Los Angeles County Museum of Art! The SDSU Jewelry+ Metalwork Graduate Program was invited to present its interactive exhibition ‘#AKA wear it’ as part of the special reception celebrating ‘Beyond Bling: The Lois Boardman Collection’
The team wore white…
Visitors were invited to select a piece of jewelry and proceed to the ‘step and repeat’ to have their portrait taken and posted to the ongoing exhibition on Instagram @akawearit EXHIBITING STUDENTS AND ALUMNI : Jessica Andersen_Tracy Lee Black_Wan Hee Cho Alexandra Hopp_Tammy Young Eun Kim_Amanda Packer_Michael Rybicki_Kaiya Rainbolt_Misaki Sano_Lissy Selvius_Leslie Shershow_Demitra Ryan-Thomloudis_Kelly Temple_Petra Winnwalker
FALL 2018 DEADLINES Step 1: DUE BY DECEMBER 15 Submit the CSUMentor Application Step 2: (2 items) DUE BY JANUARY 12 > Submit documents to Graduate Admissions >Complete Program Application through this link Interfolio_SDSU_MFA The three-year SDSU MFA graduate program is a 60-unit course of study in studio, art history, and professional practice, ranked in the top 5 MFA programs in Jewelry and Metalwork by US News and World Report. Technical support and facilities are provided to enable access to the broadest range of materials and processes, including digital fabrication. A weekly graduate seminar in jewelry and metalwork offered each semester provides a dialogue which challenges and encourages students to be ; curious, fearless, rigorous, and inventive, thinkers and makers. Discipline specific courses are complimented by multi-disciplinary graduate seminars, studio electives, as well as dedicated graduate level professional practices and college teaching experience courses. The program hosts an international roster of visiting artists/critics each semester. First Year Scholarships applicable to fees are offered to all incoming graduate students. Graduate Assistantships which include non-resident tuition waiver are available on a competitive basis. Teaching Assistant opportunities in Foundations/Metals are also available on a competitive basis.
The diversity of work produced in the program is evidence of the multiplicity of concerns that can be addressed within the arena of jewelry and metalwork, as well as the program philosophy which supports the individual voice as opposed to a program identity. The consistent character of work promoted in the program is sophisticated personal expression finding integrity in the contexts/subjects of jewelry and metalworkdomestic or personal scale, the inherent socio-political functions of decorative arts and fashion, conceptual design, and the languages of materialS and skill. Students are encouraged to look at a wide range of possibilities for profession. Past graduates of the MFA program have pursued many models of practice and are among the well-known studio jewelers and metalsmiths, designers, gallery owners, and university faculty throughout the U.S. and abroad. ‌and if you want to learn to surf- go figure‌you can get credit for that! Selected Past and Upcoming Visiting Artists/Critics : Karl Fritsch, NZ/GERMANY, Lori Talcott, USA, Hanna Hedman, SWEDEN. Manon van Kouswijk AUS/ NETHERLANDS ,Sofia Bjorkman, SWEDEN, Ruudt Peters, NETHERLANDS, Lisa Walker, NZ, Suzanne Beautyman, UK, Glenn Adamson, USA, Benjamin Lignel, FRANCE, Helen Britton, AUS/GERMANY, Andrea Wagner, NETHERLANDS, Lucy Sarneel, NETHERLANDS, Jennifer Trask, USA, Bettina Speckner, GERMANY, Lola Brooks, USA, Damian Skinner, NZ, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, USA, Bruce Metcalf, USA, Robert Baines, AUS, Julie Blyfield, AUS, Linda Darty, USA, Lisa Gralnick, USA, Renee Zettle Sterling, USA, Jeffrey Clancy, USA
Current program, student, and alumni images and news can be found at: FACEBOOK: SDSU Jewelry + Metalwork
Application Instructions available at: SDSU_GRADUATE ADMISSIONS OVERVIEW Faculty : Sondra Sherman, Program Head, Associate Professor of Art MFA Munich Academy of Art, GERMANY www.sondra-sherman.com. Kerianne Quick, Assistant Professor of Art MFA University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign www.kerianne-quick.com For Additional Information or to arrange a campus visit contact: Sondra Sherman ssherman@mail.sdsu.edu 619.794.8558 (PST)
In the program you have the opportunity to work with faculty from all areas, but the Jewelry and Metals Faculty are your primary mentors, and mentoring students is a role we take very seriously. Both faculty are internationally recognized and active in the field. To see images and the broad range of teaching and professional experience we bring to that role view faculty CVs at:
Sondra Sherman www.sondra-sherman.com Kerianne Quick www.kerianne-quick.com
Distinguishing aspects of the SDSU program : The size -we are a medium sized program- we have from 7 to maximum 9 students. This fosters a healthy diverse exchange and supportive group rapport, while allowing all sufficient individual attention. The diverse range of work we support. We support the individual's research- not clones of the faculty or program identity. This does not mean 'anything thing goes'- we hold students to a rigorous endeavor to create, articulate and contextualize work, which is absolutely part of the contemporary cultural dialog and expanded range of practice coming from a jewelry and metalwork body of knowledge and way of thinking and working- including digital processes. The international professional realm we are part of, through our visiting artists program, and faculty and student participation in international exhibitions and symposia. Students and alumni have exhibited in the annual Graduates Exhibition at Galerie Marzee,The Netherlands, as well as Talente and Schmuck in Munich Germany, among others. The J+M program will be featured in an exhibition at Galerie Marzee in March 2018.
More FAQs on page 76
M FA STUDENT WORK
Melissa Selvius ‘Panacea Placebo’ An amulet is an object meant to be in direct contact with the skin or close to the body. It can be a lucky charm or used for protection against something unseen that may generate physical or mental harm. In contemporary culture we have access to many historic forms of amulet. The contemporary use of historic amulet symbols may be partially due to the inherent human need for protection from the unknown that transcends time, culture, and geography. Amulets achieve use as protection through belief. At the origins of these historic forms, they were created to protect from the unknown or maladies that plagued their respective ancient cultures. Believing that these amulets were magical protection had a placebo effect: “a beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment” (Reber, Allen, & Reber, 2009). An amulet is ‘a treatment’ that gives the patient or user the confidence that they will be protected from whatever they fear. The placebo effect of an amulet is a psychological function that continues to demonstrate its utility.
Ankh VII, aluminum, sterling, leather cord
Horned Hand I, aluminum, sterling
Heart XV, aluminum, vitreous enamel
Eye Bead II, aluminum, vitreous enamel
DEMITRA THOMLOUDIS ‘Fabricated Drafts’
Fabricated Drafts is an exhibition of jewelry inspired by the fragmentary aesthetic of informal architectural construction, temporary spaces and bricolage. This work exemplifies a particular act of making, where materials are curated, constructed and remnants from the maker are celebrated. Through the lens of jewelry and changes in scale, weight, and texture, these assemblages ask the viewer to consider new associations to materials through their intimate relationship to the body as adornment.
JESSICA ANDERSEN ‘RESIDUAL’ Residual is comprised of four collections of jewelry pieces, which include, Mended: A Series of Wearables, Collected: An Assemblage of Brooches and Necklaces, Dissembled: Reconstituted Jewelry, and Worn: Tin Jewels.
Objects occupy and populate our lives. What denotes an emotional attachment to a thing? Can objects be used as acts of preservation, physical reminders of a person or place? I am interested in the life of objects, principally detritus because it has lost the personal interaction but still contains the evidence of contact in its form, surface, and appearance. Residual explores the aesthetics of the urban landscape and the evocative nature of its most prevalent item, waste. The focus of this project is to produce a compilation of jewelry pieces using found objects that demonstrate and exemplify the appeal of the environmental timeworn cityscape. This series of work investigates the use of refuse to analyze the relationships between objects and people, the act of collecting, and the experience of jewelry. The work has an antagonistic relationship to the body. By composing this conflict, I hope to generate new awareness of the body, wearer and object; and between viewer and cultural predispositions. I have been strongly influenced by the writings of Bill Brown and Gay Hawkins. Bill Brown’s “Thing Theory” is a philosophy of the world of material things, their functions, semiotics, and their symbolic and commercial value in regards to their current cultural understanding. Once objects are altered from their original function they become able to surpass our preconceived notions of the materialistic phenomenology of everyday life. My intention is to compose jewelry pieces that give attention to found waste materials and allow for the viewer to see the beauty in the mundane and the new nature in our temporal culture.
Mended: A Series of Wearables
Collected: An Assemblage of Brooches and Necklaces,
Worn: Tin Jewels
Dissembled: Reconstituted Jewelry
ALEXANDRA HOPP Obsessive Compulsive: (dis) Order Obsessive Compulsive: (dis) Order is a body of work that explores how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder relates to myself, the culture at large, and especially its relationship to the identity and practices of the goldsmith. Obsessive Compulsive: (dis) Order attempts to make visible the never-ending repetitive behavior of the Goldsmith and the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferer, and to their shared attention to infinitesimal details that the average person would overlook. A prominent aspect of diagnosing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is not the degree, but the context of the symptoms: “The same behaviors in different cultures might produce different results... If your behavior, say the meticulous lining up of objects, is seen as an oddity, you will be distressed that you do it. If it is seen as the useful quality of a master bricklayer, then you will not be distressed.� The habits of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the practice of the goldsmith are strikingly similar: both have lives marked by repetitive action, most often on a miniscule scale. Both seem to have a heightened awareness of minutiae- they are concerned with the seemingly minor details that the normal observer would overlook. The only difference is that the former is characterized as a disorder while the latter is seen as a certain temperament beneficial to the goldsmith.
The Big Mistake Piece: Comprised of 157 Pieces of Handmade Chain, Links Ranging in Wire Thickness From .010” ( or .254mm) to .064” (or 1.63mm), Lengths Ranging From 3.25”( or 82.55mm) to 30” (or 762 mm), Link Diameters Range From 2.5mm (or .098”) to 4.5mm (or .177”) Consisting of Ten Thousand Six Hundred and Forty Two (10,642) Handmade Rings for a Total Length of One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Six Point Fifteen Inches (1,736.15”) At Each Mistake, the Chain Link Branches into Two More Chains, One of Which Decreases in Wire Thickness by .005”, the Other Decreases in Diameter by .1mm; at Every Subsequent Mistake the Process Continues Until Chain is No Longer Functional, i.e., the Thickness of Stock is So Great as to Impede Closing of Jump Rings; or the Diameter of the Wire Used is so Minute That the Rings Become Easily Deformed. The Chain Also Culminates When There is a Repetition in Ring Specifications. Arrangement of the Chains Is Performed According To a Rigid Structure: For The Left Half Of The Piece, At Every Juncture, One Chain Goes Down, and the Other Goes To the Left. On the Right Half, The Chains Branch Off at Every Mistake Juncture Down and to the Right.
“Trichotillomania Chain” Unbleached Muslin- Fifty Six Inch Long by One Inch Wide, Embroidered With the Artist’s Own Hair. The Loss of Which is Caused By the Condition Known as Trichotillomania, in Which the Sufferer is Compelled to Pull Out One’s Own Hair.
Hair Selection and Preparation: All Hairs Pulled out Are Collected, Sorted According to Length, and the Shorter Lengths Discarded. The Hairs Are Then Washed, Conditioned, And Dried The Number of Hairs used per Needle Averaged About Twenty (20) Although as Few as Twelve (12) or as Many as Forty (40) Would be Used to create Diverse Effects. Each Needle Threaded With Hair Resulted in Less Than a Dozen Stitches, Due to the Length of Available Hair.
Trichotillomaniac’s Inner Monologue Chain Fifty Foot Chain, Each Link Representing a Letter of the Alphabet Plus Punctuation. Alphabet : Brass Round, Square, Flat, Half-Round Stock : Ten Thousandths of an Inch (.010”) to Thirty- Five Thousandths of an Inch (.035”) Jump Ring Size : Two Millimeters (2 mm) to Five Millimeters Diameter (5 mm). Jump Ring Shapes: Round, Oval, Pear. Inches = Wire Thickness Millimeters = Ring Diameter (A) .015” x 2 mm (B) .020” x 2 mm (C) .020” x 3 mm (D) .030” x 2 mm (E) .035” x 2mm (F) .040” x 2mm (G) .030” x 5mm (H) .025” 2 mm (I) SQUARE .030” x 3mm (J) SQUARE .035” x 3mm (K) FLAT .040” x 2.4mm (L) .015” x 3mm (M) .025” x 2mm (N) .025” x 3mm (O) .030” x 3mm (P) .035” x 3mm (Q) .040” x 4mm (R) .010” x 3mm OVAL (S) .035” x 4mm (T) .025” x 4mm OVAL (U) HALF-ROUND .045” x 4mm (V) .015” x 4mm OVAL (W) .020” x 5mm PEAR (X) .025” x 5mm (Y) .010” x 2mm (Z) .035” x 5mm Punctuation : Copper : (.) .025”x 2mm, (‘) .020”x 2mm, (!) .025”x 4mm, Question Mark .030 “x 4mm, () FLAT .040” x 2.4mm Drawn, Coiled, Cut (5/0 blade), Assembled, Soldered
Excerpts“I Cannot Stop Pulling My Hair. I Can’t Help Myself. I Can’t Stop Myself. I Cannot Help Myself. I Cannot Stop Myself.” (and) “I am So Goddamned Tired of This Shit. No Matter What I Say, People never Understand, No Matter How Hard I Try to Explain. Why Can’t you Understand? This Is Beyond My Control. It’s Not a Matter of Willpower. I Most Certainly Do Not Lack Self Control. Fuck You. How Dare You Insinuate That This is a Personal Failing or Weakness. This Has Been a Constant Struggle For Me My Entire Life.” (and) “People Don’t Realize How Exhausting It Is. Pretending to Be Normal Is Totally Fucking Exhausting. I’m Worn Out From Acting ‘Normal’. I’m Sick of Having to Feign Normalcy.” (and) “I Can Say It’s Related to Tourette’s, That It’s a Part of the Brain Misfiring, That It May Be an Inherent Grooming Behavior Gone Haywire. I Can Go Into Excruciating Detail About OCD Research and the Science Behind It. In Short, I Tell Them It’s a Real Medical Condition. In Other Words, a Disease. It’s In the Fucking DSM. It’s Real. Inevitably, After All This, People Always Ask “Why Don’t You Just Stop?”.
Trichotillomaniac’s Inner Monologue Chain – with title and letter guide
Three Collars About Alignment: Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty One (2,721) Commercially Manufactured Sterling Silver Earring Posts, (3/8�x .029�) Arranged in Such a Manner That All of the Carat Stamps (.925) Are Lined Up. Noteworthy to Mention That Although the Earring Posts Are Machine Made, They are Not All The Exact Same Length (There is a Plus or Minus Tolerance of Approximately .5 mm) Consequently Irregularities Occur in the Exterior Shapes.
Three Hundred and Seventeen Cast Sterling Silver Basket Settings Arranged in Order of Best to Worst, Moving from Left to Right, Based on Four Criteria: 1) Completeness of Casting 2) Number of Prongs 3) Amount of Flashing (excess material) 4) Regularity of Texture Arranged 8 Millimeters Apart Totaling 8 Feet in Length. Fabricated (1 pc.), Molded(1 pc.), Wax Injected(563 pcs.), Sprued(351 pcs.), Cast, Filed(317pcs.), Sanded(297 pcs.) Polished (254 pcs.)
The variations in casting are dependent on the process. An original basket setting is made, then a sprue (a.k.a. a gate- in this case, a 1/32� brass rod is soldered on. then a flexible rubber mold is made of the setting. A relatively flexible wax is injected into the mold, resulting in a copy. This process (the wax injection) is repeated hundreds of times in order to acquire the needed amount of settings. as there are often incomplete injections, as well as casting failures; one must make more than the desired amount. The wax settings are affixed to a central rod of wax that is attached to a rubber base. The central rod with the sprued wax models is commonly known as a tree, then a flask- a section of steel tube - is inserted into the rubber base; completely enveloping the tree. Then a silica based plaster is poured over the wax tree which is then kiln fired for a period of eight hours increasing gradually to a temperature of fourteen hundred degrees. This process burns out all traces of the wax. The flask is then inserted into a centrifuge, and the required amount of metal heated with an oxygen acetylene torch until molten. The centrifuge is then deployed, forcing the metal into the cavity in the mold caused by the burnt out wax. Then the entire flask is quenched in water, boiling off the plaster. This results in a metal copy of the wax tree. All of the models are cut off using a 2/0 Sawblade. The models are then filed, sanded and polished to the desired finish.
Bibliomaniac’s* Chain – Paper Chain of Descending Size Links Books ( published 1938 1954) : Bright White Glossy Pages, White Matte Pages [German Text], Ecru Matte Pages With Glossy Color Plates, Yellowed Pages Newsprint Consistency, Glue: Krylon Super Quick Grip Spray Adhesive, CRC Industrial Spray Adhesive, Elmer’s MultiPurpose Spray Adhesive, Mod Podge Matte Adhesive, Harbor Freight Tools Quick Setting Two Part Epoxy, Elmer’s Carpenter’s Wood Glue, and Alumilite Low Viscosity Super Light Liquid Casting Resin Sealants: Valspar Clear Flat Interior/ Exterior Premium Enamel, Liquitex Gloss Varnish, and Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating. Process: Glued, Cut, Carved, Linked *Bibliomania is a Symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Which Involves the Hoarding of Books
AMANDA PACKER ‘Recollect’ Recollect is a body of work that exhibits the valuable yet fragile nature of autobiographical memory. Memory assists in constructing individual identity by allowing us to recall moments from our past in relationship with, and in contrast to, acquired knowledge and recent experience. However, memory is transient and is easily manipulated, reconstructed, and altered which leads us to question its reliability to represent an accurate account. Recollect is comprised of four collections of jewelry pieces, each which embodies various physiological aspects of memory as well as sentiment from the artist’s personal memories. The collections of jewelry; Recollect: A Collection of Pendants, Fragment: Three Pendants, Elicit: 21 Brooches, and Account: Three sets of two dual necklaces, are all comprised of wearable jewelry pieces constructed primarily out of metal with the inclusion of other materials such as found wood, thread, and yarn. The concept is realized through the format of jewelry for its distinct and intimate relationship with the body. The pieces are intended to be worn and carried on the body; the pendants, at a length where they can be clasped in the hands to be admired and contemplated. The sensation of touch can often be a trigger of memory. Each piece serves as a souvenir, or a physical representation of an intangible moment from the past that one longs to preserve and keep close to them. Additionally, choosing to adorn the body with jewelry is an expression of identity, the very identity formulated by moments that comprise the past.
Account 1
Account 3
Elicit (brooches)
Fragment
Tammy Young Eun Kim ‘Embodiment’ Embodiment is inspired by a family experience with cancer and my consequent health anxiety. I have generated forms that reference microscopic images of diseased cellular structures using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and 3D printing processes. The process by which forms are created in the computer program is similar to how cells replicate, multiply and mutate in the body. The sterility of the process and the resulting material enables me to address my anxiety from an emotional distance. By making the cellular forms into something tangible and placing them on the body, the interior becomes the exterior, potentially revealing an intimate narrative that is particularly potent and relevant in the format of jewelry. Translating my personal narrative into a tangible form has been a liberating process. I have found comfort in externalizing repressed emotions and memories of cancer as jewelry. Furthermore, I am fascinated by different compositions, colors and formations of these diseased cellular structures. The aesthetic pleasure found in diseased cell structures is antithetical to the emotional response evoked when they are identified. Despite the sadness and unease I have about cancer, I have grown to find these structures beautiful. This body of work is comprised of ten wearable pieces. The materials are consisted of Alumide, sandstone, frosted detail plastic (UV cured acrylic polymer), Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and flexible Elasto plastic, along with copper, brass, sterling silver, and steel. Each cellular form is rendered on a computer program, printed three dimensionally then combined with handmade components. Encountered in the personal and public space of jewelry, Embodiment encourages others to talk about cancer and their collective experience of health anxiety. Ultimately, this body of work expresses the intimate narrative of cancer through an exploration in making cancer beautiful.
removal
formation
marked
resilient
growth
decay
Kyleen Jeans
‘Accoutrement’ brass, colored pencil
‘Power’ object- brass, nickel plate, colored pencil
‘Partnership’ brass
READ THE APPLICATION INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE VERY CAREFULLY * The GRE is no longer a requirement for the following: • •
Applicants who have completed a bachelor’s degree at a U.S. institution with a final cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher; Applicants whose bachelor’s degree is in progress and in the final term of the degree with a 3.25 cumulative GPA or higher; the degree granting institution must be domestic and accredited.
This is a two part application: Part 1 includes the online application fee payment through this link: CSU Mentor Application - DUE DEC 15 Part 2 (= 2 ITEMS DUE BY JANUARY 12th) 1)
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTS (and *where applicable GRE scores) sent to to the Grad Admissions Office Graduate Admissions Enrollment Services San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive San Diego, CA 92182-7416 NOTE: Do not send transcripts before submitting the CSU Mentor application as this may result in processing delays. 2) PORTFOLIO + Department Application Forms available and submitted through this link: Interfolio_SDSU. Regarding the specific materials for the School of Art + Design, to include approximately 20 images of your work. In the J+M program we look for those images to present a breadth (range of metals related technical experience), and depth (the exploration of a design concept, content, or process addressed in 3 or more works.) The most common delays are: >Missing hard copy official transcripts sent to Grad Admissions.
Additional First Year Graduates Scholarships Scholarships applicable to additional fees are offered to incoming graduate students on a competitive basis in exchange for lab assistant responsibilities. Students not awarded a GA position receive higher incoming scholarship awards to help offset fees. ELIGIBLE GRADS MAY APPLY FOR PAID TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS THERE ARE MANY COMPETITIVE SCHOLARSHIPS STUDENTS http://art.sdsu.edu/scholarships-overview/ THE J+M AREA HAS BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL WITH THOSE SCHOLARSHIPS Is the cost of living in SD prohibitive? The cost of living in SD as a student compares to living in any major city, or near a coast . It is equal to places like Providence, RI, New Paltz, NY, Boston, MA, and Savannah, GA. As with all cities- rent varies with neighborhoods – there are many economic options near campus. The neighborhoods students usually live in are all close to downtown , campus or the beach and have more or less niches of cafe's, shopping, etc in relative proximity A car is probably more convenient, but not necessary. How far is the beach? ;-) or other regional places of interest? The beach is 20 minutes by car from campus. LA is 2 hours by car or train Camping in the desert is also popular Sailing/kayaking on the bay Tijuana/Baja Mexico
Jewelry + Metalwork Program Faculty Program Head, Associate Professor Sondra Sherman Assistant Professor Kerianne Quick
Rijksmuseum! Amsterdam, The Netherlands SDSU J+M Program Faculty, Sondra Sherman and Kerianne Quick were selected presenters at the Jewelry Matters Symposium at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The symposium was organized on the occasion of the publication Jewellery Matters by art historian and design expert Marjan Unger, and junior curator and jewelry conservator, Rijksmuseum, Suzanne van Leeuwen. In the book Marjan Unger offers a theoretical and multidisciplinary framework for the study of jewellery. The symposium addressed some important topics presented in the book.
Sondra Sherman: ‘A Semi-Literary Explanation…Emotional Value of Jewelry’
Kerianne Quick: ‘Past/Memory, Present Record, Future/Potential Jewelry and Migration’
Sondra Sherman, www.sondra-sherman.com Associate Professor, Program Head Sondra Sherman’s work explores the personal and socially interconnecting meanings of jewelry in the psycho-social context of the body/wearer. MFA, Munich Academy of Fine Art , GERMANY BFA metals and painting - Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Previous teaching positions include: Rhode Island College, SUNY New Paltz, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Awards: Individual Artist Fellowships from the Rhode Island Council on the Arts (2002, 2005) Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Emerging Artists Fellowship (2001), Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1990) the Mid-Atlantic Regional National Endowment for the Arts (1989) as well as a Fulbright Scholarship for Study Abroad (1988). Public collections: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, the Racine Art Museum, WI, the Renwick Gallery-National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution, DC, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, RI, and the City Museum of Turnov, Czech Republic. Sherman’s work has been published in Europe and the U.S., including, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective (Art Jewelry Forum-Lark Books 2013), Jewelry by Artists: 1940-2000 (Boston MFA 2010) Glasswear (Arnoldsche 2008),Jewelry in Europe and America (Thames and Hudson, 1996) One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today (Abrams, 1995),Munich Goldsmiths. A feature article, "Both/And: Sondra Sherman", written by Bruce Metcalf was published in Metalsmith, Winter 1997.
The Rorschach Corsage series (2013- ongoing, steel brooches) evolved from the series Anthophobia: Fear of Flowers in which hollow constructed brooches were abstracted from traditional flower corsages and botanical psychopharmica. The recent Rorschach Corsages are built in layers reflective of the mediation of social space and psychological experience. The corsage silhouette has become a Rorschach test providing a field for the medicinal blossoms. Elaborate backsides of the brooches are inspired by the emotional states we do not proclaim in public, while the front surface presents a more ordered public persona. And as in life, they sometimes escape their socially prescribed location.
‘Found Subjects’ – installation at La Jolla Athenaeum 2010 Jewelry in altered books with presentation tables ‘Found Subjects’, 2010–ongoing; each jewelry piece is inspired by a book. It surprises people to hear, I have not read the books. I love words and literature. Somewhere along the line -perhaps it was the last move, coast to coast -packing all those books again, prompted the idea to allow the unread books to directly inspire a piece of jewelry and boast another life off the shelf. All jewelry becomes a form or element of portraiture, and in Found Subjects the book and jewelry piece came to reflect the imaginary reader, author, or wearer. What 'seemed like a good idea at the time' turned into..."What was I thinking?“ But, it is endearing. It resembles a room full of people milling about. They are all wearing the same uniform on a variety of body types. Some are more matronly, some a bit frail, and others sturdily scientific. A sense of sociability develops, first suggested by the tables as figures themselves, then a figure standing at the table, and ultimately, that figure is you - surrounded by some quiet characters with whom you might have a conversation
‘Listen the Wind’ , 2010, Silver Hollow Constructed Pendant in altered book
‘Anthophobia Fear of Flowers’ (2007) considers the phenomena of the medicalization of society by relating an object significant of social conventions - the corsage (adornment/jewelry) to a medicinal utility. The silhouette form is derived from a traditional corsage, while the surface forms are botanical medicines which might be used in treatment of social anxiety. The title refers to an actual psychological condition which is hard to fathom. As a title for these pieces it indicates a questioning view of the increasing use of medicinal treatments for aspects of diverse human sensibilities, and of the social conditions which create so much anxiety.
Kerianne Quick www.Kerianne-Quick.com Assistant Professor Kerianne Quick received her MFA from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2011, and her BA from San Diego State University in 2002. Previous teaching positions include SUNY-New Paltz, and Univeristy of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. As a recipient of a Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, she researched the connections between cultural structures and aesthetic production, specifically within Dutch contemporary jewelry. While in the Netherlands she worked as research assistant and project facilitator for Gijs Bakker and Chi ha paura‌? foundation’s current project Global Identity, producing a major exhibition at the Salone Mobile Milan. Her work has been shown at the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City, at the Salon Mobile in Milan Italy, and Design Week Amsterdam, and is included in major collections such as the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the Stedelijk Museum shertogenbosch. Kerianne mixes traditional and digital making with ethnographic and sociological research to consider source, geography and material specificity, and is interested in craft and materiality as cultural phenomenom.
‘Ballast’ 2016, Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco Material foraged out of the Hudson River and Rondout Creek are shifted in form and used to explore the post-industrial landscape, regional histories, the human impulse to adorn, and cultural substitutions/additions/deletions. The hand-cut and carved bricks are combined with pearls, shell, silk, silver and gold. Using stringing and pearl knotting techniques, the work plays between the adornment ideals of the Dutch Golden Age and the ceremonial adornment of the native Lenape Tribes of the Hudson River Valley.
Transmutations 15, 19, 20 2016, foraged brick, inherited pearls, silk, sterling silver
‘Greetings from Mexico!’ or ‘Souvenirs from the Border’, 2013, Laser engraved and hand tooled vegetable tanned leather, steel, powdercoat Once used to build the tools for farming and transporting goods, leather work became a popular souvenir for American tourists visiting south of the border. Only souvenirs that employ images give a glimpse of the contemporary realities of life in Mexico. The faces of the cartels are the faces of shape shifters. To some they represent violence, death and disregard for law, to others they are saviors bringing economic stability, hope and protection. They are sons, fathers and brothers. These souvenirs from the border are memorials. They are trophies.
Cartel Cameos: Arellano, Guzman, Cardenas, 2009 Laser engraved and hand tooled vegetable tanned leather, sterling silver, copper, stainless steel Leather sourced from Baja Mexico was used to produce portraits of drug cartel bosses from the same region. The use of traditional technique and material native to the region talks about the complex relationship these men and their organizations have with the communities they control. The images were sourced from DEA wanted posters and laser engraved onto the surface of the leather. The leather is then hand chased using traditional methods to create pattern and relief.
Allegiance, 2010 Fifty pieces of fabric taken from particular articles of clothing were folded into rosette patterns. Events were held where the rosettes were offered. A written survey was taken at the time of the photograph to determine what attracted the person to the piece.
iMonocal, 2012 For Chi ha paura…?’s recent project, Global Identity Stainless steel, machined glass ‘Global Identity : iMonocle’ Our interaction with the natural and built environment is increasingly mediated through a digitized interface. Instead of simply enjoying a sunset, we record digital images with our smart phones. Rather than meeting in person, we video chat with colleagues and friends. The imonocle is a faceted glass jewel that falsely pixelates our world – calling attention to our urge to enhance and capture the experience of our surroundings. Formally referencing the 19th C. monocle eye glass or the 18th C. chatelaine with magnifying glass, the imonocle refers back to a technologically simpler but similar time – to engage the idea of functional enchantment.
And things like this grow here!!
Yes, it really looks like this‌
Photo creditsPages: Cover. Sondra Sherman 2-3.Kaiya Rainbolt 4-5. various 12. Sondra Sherman 14-17 Lissy Selvius 19. Sondra Sherman 20,21,. Seth Papac 22. Demitra Thomloudis 23. Seth Papac 24-25. Demitra Thomloudis 26. Sondra Sherman 27. Mike Ryan 28-33. Jessica Andersen 34. top – Seth Papac, bottom Jessica Andersen 35-38. Jessica Andersen 41,42. Sondra Sherman 43. Seth Papac 44,45. Sondra Sherman 46. Seth Papac 47,48.Sondra Sherman 49.top Sondra Sherman, side Seth Papac 50. Sondra Sherman 51. Seth Papac 53. top Amanda Packer, bottom Sondra Sherman 54.Amanda Packer 55-57. Sondra Sherman 58-60. Seth Papac 61. Sondra Sherman 62-64.. Seth Papac 67. Tammy Young Eun Kim 68-70. Seth Papac 71-73. Tammy Young Eun Kim 74,75. Seth Papac 76-81.Kyleen Jeans 86, Astrid Berens 87 top Astrid Berens, bottom Levi Higgs 89-94. Luna Perri 97. Mike Holmes 98. Kerianne Quick 99. Mike Holmes 100-101. Kerianne Quick 102.Chi ha Paura‌?/Kerianne Quick