An Artist's Voice
Process, technique and inspiration add up to one artist's creative expression
Someone once said, "Writing about art is like dancing about architecture." No one is sure exactly who coined this perceptive phrase, but nothing could be truer for almost every artist I know. In the end, art needs to stand on its own: you either like it or you don’t.
In early February Artful Home, an online purveyor of handmade art objects with whom I’ve worked for many years, asked me to respond in writing to questions about my artmaking. To my surprise, their insightful questions helped to diminish the gap between making art and writing about it.
I hope you enjoy.
What do you hope to communicate through your Art?
In the pieces themselves, I hope to communicate a vision of beauty. That vision includes ideas about balance: conceptual balance, balance of light and dark (I love pattern), balance of shiny and matte, which is expressed through materials like oxidized metal in contrast to lustrous white pearls, and balance between something dense and something light.
In making a life as a creative person, I hope to communicate the value of creative expression in all people. Society claims that art is the highest expression of a culture. That shouldn’t make it off limits to anyone. We are all born creative. We are all entitled to experience our creativity.
Is there a connection between your process and your artwork’s message?
Sometimes.
When I first started my jewelry line in 1991, I was making a conscious attempt to translate traditional “woman’s work” into high art by working crochet, knit and weaving techniques in silver and gold.