I keep on meaning to sit down and write a blog about recent stuff, but the recent stuff keeps on getting in the way :)
I've been trying more with the enameling, and even started to try to incorporate it into my "art", not just production work. I've started sketching and brainstorming for the series I am about to begin. I am going to do an illustrated brooch interpretation of Dante's Inferno. I've started with the image of souls entering the gates of hell. Vague blurs of people walking from the hills, and through an ornate gate with a sign at the top saying "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", which is what in the 3rd cantos Dante wrote the gates said. It means "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here".
Here is my test piece for the background:



Again...just a test.

Yesterday morning I had my telephone interview with Elisabeth Agro: Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Craft and Decorative Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art. She asked me questions about where I find my inspiration and what my work is about. She also pulled 4 images to use for her lecture. The lecture is called Incubation: Philadelphia’s Emergent Metalsmiths. It will be at the SOFA New York Conference on April 16th at the Park Avenue Armory. You can read more about the lecture and the conference here.

I've been doing more organizing the past two days. I can actually find things...it's amazing. Nothing in my entire apartment (sans the pots and pans), are stacked precariously anymore. With the help of my aunt Linda and my mom, I dropped off a ton of stuff at the AIDS Thrift. So hey...if you need a 100 set of prismacolor markers, a lightbox, awesome vintage aisic running shoes, blah blah blah...go check them out over there and support a good cause.

One of the great things about streamlining things is that it's giving me time to look at things that I have and come up with things I can make. I found some chunks of small ornate frame that I want to do something with....if I can find more. So the hunt ensues for cool frames and ornate woodwork. huzzah.