Open Letter to Moderato1

[wrbarrett]

Open Letter to Moderator1

 

Sir:  Your “Guidelines” for this forum describe it as “dedicated to high quality hand made fine scale miniatures in any form”.  I think all would agree with this as an appropriate guiding vision; and one in keeping with IGMA’s mission statement, “to promote fine miniatures as an art form”.

 

And yet, in your remarks at this year’s Opening Ceremonies at the Guild School, you chose to cast aspersions on a group of miniatures which I believe you characterized as “cute, fuzzy bunnies made of Q-Tips”, and said they should be excluded from the world of “serious miniatures”.

 

Fortunately, Beth Freeman-Kane had the talent, courage and artistic spirit to dispute your very restrictive view.  She produced her now-famous, high quality, hand made baby seal from – dare I say it – a Q-Tip!  Yes, the seal pup is not an exact scale replica with working parts, but it is a wonderful example of the artist’s whimsy, which I suspect is an important part of what attracted us to miniatures.

 

To demonstrate that Beth’s seal is, in fact a serious piece of work, the picture below was taken during a special guest exhibition in the Thorne Rooms.  Notice how well she fits into the elegance of the English Drawing Room.  Of course, seals are native to the ArtIC, but the little pup is clearly right at home in this extraordinary setting.

  

                                            

 

A second example is the more modern and casual London living room shown below, and note how comfortable and collegial she looks, surrounded by pieces from Geoff Wonnacott, John Hodgson, Mark Murphy and James Hastrich.  I think it particularly suitable that the seal pup rests atop a chest crafted by Bill Robertson, who, while not a Fellow of the Guild, does very good work indeed.

 

                                            

 

I hope, Moderator1, that you will agree that miniature seriousness should not exclude miniature fun, and will join me, and I hope others, in celebrating the creativity and brilliance of Beth’s little friend.

[Moderator1]

Dear Sir, I do believe I did in fact state that this forum was not the place for "cute bunnies and baby seals made from Q-Tips". As with so many things in life talented people can make almost any statement seem a bit silly and this is certainly the case with Beth's baby seal made from a Q-Tip.

Here is a close up of this charming little guy...

As always the moderators will continue to moderate as necessary but with a sense of humor.

Thank you for sharing this little guy in-situ.

[SueV]

I can't stop laughing

[Debora Beijerbacht]

I think this short, but very open discussion just shows how flexible we, as miniaturists and members of this forum, should and can be with the guidelines on this dedicated forum.

 

As reasoned by Sue V, and so very well visualized by her accompanying pictures, the fun we all know from real life, should to be reflected in miniature as well, if we strive to create the best replica's possible.

 

Thank you for pointing this out Sue 

[WeekendMiniaturist]

Now this is a very famous baby seal.  Is there a seminar at Guild School (GS) to make this cute pup?  Oh, some of us just can't help ourselves - I'm incorrigible.   If we can't attend the seminar, as you can't attend if not attending GS, is there a tutorial?  We could all bring some to help some of the more serious displays at GS.  I can imagine me taking Peter Kendall's class, and the last day of the class the roombox becomes overrun by little baby seals. 

 

Tamra/Indiana

[Warren Barnard]

Overrun by baby seals,

 

what on earth,

 

Do'h, sorry forgot for a fraction of a second to have FUN. If we stop having fun we may as well be dead. As for fine miniatures, the baby seal looks like a fine scale miniature to me, as they say in model railways "whatever you build, someone somewhere probably has built it already" and so I'm sure some mother somewhere now knows where her baby has gone.