Hi Joanna,
I had to do a double-take when I read your posting. You are the
author of one of my favorite books (Making Metal Jewelry - Using Cold
Connections)! My main focus is sculpture (bronze, copper), and
recently diversifying by going into sculptural jewelry-- which your
book has provided a great deal of inspiration. Thank you for
producing such a wonderful book.
Just as in jewelry, there are many different subjects and styles in
sculpture. Clearly, your jewelry is nothing less than sculpture
already, only on a small scale! It is not the traditional style, like
Greek sculpture or Rodin, but your style is what is called “Abstract
sculpture,” similar to that of Mondrian; some of your work also has
many implications of being “Kinetic Sculpture” (sculpture that
moves).
You already have a direction and a solid body of work, from what it
looks like. Unless you’re bored with the style you’ve developed, all
you need to do (IMHO) is to blow up your work on a larger scale–
using other materials which will allow you to go larger such as sheet
metals: stainless steel, copper, sheet bronze, aluminum; you can even
venture into using glass, wood, stone, etc.
For example, imagine the following pieces of yours (seen on your
website) transformed onto a larger scale:
- “Off Cross Dangle Pendant”-- I can see this piece totally watching
over an elegant garden, mounted in the ground, towering at over
8-10ft, and with high grade steel tubing for structure, and patina
copper sheet dangles in warm and/or cool colors, with copper sphere
finials. It would make light dance off and around your garden, and
the wind would chime random notes through the copper dangles, which
give a peaceful ambiance in the garden environment. Here is an
example
link to illustrate:
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/hort/sculpture/s14.html
- “Hinged Sway Collar” – becomes public art sculpture, a gathering
place for people at over 100ft in diameter and proportional height to
your piece. Large slabs of stone make a monolithic base, with
stainless steel rising up supporting cross beams which bronze plates
upon (they resonate when music is played in the center of the
structure), and the open areas are entryways for people to gather in
the center. I can imagine it beautifully lit at night, too-- “Stone
Hinge.” Hehehe. Think big, be big. Here is a link to Architectural
Sculpture (notice horizontal wooden slats):
http://www.exhibitoronline.com/exhibitormagazine/article.asp?ID=563
- “Stacked Snake Earrings” Another possible garden sculpture. Maybe
morph them into “Guardian Earth Worms.” Possibilities are endless.
If you can’t visualize your pieces on a larger scale, meet them
halfway firstly by making smaller mock-ups. This stage is required
for making large public works such as Stone Hinge would require. A
successful mock-up model can make you millions if your proposal is
accepted. If that was my design, I would personally do it in my
backyard as well because I love it so much.
The next challenge would be: how do you use abstract sculpture to
tell a story or to say something-- if you so choose that it should?
It is very possible to do so, and I’ll leave that up to you to
explore. Sculpture at its core SHOULD in SOME way communicate to
people. Visual appeal is part of successful communication; I believe
they are inseparable. A piece could be horrific in appearance, and
still successfully communicate. But if your piece is a static and
uninteresting, without thought, without a hint of meaning, I could
safely assume it will fail as “art”-- unless achieving such a piece
was your very intention and it was made obvious. Abstract art can
(and
often does) get away with saying nothing. However, I still believe if
you have an intention of communicating SOMETHING, it will be far more
successful; be it as simple as taking advantage of a force in nature
(wind, rain, gravity, light, shadow), geometry, a feature in nature,
etc-- it is all up to your intentions.
About Titles for your Work
Successful titles most often ALLUDE TO the subject or description of
an action, but DO NOT outright state the subject or describe the
action.
For example: A sculpture of a horse is in running posture. An
unsuccessful title would be, “Running Horse” in comparison to, “Wind
through Her Mane.”
Since your work is abstract, you can allude to emotions through your
titles. Abstract work lends itself very well to emotions, since
emotions are also abstract. Don’t come out and say “Happiness,” but
instead use something like, “Delicately Delightful” for some
light-hearted sculpture.
The elliptical ovular shapes you use in your jewelry designs could be
meaningless (I really doubt that), and could just look great to you;
but you can also give them a new identity, which often takes a lot of
time through the journey of your body of work to discover what that
identity is. For instance, those oval shapes could represent people:
groups of people, chaotic people, peaceful people, family people,
etc. That would then lend an opportunity to giving your work more
meaningful titles rather than just describing what each piece is
(i.e. your piece is MORE than a “dangle,” so that shouldn’t always be
IN the title, but rather in the description of the piece.).
The only time I would title a piece based upon subject is if it is a
STUDY. I don’t think studies qualify as art more than being a
beautiful object or drawing, but I won’t say they can’t evolve into a
work of art. But, then again, many artists have marketed their
studies
by simply giving them creative names.
OK I’ve rambled enough for now I think… Hope this is good food for
thought! Keep us updated.
Jim