I Live Here Now, Part 11

removing threads

I've been thinking a lot about rituals and have realized the use of ritual in my work is becoming important. I am an intuitive maker, but also have this analytical part of me and I think ritual fits in with both of these. I used ritual in several new pieces, creating a unique process with a sacred or spiritual feel to it for each one. Sometimes the ritual happened without trying, while other times I purposely choose it before I began. For a piece about friendship, I asked a number of friends to collect a material for me and to follow steps that required them to recall moments in our friendship, finishing the process by make a request for me. This process could be done silently or out loud. In another piece using deconstruction that took several days, I thought about very specific things as I worked, basically meditating for hours. In yet another piece, I recreated mix tapes that belonged to my brother and then listened to them back to back, again, meditating as I listened. There is something very satisfying, grounding and beautiful in ritual for me. It also feels natural and I plan to explore this more in the coming months.

dirt collected by friends

listening to my brother's mix tapes

More about all of this soon…

Thanks for reading. 

Big, Part 2

I am very pleased to announce my next solo exhibition at Four in Göteborg, Sweden! Karin Roy Andersson, a jeweler and one of the four owners of the gallery, invited me last winter and we've been working on plans ever since. Over the summer we finalized the dates and I began developing the concept. I will focus on ideas of home and searching for home...I'm looking for my home right now and have been since before I left Penland over a year and a half ago. I'm also rethinking or redefining my idea of what home is. I travel a lot and very much live in a transitional state, finding home wherever I am but also longing for the place where I feel most myself, a place where I truly want to live my life.

For this new exhibition, I am planning to show three separate but complementary groups of work. One will be about my childhood home, one will be about Iceland, and one will be about the home I find wherever I am. I call these places "Homeland," "Heartland" and "Outerland." I will include the jewelry I made in Iceland, I will make a series of pieces while I'm living with my parents, and, finally, I will create a site-specific installation at Four using materials I find as I explore Göteborg. I will give myself a limited amount of time to create this piece and will rely heavily on intuition.

one of three necklaces from Alone/Together,

a series I began in Iceland

As you can imagine, I am thrilled for this opportunity! I get to make a substantial new body of work and travel to a place I've never been to before. I get to make things there, too, which is always a fantastic and rewarding challenge. I'm also excited to have a chance to work through some very serious thoughts and questions I have right now. As with my previous exhibitions I developed an idea and then made jewelry to illustrate it, working through the concept, exploring its nuances, and finding answers. I have not thought about this specifically until now--as an artist I get to work through things with my mind and my hands and often find answers and gain clarity. I articulated this to myself recently and became very excited. What an honor! I approach this next exhibition with this in mind, alongside thoughts of home and curiosity for what will be at the other end.

The show opens April 4, 2014 and I will travel to Sweden in late March to install the work, attend the opening, and visit Göteborg. 

Thanks for reading.