“American Craft” Highlights Celebrated NC Artists

Studio glass pioneer Harvey K. Littleton and Penland sculptor Cristina Córdova, a 2004-2005 N.C. Arts Council Fellowship recipient are featured in the February/March 2012 issue of American Craft Magazine.

The article, “Glass’ Big Bang” tells the story of the American studio glass movement that began 50 years ago in Ohio, describing Littleton, who later moved to Spruce Pine, as “the movement’s prime mover, practitioner, proselytizer and pied piper.” Littleton is recipient of the N.C. Living Treasure award, the North Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts, a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Glass Art Society and the James Renwick Alliance Award as Master of the Glass Medium. Joan Falconer Byrd’s new biography, Harvey K. Littleton: a Life in Glass is is available through bookstores or the Littleton family. For more information, contact John Littleton, littletonvogel@gmail.com.

In the same issue, “The Body Eloquent” profiles sculptor Cristina Córdova,  a former Penland School of Crafts resident artist who continues to live and work in Penland. Inspired by the religious iconography she experienced growing up in Puerto Rico, Córdova is known for sculpting human figures in clay, some tabletop size and some larger than life. She was one of six artists highlighted in the Mint Museum’s 2008 exhibition, Possibilities: Rising Stars of Contemporary Craft in North Carolina.

For more information, visit http://www.americancraftmag.org.