The beauty that happens along the way

I recently had the fantastic opportunity to put together and teach a course in "Composition", as it relates to botanical painting.  I found pieces along the way as I researched this specific topic, but decided I needed to get down to basics.

Digging into the topic of visual literacy was a fantastic learning and re-learning session for me. My purpose in teaching seasoned artists about visual literacy specifically, was to think about moving

past intuitive ideas about composing, toward making informed and purposeful decisions.

The most important thing I learned relating to my interest in design, pattern, and tessellations, was a surprise. Humans are constantly trying to balance, neutralize and harmonize everything that we see. I think it's a way to cope with all of the visual stimuli that bombards us all the time. However, if our desire toward the end, of neutralizing, balancing, evening out - graying - has finally reached it's conclusion, there would be an eradication of senses and total neutrality; complete harmony and no contrast.

An example for me, that I experience in my two dimensional work and jewelry work, is that it is not perfect symmetry, perfect pattern, exactness that I really want to end up with. I created a tessellation a few years ago that was inked as perfectly as I could possible do. I was really excited doing it because I thought it would be fantastic to look at. It turned out to be a boring boring piece... nothing going on. Our eyes delight in finding that slight unevenness... that element that somehow moves slightly askew within a pattern. Now I know why. It plays so very nicely into working with organic botanical forms, because nature is not perfect.

While I am precise in my work and strive toward excellent craftsmanship, I try to include parts in a piece that aren't exactly symmetrical, not lined up perfectly. I am very happy about this. I don't want to make mechanical work, because it is my hand that is making it. Those imperfections, sometimes planned and sometimes not, are what my work is about ~ my handmade two dimensional and jewelry work.

CIRCLES

So many things happened today that made me think and connect thoughts, affirming some ideas that I've had lately. And lately when I learn new things and connect with old things, I feel like my circles of interests collide and overlap, giving strength and meaning. Once in a while a thought or creative process bends around and connects to make a full circle.

I just viewed a documentary film about Tim Jenison's quest to recreate a Johannes Vermeer painting. Tim is an inventor and thinker, and figured out that most likely Vermeer used a camera lucida with an additional convex lens, to paint his amazing canvases. Sparked by Mr. Hockney’s book “Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters,” Jenison set out to create like conditions of Vermeer's (including sawing his lathe in half and extending it to achieve the correct length of spindled leg of the chair) in order to paint. His use of mirrors and lenses makes a strong case for Vermeer's methods, which were never documented. It was just "Wow".

http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/30/tims-vemeer/

Afterward, the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood hosted a Q & A with the esteemed panel of Jenison, Penn and Teller. There were a few things that just made me so happy:

• It is not 'wrong' to use technology or what is available today to make art. This reminded me of my engraving class last September. When tested by 'hand pushers' - hand engravers who hand push as opposed to using pneumatic power to push gravers - my instructor responded with the fact that painters/artisans around the time of the invention of electric lighting would not have continued painting by daylight and candlelight when electric lights became available. That would have been dumb. Why would an artist curb the ability to improve their art and move forward? Ever?
• When asked what's next? Another experiment like the one that came out of this project (by the way, it wasn't their intention to make a documentary about Jenison, it turned out that way!)? Penn stated that he does things that interest him... he's not interested in creating a brand or doing a series. He's in it for the love of exploration and figuring stuff out. Yes. Yes. This is what really good stuff comes out of, I think. He is following his interests. Just like his magic, it is that, but it is the deeper meaning and amazing stuff that lies beneath.
• Back in the early 1800's, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, a portrait drawer and painter by trade, drew technically amazing figures. When in New York back in the 90's, I was able to see an exhibit of Ingres' work, and the big buzz about his work was that used mechanical means to achieve his amazing drawings. There were things that pointed to that ~ like some strange distortions of limbs that happened that would have happened by a means achieved with other than just the eye. In "Tim's Vermeer", there were curves and edges that happened, upon closer inspection of the original, that happened because of the curve of a lens, perhaps. Love this.

 Earlier in the day I had visited the Griffith Park Observatory and viewed their show revealing just how many galaxies we know about so far, WAY more than I learned about when I was a kid. It's still changing and there are new things to explore and bring to light. So many great minds at work using everything they've got.

Meaning

When I'm feeling sentimental, I feel like expressing it by writing it down. My mind wanders, and I can be very close to tears...in a good way.

There are a few things I saved of my Dad's. These were personal items that possess a tactile memory, a scent of his, that provide comfort for me in some way ~ that he is still around somehow.

His shaving brush, worn down because he knew this one would see him out, is just like the one I used when I was a kid pretending to shave alongside him in the mirror. He would lather it up nice and foamy using the cake soap that had a circular concave path worn in the middle. I can smell the soap deep in the bristles. There is a magnet glued to the base so that it could be hung upside down in the medicine cabinet to dry properly.

I think we all have things, objects that quench our need to stay connected and remembering. I saved his glasses and case, his comb which has now lost the smell of his hair (hint of Brylcreem), and his pillow cases. I spent a lot of meaningful growing-up time with my Dad. SO many great memories.

I stay connected with my Mom through her jewelry ~ the same pieces that I tried on growing up. The jewelry that came from Malta, from Cairo, and Krakow, and many many other places far away. We connected on many many levels, but jewelry is the object we shared.

Hand Engraving

Back in the late 80's I started taking jewelry making classes at the Technical College in downtown Minneapolis. I started with casting, because I had never learned that during my college experience the previous decade. Little did I know that it would ignite my interest in jewelry making.

A unique class that was only offered a couple of sessions was hand engraving. It was taught by Joe Manges, a self-taught perfectionist who worked on his craft and scaled the tool-making and cutting learning curve for 15 years. I took both of his classes and really liked the traditional rules and history. His advice to me about sliding off...."Just don't do it!" His voice is what sits on my right shoulder when I am working. It's strict and not very forgiving. In spite of his voice, I enjoy doing the work.

My knowledge about engraving is limited - limited by what I could learn from my engraving mentor, and time and guidance to push forward. There is so much I don't know and so much I need to learn that would add so much beauty and uniqueness to my pieces.

This September, I will be traveling to Emporia, Kansas, to take a week-long class in hand engraving. I'm really excited to dig in and learn aspects I have not attempted. I am ready to push forward!

The Traveler's Talisman

As with all of my current jewelry designs, the Traveler's Talisman was completely inspired by the stone - oh, that tiffany stone! This stone was a true find. I fell in love with it and started designing this most recent pendant by gathering up ideas. I saw a weary traveler in the stone, resting on the mountainside. He's wearing a pointy white cap, pointy black shoes, and a striped coat. Do you see him? He is a traveler of the land... a traveler in life!

 I have done a lot of traveling. Each time I traveled I considered what jewelry to wear, what jewelry to pack, what was comfortable and easy and what worked. Often I wore things that I didn't have to take off. If it's ON me, it can't be left behind, dropped, lost. It's funny, but I think this idea stuck with me through my life. It needs to be well-made and not fragile. It needs to be able to stand up to wear, gathering patina along the way, traveling or not. Enduring.

When traveling in Buenos Aires (this could have happened anywhere) I was attacked for my gold necklace. It was on a short chain and visible, obviously made from a piece of substantial gold, and it made me vulnerable. The thief lunged at me with his grabbing hand headed for my throat. At the time I didn't know he was after my necklace... I thought he was after my throat. (He didn't succeed in stealing the gold ingot/zodiac pendant I had made - the one that matched those made for my daughters!) So here are the considerations I had for my Traveler's Talisman:

- The pendant should be able to hang inside or outside of a shirt... visible sometimes, but tuckable.

- Comfort is essential so it is suspended on a rounded double strand of rolo chain.

- While the front is beautiful and significant, the goodies of gold and amethyst and hand engraving are on the back. It can be reversible, but lovely for the wearer to know they are wearing a unique and personal piece...kind of a secret.

- If the necklace were grabbed, it would break away (the chain that was ripped from my neck was a single strand of gold rolo chain. If it had not broken, my neck would have been injured).

- The amethyst, set in a 14K gold bezel, is a stone that through time has been thought to be good fortune for the traveler. The compass rose that radiates from the amethyst is a traditional fixture on maps. The design ideas for the compas rose (radial design) are endless.

Whether we are travelers of the land or simply travelers through life, the Traveler's Talisman holds beauty and significance.

Nature's Perfection

Going back here to around the mid-60's... so many great memories of going around town with my parents. My Dad's love of rocks and polished stones took us to many places and on trips dedicated to picking rocks.

Dave's Rock Shop in Evanston Illinois, neighboring my home town of Wilmette, was a frequent stop for us. My dad had mom pick out 'as close to matching' polished stones for him to make into earrings, by gluing on backs. Bill, my brother, and I wandered around fascinated by fossils and cool stones. The selection was endless, and displayed for touching. In later years, a basement museum of artifacts was added. What a great place to take kids!

When designing jewelry with stone, my aim is to 'honor the stone'; design is totally driven by what I love most about the stone. These pieces have been my favorites to date.

Here's a gem that I'd like to go back to sometime soon! Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop.

Rich.

This was my Mom's neck piece. It's noisy, it's tribal, it's raw. I'm not sure where she found it, but she thoroughly enjoyed wearing it  - especially around my girls when they were tiny. I know she delighted in the impact of this piece, and I loved seeing her wear it. She would so easily drape it over my toddlers as they ran around the house, and I loved seeing it being shared and enjoyed.

I've been thinking about this piece lately. I am getting reacquainted with it and love it all over again. It has a great feel - hefty and substantive. The components are simple, but blend and mesh in a really great way. The pieces are strung on 'whatever was available at the time' - an old piece of fabric... and yet it endures.

This piece is an inspiration to me. As my Mom inspired me, she continues to inspire me. Remembering how she was with her many precious jewels and how she appreciated the most basic, is where it's at for me. Rich.