How many people have used a spoon or a bowl and tossed it in the dish washer with the remains of Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese drying on it without a second thought to the utensil? I know I am guilty of this quite often. After all, it’s just a spoon or a bowl; it’s not meant to be beautiful.
Maybe … but maybe there’s more to it.
Elizabeth Weber, an acclaimed woodturner, will be featured in Union University’s art gallery from Oct. 22 through Dec. 19. The university hosted Weber on Oct. 22 as she spoke on her gallery, named “Vivid Surfaces: The Art of Color and Texture in Wood.” Weeks ago, I attended the lecture, getting insight into Weber’s art and her personal relationship with the art medium she chose.
In downtown Jackson, many old buildings are crafted of old stone, with thick pillars and designs that remind society of their age. They are from a different time — in which buildings had personality and made necessary things beautiful — whereas now, it is just not cool or trendy to add personality to practical structures. Modern society has lost the appreciation for this kind of art, and therefore the art itself, in practical designs, disappears. Where once buildings boasted complex structures like pillars, murals, aged stone and designs outside and inside, now buildings are glass and brick boxes that take the soul and enjoyment out of structures that should celebrate art and the appreciation of it every human has intrinsically.
Weber’s art is a practice in noticing the beauty in the practical. Each piece she’s crafted tells a story or has a personal connection for her, but they can shift according to the viewer’s experiences. Each design plays on a wood’s strengths and weaknesses, like bowls that have natural cracks in them. Instead of covering the imperfection, Weber creates an effect that resembles wood stapled together.
Her idea for this piece centered around the fact that people are imperfect, but that’s okay. In fact, it is what makes people and art unique and interesting.
Before I attended Weber’s lecture, I entered the art gallery and took the chance to study her pieces. Each one showed extreme attention to detail and creativity which combined with the practicality of her works. At the gallery’s entrance, a row of spoons hung from the walls. Though spoons are practical, Weber managed to create unique utensils that showcased the beauty of carefully carved designs and rich colors with a wood canvas: one painted green on the handle, the bowl of the spoon painted red and carved in smooth, unpredictable patterns, another painted white on the bowl and carved to resemble a seashell pattern, a third a natural brown carved in the gentle curve of a small twig, with leaves branching off it and a leaf shaped bowl.
Weber’s art leans towards nature. It fits with her craft of using wood — a natural canvas she crafts expertly. She develops this theme in her bowls that display dark red Poppies, brilliant yellow Sunflowers, colorful snakeskin and weaving patterns that resemble grass with no discernible pattern in order to keep viewers invested.
What fascinates me about Weber’s artwork was the beauty and intricate design she developed on practical utensils. Spoons and bowls, both used regularly in the kitchen, take on a new significance and beauty that most would miss. Several pieces took over 100 hours to create, and this care appears in her art. Although many artistic works are created purely as art, Weber’s works are unique through the blend of art and practicality rarely created or appreciated by modern society. Weber’s art is a complex blend of practicality and beauty that displays natural themes and personal stories that each viewer can relate to their own life.
Originally, I visited the exhibit, and I ran into Weber and her father. The two share a sweet relationship, characterized by playful jokes and Carl Weber’s pride in his daughter’s artistry — apparent through his boasting of her Instagram page followers and the lime and coconut containers that matched a catchy song. Carl Weber, a former history professor at Union, pointed out the piece gifted to him for his retirement: a bowl covered in red poppies.
The piece titled “Poppies for Dad” is painted a dark red ombre, lightening toward the petal tips that reach up and away from the base. The bowl was carved with intricate detail, poppies that litter the bowl’s exterior and a rich burnt orange coloring the interior. Weber received this gift for his retirement — or “graduation,” as Elizabeth Weber called it. The significance behind the bowl for Carl Weber lay in his passion for history — specifically World War I and the poem titled “In Flanders Fields.” The poem focuses on the hope in the midst of the desolation following that war, as poppies littered dead soldiers’ graveyards.
Weber has also turned to design beyond pure woodturning. Her piece “Snakeskin Bowl” — featuring ombre red-to-yellow snakeskin on a bowl — and its story came to life to me.
The piece was designed after a pair of her husband’s boots. The “Snakeskin Bowl” is shaded in red to yellow ombre, carefully carved with a raised pattern to replicate snake scales — as the bowl’s name suggests. While up near Nashville, Weber’s husband decided he had a “hankering” for a white pair of boots. He called a shoe store named Buy One Get Two Free, but the store denied having white cowboy boots. Weber guessed this was based off of her husband’s tone. Unwilling to give up on his mission, Weber’s husband obtained the boots and carried them back to Chicago, where they became a novelty in the city. Weber was advised to paint his boots to match the bowl as well, much to her husband’s dismay.
Weber ended this story with a piece of advice saying “the inspiration might be right at your feet,” cleverly displaying Weber’s charming sense of humor that appears in her art as well.
