Conceptual musings about art and fine craft
When one thinks of Mexico generally, at least locally, one thinks of a popular travel destination like Cancún, or the stunning beaches of Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco. However, besides being a tourist haven, Mexico is steeped in so much controversy here in the U.S. We seem to be a nation divided in how we react…
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Last Friday evening, fiber and mixed media artist Melissa Maddonni Haims invited me to the opening of her new installation and performance piece at Old City Philadelphia’s 3rd Street Gallery. I was so honored to meet Ms. Haims in-person and freely discuss her creative process, which was first introduced on artdoesmatter last April, during Philadelphia’s…
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Anyone who knows me well and my method of working on a new jewelry piece knows that I refuse to rush things. This last piece has proven no differently. I remember arguing with my teachers as a metals’ student, thinking that a piece that I felt strongly about producing completely from scratch was something that…
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Saturday afternoon, the spring-like teaser of gorgeous sunny weather here in Philadelphia beckoned me to head downtown with my husband and soak-up as much fun while seeing the city sights. After an amazing lunch on historic Front street, I decided on a whim to take a closer look at the ceramic sculpture show now up…
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Often times as a jeweler, the most enjoyable aspects of working on a one-of-a-kind piece are the less stressful moments of finishing up a project. Making sterling silver chains from scratch is something I find relaxing and often cathartic; it’s a very different aspect from the conceptually-driven mainstay of my lockets/necklaces. In this case, every…
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Traveling over four hundred miles away from my comfort-zone of the Philadelphia art scene was an undertaking more ambitious than I normally do. However, the pieces so aptly chosen for this exhibit at downtown Raleigh’s Artspace in North Carolina by juror Gwynne Rukenbrod was more than enough visual stimuli to justify my travels. From a…
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Like many of us, I was glued to my computer for the past weekend, checking sales and getting ideas for what to purchase as gifts for the upcoming Christmas/holiday season. Philadelphia’s own The Clay Studio ran a wonderful “Cyber Monday” promo starting last weekend and ending this past Monday for free shipping anywhere in the…
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This past month, November, has been a whirlwind of excitement for me. Within days of each other I received word that two of my jewelry pieces have been accepted into two different international juried exhibitions. The first one is a fine contemporary craft exhibition coming up in December in North Carolina (a true epi-center lately…
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Excitedly walking through downtown Philadelphia’s “First Friday” gallery crawl this past weekend, I stumbled upon an exhibit of dedicated and extremely gifted artists showing at The Center for Art in Wood. This exhibition celebrates the Center’s seventeenth year of hosting the International Turning Exchange Residency (ITE) program; seven artists/scholars travel to Philadelphia to create new…
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Last Friday evening, I was excitedly hurrying into the city during peak rush hour to catch the opening of Derek Au’s work at The Clay Studio in downtown Philadelphia. American-born of Chinese descent, Au lives and maintains his studio in Jingdezhen China, a region historically known for its ceramic traditions. Au’s pieces are made from…
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