Featured Emerging Artist: Amanda Delacruz

[Rickson]

Welcome to another edition of our Proudly Canadian Featured Artists. I'd like to introduce Amanda Delacruz. Her work is quite incredible and she's just started her journey.

Tell us a bit about yourself
I recently graduated from OCAD University’s Material Art and Design program where I majored in Jewellery and Metalsmithing but dabbled in just about everything else. 

I like to see my jewellery on people but I also enjoy creating barely wearable, conceptual metalwork.

My work tends to be inspired by fragmentary, obscure type sentences that I come across in music and books, as well as the idea of growth and change under constraining circumstances.

What makes you tick?
I hate when I get work related injuries – especially when I’m in the mood to create or have a looming deadline. 

 

What do you like to do when you are not creating things?
I like to wind down with a yoga class or read in the park with my puppy.

What gets you excited about creating new work?
Whenever I see a work of art/piece of jewellery that I find particularly inspiring, beautiful, or well crafted I find myself itching to get into the studio.

How has your education affected your creative process?

In my final year at OCAD University I worked on a yearlong, cohesive body of work. It was very intense and taught me how to reign in my ideas, to get to the core of what I wanted to express.  I guess they taught me how to find clarity and focus in a sea of ideas.

Have you ever collaborated with another artist?
Not yet, but I have two people I have plans to collaborate with in the near future.

What's your favourite material/process?
Even though I’m mostly a jeweller, I think my favourite process is throwing on the pottery wheel. I find throwing very soothing and rewarding. I love how I can start with a clump of clay and in a few minutes I can have a vessel – an impossibility in jewellery.

 

Who has influenced you artistically?
I really admire the work of Andree Wejsmann, a jeweller who teaches at OCAD though I never had the pleasure of being in her class. When I first saw her work I loved how it was compelling, yet mysterious and vague, which is something that I’ve tried to evoke in my own work ever since.

 

Show us one of your favourite pieces you've created:

 

 

You try to take the best of me

(choker)

Fabricated, oxidized, sterling silver

2009

 

What's your favourite tool and why?
The hammer - it’s amazing in its versatility. I love how I can compress, move, smooth out, and apply texture all with the same tool.

 

 

Do you have any new projects on the go?
 I try to always have something in the works. At the moment I’m working on several very different kinds of jewellery commissions. But I’m also trying to make new pieces for my production line as well as some new conceptual, wearable art type work to go along with my thesis works on secrets and the walls that accompany their keeping.  

List your two favourite books, song/music artists, movies, and websites besides Crafthaus.

Books:

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

 

Music artists:

Metric

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

 

Movies: 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Inception

 

Websites:

www.postsecret.blogspot.com

http://thecarrotbox.com/news/index.asp

 

What advice would you give to other artists?

 

I would advise other artists to continuously experiment and explore every and any idea that they may have. It’s too easy to get discouraged in our field, to think that we’re not good enough, or that our work will not be appreciated.  Just immerse yourself in your techniques and your ideas, and let them grow.  Enjoy the process and don’t let your hesitation and anxiety keep you from starting something that could be great.

 

Thanks Amanda! You obviously have a beautiful attitude. I am sure you'll go far!

 

If anyone would like to be a featured artist email me at [e-mail].

 

Rickson

 

[Amanda DelaCruz]

thanks again Rickson :)

[Amanda DelaCruz]

and if anyone would like to keep up with what i'm doing feel free to visit
www.amanda-delacruz.blogspot.com