Also Very Interesting...Winter Reading 2015

Icelandic Art Today ed. Christian Schoen

a survey of contemporary art in Iceland

Since I'm far away from the U.S. this winter, I have just a few books on my side table and at my desk. If there was no weight limit on the plane I would have brought a suitcase just for books! Regardless, I still have a stack, and my winter reading list... 

Iceland's Bell by Halldór Laxness

historical fiction by Iceland's Nobel Laureate 

The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit 

memory, stories, Iceland

Kjarval: A Painter of Iceland by Adalsteinn Ingolfsson and Matthias Johannessen

the work of Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval 

The End ed. Christian Schoen

the work of Ragnar Kjartansson

Previous winter reading lists...

2014

2013 

2012

2011

2010

Thanks for reading.

Also Very Interesting...Winter Reading

Memory edited by Ian Farr

Next to my favorites posts, this is my other favorite post of the year. Every winter I seem to accumulate and read a number of books related to my work and I love telling you about them. This is an exciting time of the year as I find myself researching new material and investigating topics I'm very curious about. Here are this winter's books:

Memory (above) is a collection of essays by artists and writers about the use of memory in art. This book is an excellent way for me to learn more about the use of memory in my own work. 

 The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

A book that explores home and how it shapes us…Another perfect book right now, specifically for the work I'm making for my upcoming solo show about home.

The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti by Rafael Schacter

In all my years of watching graffiti and street art, I have never read a survey or book about its history. I just felt it was time. 

Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information 

by Manuel Lima

This is a visually captivating book with "information-visualization" in the form of maps, charts and diagrams...and for me, another way of looking at maps, an ongoing influence in my work. 

Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales edited by Claire Booss

A gift from a friend because she knows how fascinated I am with Scandinavian culture…This is a great before-bed read.

History of Art by H.J. Janson

I read this in college as an art history minor and I'm revisiting it now in order to reacquaint myself with what I learned years ago...I think this is a good idea considering the shift in my work that I feel coming on. 

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Vladimir Nabokov

I read Madame Bovary three times in high school because my English teacher felt it was the most important work of fiction. This is one of my favorite classics and I'm just beginning to realize how important it is to the work I make. (More on this soon.)

Here are links to my winter reading from 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010.

Thanks for reading.

Catch-up Part Two: In Print!

Exceptional Jewellery by Pepin Van Roojen 
with two of my necklaces

A few books have been published in the recent past with images of my work inside...Two of my pieces even made the cover of one of them! Exceptional Jewellery features 30 international jewelers and includes images of our work, interview questions, and a portrait.

Off the Wall (curated by Tara Locklear and Bob Ebendorf) exhibition catalogue cover

 and an image of my piece, "Ache"

The catalogue includes images of each participating artist's work and an accompanying artist statement.
Images by Becky Parker.

New Earrings by Nicolas Estrada 

and one of several pairs of my earrings pictured inside

This book includes over 500 incredible earring designs by artists from all over the world. 

More images on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

Also Very Interesting...Winter Reading 2013

Around this time of the year, in addition to my favorite online stuff, I also like to share my winter reading list and this marks my third installment. This year I'm revisiting two books I've read before and a few new ones...

The top title, Tone Vigeland, was loaned to me by my first metalsmithing teacher, Barbara Crocker, during a recent visit. Barbara loves her work and wanted to share this book with me. I'm thinking a lot about multiples and repetition in my work right now so it's a perfect book to absorb.

I read this the summer of 2012 and finally have a copy of my own. As I reread it over Christmas break, I realized how Sophie Calle has gotten under my skin and how her work has affected my own work and my process. She is a fascinating artist.

I read Blink years ago and feel it's time to read it again because I realize how important observation as a concept is in my work.

My quest for full sleeves and my recent collection "History Repeats" inspired this one... and since I love to read about the history of jewelry and costume it makes perfect sense to expand to the 

history of tattoos, another form of body adornment and self-expression.

This book is basically the catalogue of the jewelry collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, my favorite museum and the jewelry collection that brought me to tears.

 The last two titles are about the saints, a subject I became interested in while I was in Belgium. I visited so many cathedrals I couldn't help but become intrigued by the stories of these remarkable figures. 

Now let's see how all of this finds its way into my work...

See what I read last winter here.

See what I read the winter before that here.

Thanks for reading.

Also Very Interesting...Winter Reading

Last year I wrote a post about the books I was reading over the winter and thought I would share this year's list as well. (I did end up reading all those books last year by the way!)

Contemporary Jewellers by Roberta Bernabei is a collection of interviews of important European jewelers like Ruudt Peters and Otto Kunzli. The questions she asks are very interesting and I am considering using some of them as teaching tools to get my students to really think about their work.

I picked up Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective while I was in San Francisco in the fall. I had just seen the exhibition and was completely enthralled. I am pretty familiar with his sculpture, but not his drawings. I am most interested in his descriptions of process and the why behind the different pieces.

A friend loaned Daybook by Anne Truitt to me over the summer and I finally finished it recently. It is my favorite read of the year. I did not know about Truitt's work, which I now love, until I read this book. It's written as a journal and dives into what it's like to be a working artist. Anne often writes things that have been on my mind that I have not yet been able to articulate. It brought me to tears many times. It's a beautiful book.

Another friend introduced me to the work of Richard Tuttle a few summers ago and I am finally investigting him more fully. I got a copy of his book The Art of Richard Tuttle as a gift for myself about a week ago. It includes lots of pictures and rich text.

To see what I read last winter, please follow this link.

Thanks for reading.

Winter Reading List

I gave myself a book list for the winter and I am steadily reading my way through it. Here are the titles I am in the middle of, planning to read, or have finished since December:

Evocative Objects (above) edited by Sherry Turkle includes essays from artists, scientists, and humanists about the importance and meaning of favorite objects.

The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love by Jackie Battenfield details information for creating and keeping a successful career in the arts.

Dorothea Pruhl: Colliers edited by Florian Hufnagl with text by Renate Luckner-Bien describes the necklaces of one of my favorite jewelers, accompanied by lots of huge, beautiful pictures.

Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work by Susanne Lange discusses the life and work of the Bechers who photographed an industrial landscape including water towers, factories, and grain elevators.

Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail by Avril Hart and Susan North offers an almost scientific view of costume details like darts, draping, and pinking.

The Language of Ornament by James Trilling discusses the history and meaning of ornament.

Do you have a title you think I might like? Please send me an email (amy@amytavern.com) and share your recommendation. I am always on the look out for good books!

Thanks for reading.

what i'm reading

Rings by Diana Scarisbrick. this book is about the history of rings. my favorite new discovery is the "acrostic ring" in which a row of stones spells a term of endearment using the first letter of each stone.

every morning for about the last 6 weeks i have been spending some time reading books on jewelry and subjects related to the concepts in my own work. i got a few for christmas (thanks sister-in-law) and just got two more for valentine's day (thanks mom and brother). i'm also diving back into a few favorites. i usually read for 15-30 minutes and though that may seem like a short amount of time, i find i read quite a lot and it feels incredibly rewarding and inspiring. here are the titles, all of them i highly recommend.

The World's Great Treasures ed. Gianna Guadalupi. this book has giant close-up pictures of historical jewelry perfect for studying all the tiny details.

Jewelry Design by Carissa Kowalski Dougherty. this book features the work of some of today's most innovative jewelry artists - a new favorite for me is kim buck.

On Longing by Susan Stewart. this book covers some topics i am acutely interested in including the miniature and the collection.

Tord Boontje by Martina Margetts. a favorite artist of mine. i couldn't look at this book for a few weeks after i leafed through it for the first time. it was so beautiful (and still is) it overwhelmed me.

20,000 Years of Fashion by Francois Boucher. just an amazing costume reference.

thanks for reading.

book reviews

i got a few jewelry and art books for christmas including from hand to hand: passing on skill and know how in contemporary european jewelry, adorn: new jewelry, beguiled by the wild: the art of charly harper, and terry winters: paintings, drawings, prints, 1994-2004. all four are loaded with beautiful and interesting pictures. charley harper and terry winters are two of my new favorite artists. charley made his mark with graphic, colorful images of animals, cute and often sinister, while terry creates drawings and paintings all about line. the other books, both on contemporary jewelry, are very stylish. the work found inside demonstrates current themes in art jewelry and feature many of today's most innovative jewelers.

thanks for reading.

books, snag installment #4

i love books. they are one of the only things i spend money on these days and collecting them can be (is) a weakness. while at snag i made sure to take some time to look through charon kranson's selection. he usually has several long tables covered in books upon books, all about jewelry. this time, i was most interested in exhibition and artist catalogs and, i swear, i looked through every single one he had! i started by taking a quick look and if something sparked my interest i would hold on to it. after making the rounds, i had a pile of books and went through them again, but this time not so quickly. i finally decided on a mikromegas, vera siemund - schmuck, and esther knobel - the mind in the hand. each catalog is just fantastic, great pictures, and just enough text. they will inspire me for years to come.

the above pictures - brooch/esther knobel, necklace/vera siemund, and a page from mikromegas

thanks for reading.