For me, artichokes signify spring. Even as we speak, they are forming underground, waiting for the soil to warm them up, so that new growth can happen. And like all things that depend on the elements for survival, they too are confused by the weather. But the artichoke is stalwart. The shoots come out first, fernlike, making a protective nest for the globe-like blossom, its intricately patterned leaves snugly overlapping – elegant, but too subtle to attract the bees apparently, so nature provides a bright purple thistle flower on top, like a punk fright wig and the bees respond.
A toned down more visceral version of that color is echoed in the artichoke heart, “the goal of the whole endeavor”.
Below is the origin story of The Fulper Tile Artichoke lamp, along with my usual detours into related topics. Click on the lamp or the Journal cover to read full text with photos (reprinted here with permission from the Journal of the American Art Pottery Assn.).
Or listen to Artichoke, read by the author:
Anne Fulper 
That’s great!! I love it. You need to get work writing. You are so talented ! Love that it about the Origins of Fulper pottery.
Sent from my iPhone
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Delicious rich tones glazed with twists and turns, reincarnating historic memories with cleverness, humor, and honesty, infuse so much life into the past, even into death, that Anne’s writing takes my/your breath away. Her sensitivity soars in all her expressions of art—stunning as a tall white oak with roots of innate intellect and ever-expanding intuition reaching deep down to earth and coming right back up to nurture a new seedling.
BRAVO Anne Fulper! Five stars are not enough.
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A lovely story – beautifully written and read.
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Hi my pal and wondrous writer! One of my preferred things to do with the little gifts known as ‘Oh boy, another piece from Anne!”…is to save them, not even peak onto the first page…no way…I need to wait until a perfect moment arrives, a quiet time in the house, and enough time to read and savor the images and feel of what you’ve chosen to share with us, your fans, about your childhood, family, and more, the pottery and designs that reach into my heart and give it a grand tug.
[….We here in California grew up eating artichokes often…they were delicious, and plentiful, and cheap…as a child we always dipped the leaves into melted butter..in fact I still have the little glass mini-bowl that was mine, for the sole purpose of holding the warm melted butter…it took me awhile to notice that my brother and sister used the scraped leaves to hide dinner items they wouldn’t dare swallow…but whoo boy when I realized I could getaway with that trick, I was all over that. I now use mayonnaise, wanting to get to the artichoke way faster than waiting for butter to melt allows…]
And so, finding myself on a very rainy Sunday afternoon, I dove into your new piece. I laughed out loud at times, and always feel somehow comforted that we all had wack-o childhoods, that are definitely funny in hind sight. And, I love the design of the artichoke lamps…they are perfect.
And so….I hope you continue to find these wonderful topics to write about…your life has been turned upside-down…and yet you present a beautiful piece, with depth and humor.
I am a lucky girl to be friends with you. I think of you more often that you know, and I’m always here if you want to belch and wail and express.
And…you are such a wonderful writer! XOXO Libby
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