One of my enameled panels is hanging in Kansas tonight. "Alchemical Utensils" was selected by juror Sarah Perkins for inclusion in the annual Topeka Competition in the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. It is an outstanding annual competitive craft exhibition at the Alice C. Sabatini Art Gallery. I am particularly gratified and awed at having something I did in enamels selected by such a world class enamelist. The exhibition runs from December 6th through January 19th.…

Three of my works will be included in this group exhibition. It is an "investigation into the work of metal artists / jewelers using organic form and natural based imagery in the development of their work." Curated by John Ready, director of the University Art Gallery at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, the exhibition opens on Friday September 20th from 4-6pm and continues through the 12th of October. Participating artists: Yuyen Chang, Madison, WI Sharon Church, Philadelphia, PA Daniel…

I am pleased to announce that my piece, Attic Turbine Vent (shoulder brooch) was selected as one of ten pieces in this year's exhibition for a Juror's Award. Materials Hard & Soft is a competitive, national exhibition now in its twenty-sixth year. This year's juror was Jean W. McLaughlin, Executive Director of the Penland School of Craft. 568 pieces were submitted and 71 chosen for inclusion with 10 juror's awards given. I am also pleased to say that a number…

This was the final city to be visited for this stage of the You Are (the) Here project. Although I had been to London on two previous occasions, I reasoned that a significant enough period of time had elapsed for me to be able to see the city afresh. However, there was still a familiarity due to similarities of language and culture that rendered much of London less remarkable than the previous three cities by comparison. This is not to say that I did not…

One of my enameled panels, Alchemical Utensils, was selected by Curator Dina Deitsch of deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum for inclusion in the upcoming Fuller Craft Museum Members Exhibition. The show will be up from September 22, 2012 – February 10, 2013 with an opening reception on Sunday September 30th from 2 – 5pm.

8 x 10"

vitreous enamel on steel

sgrafitto and overglaze…

I am about to expand upon a new series of artworks that explore the cultural construction of identity through personal adornment. It will result in four wearable metal objects and related imagery and will be completed during my development leave this fall. This series, You Are (the) Here, is inspired by the historic relationship between body adornment, the idealized self and the souvenir that has been indicated by such things as pilgrimage badges of the middle ages, neoclassical…

Of the three cities I have visited for the You Are (the) Here project thus far, Dresden was the hardest one in which to find a representative subject. This was partly due to the close proximity of my hotel to most of the sites I was interested in seeing, which resulted in a reduced scope of experience. The Green Vault, New Green Vault and Armory were within a block of each other and flanked by other delightful collections of decorative arts. The fact that Dresden was nearly destroyed…

The collections of secular and sacred metalworking in and around Vienna were overwhelming. As a system of government, monarchies might have some issues but man-oh-man can they turn out some lavish metalwork! I am sorry to say that Cellini’s saliera was not on view and no amount of throwing my (limited) weight around got me access to it. However, Nicholas of Verdun’s altarpiece was incredibly moving…

I proposed this series of objects based on past experiences of having developed relationships with new cities through travel. Supposing this would happen again in each new city,  I was a little unsure of how long it would take to find a personal representation of place; a signifier of the city that was more individualistically based than the famous masterpieces and landmarks. In my first city, Paris, I did indeed wonder on the first day how one person could possibly build a…