Tacoma Art Museum PowerPoint:: part II

Here is the second half of my powerpoint presentation that I did at the the Tacoma Art Museum in connection with the lecture Transformative Visions in Northwest Contemporary Jewelry. In this portion of my presentation I focused on my production line work.

Here is a short description from my presentation about why I have a production line and what influences these pieces:

"While the reason that I am drawn to making production line jewelry is that I am able to tell a very dear story artistically, yet at the same time they are affordable enough to be enjoyed by a wide audience. I really enjoy traveling and a lot of my production line pieces are influenced by my travels, by the people I meet, various cultures, and places. My inspiration ranges from patterns, textures, textiles to architecture---anything that sums up and brings up memories."

I then went into detail about some of my collections.


The first collection I mentioned was my bloc collection, which is inspired by Poland and the role of the Soviet Bloc. This collection of work has to do with some photos that I had taken on a recent trip to Poland of typical Communist architecture known as blok or bloki in Polish. The role of architecture as well as the fundamental idea behind Communism was to unify people thus limiting the freedom of expression.


In the next slide, I described how I was drawn to these monotone, grey concrete buildings started to take on a new role after Communism. It was interesting to see all these vibrant colored balconies and people trying to make their space their own. In making this collection, I wanted the shapes of each piece to depict the idea of this grey, uniformed Communist architecture while the Baltic Amber to symbolize change. To me, each piece is like it's own little complex.


While in the next slide, I spoke about my World Textile series in which the pieces contain various textiles from around the world and silhouettes of iconic patterns native to the countries.


In the next group of photos I talked about my Traveled series. In which each of the pieces are meant to look worn and traveled as though it is something that you have perhaps picked up on your own travels or have worn it while traveling. In this series of work, I am fascinated by the idea of how items change or age during travel. How they seem to take on this vintage feel, but at the same time they are familiar items that have accompanied you through your journeys in life.


This next slide included images of a variety of my jewelry that all contain Baltic Amber that has been brought back from Poland. I really enjoy working with the Baltic Amber because of its unique range of colors.


One of the last collections/series, I spoke about was my new Eco Wear collection. Each of the pieces are and will be made from various items that perhaps might otherwise be tossed out, but now will become a new reconstructed, repurposed, and up-cycled wearable piece of art.


Lastly, I spoke about my decision to start a production line. My first audience was through my etsy shop online and from there I set goals to email various museum stores and boutiques about my work. In the presentation at the Tacoma Art Museum, I also spoke about the challenges I faced with my work, the involvement I have with my work as well as what pushes me to make my pieces.


Even though I was a bit nervous about doing my presentation. It was truly such an honor and thrill to have such a wonderful opportunity to speak about my work, since it is something that I'm so passionate about.

Thank you to the Tacoma Art Museum for including me in this lecture!