A couple of weeks ago, our Material Culture contributor Gianofer Fields asked us a unique question: What single tool would you use to help you get through a normal day? Chances are, for most of us, we couldn’t imagine being limited to just one item.
But the question gets even trickier if you’re an artist –think of a painter having to choose their palette and their brush. How do you create a work of art with only one tool? Still - artists throughout Wisconsin responded in droves last spring to the one-tool challenge, put forth by Milwaukee’s Chipstone Foundation. But as Gianofer Fields found out – at least Stoughton-based master goldsmith Missy Howard found a clever work-around.
Fields produces and curates the series, "It's A Material World." That project is funded by the Chipstone Foundation, a decorative arts foundation whose mission is preserving and interpreting their collection, as well as stimulating research and education in the decorative arts. Fields is a material culture student at UW-Madison.
