Smooth Pear with Bamboo (A+) Tobacco Pipe

The fact that that Alex Florov is an immensely talented pipe maker is a given. Well before we saw his new products at the 2009 Chicago Show, collectors were using phrases like "mad skills" and "visionary". I totally agree and would love to add some attributes as well. The problem is that in much of art criticism, an oft-cited attribute can take on a type of liberal code with meaning completely different than the user intends. "Versatile" and "flexible" can mean "too new to have found his/her own voice", "can imitate pretty well", "still trying out different things to see where strengths or weaknesses lie". Or it can mean that the artist has such formidable powers within the realms of processing and spatial relationships (as well as the talent and dexterity required to create it) that moving from a Euro inspired aesthetic to an Asian is as natural to him as Deion Sanders switching from football to baseball. With Alex Florov, I am talking about the latter case.

A stunning, conservatively organic acorn/pear bowl that contains echoes of both Lars and Fukuda-san is paired with an unabashedly Florovian bit and, in between, ten "crazy-beautiful" knuckles of perfect bamboo. As noted above, Alex is a man of mad skills and his bamboo work on this pipe, particularly in the arc/path that he chose for the material is perfect. A greater sine-wave pattern would not have suited the bowl and come off as affected, and a greater bowing is out of the question. What more can be said about the beautiful grain or the deft placement of plateau? This pipe is lovely, moving and (sadly) well out of my range. Let me know how you love it.

--Bear Graves