I am inspired by color. I have always had strong, visceral reactions to color.
Color is my “hook.”
Things like texture, design, and pattern are all secondary to me. It’s not that I deem them any less important in the sensory and creative processes it’s just that they rarely evoke the response in me that color does.
In trying to figure out the source of my affinity for color, the only thing I know with any certainty is that I have always loved it. I was a kid who had to have the brand new box of 64 crayons at the beginning of every school year. I never really used themI only wanted them because they were pretty to look at (and because that always meant that I’d get a new, unblemished “Magenta”). I had to have the crayons because their colors inspired me to do other creative things.
The first time I began to understand color’s effect on me was years ago in high school during one of a series of solo “creative inspiration quests” to the St. Louis Art Museum. It was there that I saw a Kandinsky painting for the very first time. Upon standing face to face with the painting, my heart started racing, my stomach dropped to my feet, I couldn’t breathe, and I felt an overwhelming urge to cry. The color and the motion in the painting were so intense that they caused a massive emotional and sensory overload. After experiencing a number of these “Kandinsky-Creative-Crumbles” and picking up on a distinct pattern, I discovered that every one of these “crumbles” resulted in a greater sense of artistic self, as well as a more purposeful creative direction. To this day, I still have the same very strong reaction to some Kandinsky paintings. As a musician and former classical pianist with early-diagnosed perfect pitch, part of me believes that a lot of my reaction could very-well be based on Kandinsky’s own theories about art, music and emotion.
Many years later, it is not surprising that my love for color manifests itself in the jewelry I make. Every stone that I usebe it Fordite or a natural gemstoneis selected because something about its color speaks to me at a deep, gut level. It could be one color or a combination of colors. All I know is that my jewelry is all about color.
Boob Tube Pendant/Brooch: Fordite, sterling silver, yellow and blue sapphires.
