it to the PAVE board meeting and we served it with Godiva truffles. We had a truffle party!” says Romano who also treats her students and the Art & Design staff to her gourmet popcorn.
- From garden to kitchen to presentation
“I get inspired by materials I have around,” says the wonderfully obsessed Romano describing her cone-shaped, snowflake-designed, parchment paper packaging. Romano put to use a snowflake stamp she and her students received at the Martha Stewart Show as well as her corporate holiday gift stamp. “I like working with available resources that I have at hand, and things from nature. There’s so much around us that we can use.”
photos by Rachel Ellner w/ photo styling help from Anne Kong
It began with in Year of the Rat for Kam Mak. Since 2008, the professor of Illustration has created the drawing for the U.S. Postal stamp in recognition of the Lunar Calendar. Last year it was vibrant kumquats that decorated our holiday card envelops. This coming year it’s a feisty dragon with a jaw nearly unhinged. For 44 cents beginning January 2012, you’ll be able to send off your snail mail in fire-breathing, big-toothy style!
- Year of the Dragon 2012 postage stamp by Kam Mak
Image provided by Kam Mak
These days, Professor Kingsley Parker of Communication Design, views stretches of the Hudson River from the window of a commuter train on his way to and from FIT. Represented in a 63-foot-long installation of sailors’ navigational routes overlaid on tarps, are scenes of life Parker has observed along the River. His installation, “Up River, now on view in the Museum Gallery, represents the historic waterway. It includes two- and three-dimensional models portraying vignettes of daily life that evoke the flow and vitality of the River.
- “Up River” by Kingsley Parker
“I moved up river after 37 years of living in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I have come to marvel at the (Hudson) River’s diversity as I commute back and forth by train,” says Parker.” Parker’s artistry connects him to the proud tradition of American landscape painters, like Frederic Church and Thomas Cole, of the Hudson River School.
what-when-where: “Up River” runs from 11/12 -12/ 10 at the Museum at FIT. The museum is open Tuesday – Friday from noon – 8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. for more information call 212 217-4558
“The filmmaker shows the way artists think and work to overcome obstacles and get past their struggles. Artists work their way through things…It verifies what art students are doing,”
- Stephanie DeManuelle, Chair of Fine Arts
On Monday November 14, a film screening of “The Art of Stephanie DeManuelle,” was held in a lecture room packed with students and faculty. The film shows DeManuelle in her studios in New York and the Adirondacks. It includes interviews with gallerists and another artist.
“I am thrilled with the discussion the film inspired,” says DeManuelle. “I knew that the filmmaker, Robert DiMaio, had an idea of what artists do. He has made 60 of these films. He envisions using films about artists to show in schools. The filmmaker shows the way artists think and work to overcome obstacles and get past their struggles. It’s an excellent model for school kids.”
- “”Untitled,” by Stephanie DeManuelle
The approximately 10 minute film can be seen by clicking on the embedded link: “The Art of Stephanie DeManuelle.”
Art work used with permission.
Pastel strokes and earth tones introduce a new book by playwright and novelist, Joanna Gunderson. The front and back cover art for “she or the unknown person,” was created by Fine Arts Department Chair, Stephanie DeManuelle. The 159-page paperback was recently published by Red Dust, Inc.
Stephanie DeManuelle's book cover drawing
Prominent in DeManuelle’s work, and what can be seen in her book cover art “is gesture, movement and turbulence,” states her website stephaniedemanuelle.com. “The rhythms are meant to be a ‘stand in’ for the invisible forces, sensations and tensions that govern our consciousness.”
Image used with permission
Comments (0) 
Themocracy