Dear Ornament
Reader,
A brilliant and distinct moment occurs near the end of each production
schedule. It is a wonderment pause, one might say, as we perceive
the beauty and the energy that forms as the numerous articles all
come together to make a complete issue of Ornament. What
delight this brings to our lives before we actually finish up and
plunge into the next Ornament, readying ourselves for another
pleasurable experience and another contribution to the art and craft
of personal adornment. It has been a lifetime of growing, evolving
and learning through the pages of this magazine.
For Volume 31, No. 3, our seven feature articles range from the 2008
Smithsonian Craft Show to Jewelry of the Classical World (The Met’s
New Greek & Roman Galleries), John Iversen (The Artistic Impulse),
Marian Clayden (Fusion of Art and Fashion), Robert Ebendorf (Gems
from the Abyss), Colleen Atwood (Dressing Sweeney Todd), and Micki
Lippe (Nature’s Magical Inspiration). Individually and collectively,
these articles personify the artistic sensibility at work, tracing
the millennia from the ancient traditions to the avant garde. Robert
Ebendorf, from North Carolina,
is an unconventional jeweler of international renown. “Murmurs
from the past,” writes author Glen Brown, “seem to surge
and dissipate around the found-object assemblages of Robert Ebendorf
with the measured rising, lingering and fading of breath: invisible,
intangible, irrepressible. The objects of the artist’s acquisitive
habit—toys, tintypes, shards, shells—inhabit the present
yet wistfully recall lost moments in time only faintly and indirectly
grasped through the evidence in aged and weathered surfaces. Detached
forever from their earlier contexts while never ceasing to implicate
them, these found objects play a vital role in a conjurer’s
craft.”
Sarah Wauzynski, from Washington state, reveals in her Artist Statement:
“The impulse to make art comes as naturally to me as breathing.
Much of my inspiration comes from my garden. My most recent pieces
are a continuation of that observational nature. They are also about
the nature of possessing. It is only human to want to own and hold
things: objects, feelings, political points of view, the environment,
and especially each other. It has been an ongoing thought of mine
that we fiercely hold onto things and ideas for a number of different
reasons: validation, comfort, pride, and desire, to name a few. The
idea of non-attachment, letting go, is difficult to practice and it
is important for the viewer to understand that I am not demanding
that. Instead I hope only to draw attention to the intellectual problem
of possessing.”
These two examples illustrate just how much the specialized interior
qualities and the technical mastery contained within artists influence
their artworks, making them vibrant, unique and satisfying. Theirs,
too, is a lifetime of growing, evolving and learning. One of the points
we make in Our Mission on page 7 is that knowledge shapes the present
and future. We also confirm that Ornament exists to educate,
inform and inspire. If you are a new reader, welcome to our school
(a fun place to be). Together we can share a lifetime of enlightenment
and appreciation.
