Opening reception: Skyway 2024 at The Ringling Museum
This past Friday was the opening reception of “Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration” at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL where I have 20 of my figurative inlay pendants and cuff bracelets on view now until Jan. 26, 2025.
There was a large opening reception in the Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard with director and curator remarks before the exhibition opened.
This is my first museum exhibition debuting my inlay jewelry, so this was a momentous occasion for such a big milestone in my art jewelry career. I feel so honored to be a part of this exhibition that showcases local artists. As the only jeweler and lapidary in the show, it’s an extra boon to highlight these art forms in a thoughtful, contemporary way.
My 20 figurative inlay jewelry pieces had their own two-sided table in the exhibition.
Pictured is me and my newborn Clayton standing by my inlay table.
While many of the figurative inlay jewelry pieces in this show are older works that you may have seen before, I created two new figures specifically for this show.
The first one is named Contemplate 1 (At Rest) pictured above. It is made with Argentium and sterling silver inlaid with 14 hand-cut pieces of hyacinth jasper, blue opal, colla wood, Florida agatized coral and spiny oyster shell
The other inlay pendant is Contemplate 2 (Summer Night Sky), and is made with Argentium and sterling silver pendant inlaid with 19 hand-cut pieces of lapis lazuli, Turkish jade, petrified wood, labradorite, and amazonite.
Both of these pieces will be available at the end of the exhibition.
My artist statement for the exhibition:
As a trained oil painter, I think it’s sad that most art lives a lonely life indoors when I think some art wants to live beyond walls.
Inspiration tends to strike when you least expect it. For me, it was when I was sorting through my assortment of earthy treasures: the gemstones I had been mining since I was a young girl.
I figured: why not combine my passions of painting and rockhounding into playful inlay jewelry crafted from silver and stone that can be worn anywhere?
Instead of sharing emotions through facial clues like most figurative painters, I use body language—paired with color and stone symbolism—to exude multifaceted expression and autonomy in my female figures.
To me, feminine power is like water: soft and gentle, yet shapes stones.
Like the quiet introspection reflected in a trickling stream, there is strength in a kind of meditative magnitude that doesn’t initially appear powerful.
About Skyway:
Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration, a partnership between five arts institutions in the Tampa Bay area, is a celebration of the region's artistic practices. Working together, curators from each institution (The Ringling, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Sarasota Art Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum) offer context for the diversity of art being made in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties.