In the Realm of Nature: Bob Stocksdale & Kay Sekimachi

With 125 full-page color reproductions and 70 illustrations, this handsome book celebrates the artistic achievement of two of America's most significant pioneers in contemporary craft. Essential to their legacy in their respective fields of fiber and wood, Kay Sekimachi has been recognized as the weaver's weaver and her late husband Bob Stocksdale has been celebrated as the father of American woodturning. Their work reflects a reverence for materials from nature. Stocksdale's lathe-turned works reveal a dazzling array of rare woods, while the succession of forms in Sekimachi's multiple-layered weavings and ethereal vessels are comprised of hornet's nests, translucent skeletal leaves, simple grasses, found corals, natural flax, and linen. She has additionally drawn inspiration from the forms of flowing rivers, marine creatures, clouds, nests, and lunar formations. This publication charts the couple's artistic developments within their creative lives, including formative experiences in the unexpected setting of incarceration during World War II. In the publication essays, John C. Lavine, Melissa Leventon, and Mingei International Museum guest curator Signe Mayfield have contributed insightful observations and fresh perspectives on over 50 years of work by Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi.