When given the topic "Light" to work with for this year's Y Gallery Jewel Box group exhibit, I thought, " Ah Ha! So easy, I got this! Stars! Sunshine! Bulbs! Fiber optics! Lets go!" And ran off like the elephant in that video from Sesame street asking for directions to the zoo.
However, when I sat and thought about it some more, I came to the realization that this is not at all an easy topic. What is light really and where does it come from? How does it travel and how can I show and transport it on the body in the form of jewellery?
There is much darkness in our world and as a new parent you think of the world in a different way . You want to make it as "bright" a place to live in as possible. More than ever before, you ask for light. So the work begins and I started looking for light everywhere. I found useful information for my topic everywhere, even in this funny little video . In a world where social media has us hiding behind tablets and cell phones, we are loosing our light connections and sitting in darkness mostly alone, confined inside ourselves.
I ended up finding my answer in the most unlikely place. While reading to my son from "Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers Of Space" about the death of a star, I learned that when a star runs out of hydrogen it explodes and all the elements from that star blow out into space and makes up everything around us : the Earth, the plants, the animals, even ourselves! We are made of star dust!! We are light!!!
By using connective elements, my work brings one wearer to another and explores the "light" inside and between us.
The screw is such a tiny thing; it can connect almost everything in this world. I wanted to make rings that say, "I've been there, let me share my light with you."
"We are children of the stars
We will not stop for anything ever.
We are children of the stars
No history ageless heroes of a dream
Tonight we children of the stars
We meet and then loose in time."
Alan Sorrenti "Figli Delle Stelle" 1977
The Seven Chakra Rings
Namaste