Worlds Collide: Jewelry and Music!

I recently went to my first ukulele camp in Oregon. We played Haydn and Schubert symphonic pieces, Miles Davis, and some more standard fare. In my studio days before Camp, I found myself making tiny ukuleles, and I was surprised to nearly sell out at Camp! 

Meet Babs, Bitsy, Nibs, Kitty, Timmy, and Bubba!

Articulation

I have been thinking about how an articulated design allows for movement by an object or organism that is made of inflexible materials.  This elegant knight's boot is from the armour collection at the Stibbert Museum in Florence, Italy.

I have been working with articulated cone shapes in my sculpture and jewelry, some are spring loaded so that the nipple spring back when depressed. Others are suspended so that they vibrate with vibrations in the room, or move when worn. 

Pitfall Traps

The thing about pitcher plants is that they proudly strut their rotund carnivorous bellies; their "pitfall traps".  Their inviting stipples lips beckon, their skin sweats little droplets, and the pitchers suspend in a cantilevered way. An amalgam of wonderful visual details.

my pitcher plant

  From my recent series of Etheries, includes these pieces, Pfiu and Skaf, which I only just realized borrows many of my favorite details of my Pitcher Plant..... A beckoning, stipple-rimmed, crenolated portal, a voluminous belly containing an entrapped substance that is whirling as if in a state of being digested....

Photo of my Pfiu

   

Photo of my Skaf

New Work Etheries

Finally, I have an angel who is helping me put together my outreach and marketing. 

Welcome to my new blog

It is another grey Seattle day but its sunny in my studio. I am working on some woven wire pieces and casting some silver wearable objects from sea shapes I took molds of while on a trip to Australia in October. (Pictures to come. Imagine coral and sea urchin fragments, cast in silver.

In Australia, I was captivated by the Aboriginal art. The Adelaide museum has a wonderful history museum. Upstairs are exhibits showing the nutty sea life, including a four story tall giant squid that you can examine from each floor, and examples of the sea forms and land animals, including an enlightening exhibit about male reproductive organs.  Then going downstairs, the Aboriginal art makes more sense, it references Australian imagery with its opulent patterning, seemingly unnatural but truly natural colors of sea, desert, and sky.  With the pattern repetitions, dots and stripes and so forth, the term "horror vacui" comes to mind from art school days. The playfulness of the work, the symbolic depictions of myth, history, and nature,  seem to me to be exuberant gestures to populate the vast landscape with a multitude of visual friends.
Isn't that what artists do everywhere? We make things that keep us company?

The image above is from my recent "Etheries" series. Pieces from this series will be shown at Gallery 110 Feb.7- March 2.  More information to follow....

Carpe diem!

                     Upcoming Exhibitions:
ArtEast in Issaquah, "Stitch" group show, January 11-February 23, 2013
Gallery 110, Annual Juried Exhibition, February 7-March 2, 2013.  (Opening reception 2/9 5-8 PM)
Phinney Center Gallery, three-person exhibition,  February 8-22, 2013