Eye of the Beholder
This themed drop will be live on the website on
Friday, September 12th at 5pm pst
For the following limited edition collection, I have chosen to create a group of pieces to inspire and ignite the deeper levels of connection that my customers have with my work. I invite you all to explore the meaning of the colloquial saying “the eye of the beholder” when you view these pieces.
A few years back, I was traveling solo through Vietnam. I was wandering down the streets of Hanoi when I came across a painting that not only pushed my spending budget but was also so big that I had to take it off its frame and purchase an extra check-in bag just to get it home. It’s an acrylic, impasto painting that depicts a chaotic city street. It’s riddled with jewel toned smears of bustling life and movement. The tenderness of the soft yellow sky was what pulled me in. It somehow captured the exact quality of light that brought me right back into the sensation riding my bike along the Thu Bon River at sunset a few evenings prior. Since I was traveling solo, I knew that this would always be a memory that I alone would cherish. When I look at the painting that is now on my wall I can smell that marketplace, feel the sun kissing my face, and hear the tittering squeaks of my bicycle wheels along the warm pavement. The painting is now my companion, it was there with me. When I smile at it, it smiles back and says “remember that perfect day?” and we can bask in the grace of the memory together.
As an artist, it is my professional duty to explore and learn from this transformative power. The sensation of a customer connecting with my work as I did with that Vietnamese painting never gets old. I get the honor of witnessing this experience often. Not to mention, there is an intrinsic value in jewelry as it is one of the few tools that we have to elevate the representation of ourselves and our experiences.
On any given weekend in Central Oregon, Aliah and I will likely be under a canopy tent selling B+B jewelry to locals and tourists alike. A shopper will come into the booth for the first time and we will give them the spiel about the materials and the process while they peruse the pieces. On occasion, they will find “the one” pair. The preceding conversation usually starts with an expletive quickly followed by something along the lines of:
“This looks like the beach I used to take my kids to each summer”
“This reminds me so much of sitting around a campfire as a kid with my grandparents”
“This is made from Juniper? My late cat’s name was Juniper”
I call this “cloud watching” or “the ink blot test”. No one person will likely see the same thing in any one of my pieces but what they do see is so deeply connecting that it can transport them to a memory or feeling previously lost in time.
When the shopper chooses to take the pair home with them, it’s a simple transaction involving a card swipe and a paper bag. To the naked eye this may just look like a normal exchange, but what people don’t see is the loud ecstatic shift that I experience when the jewelry leaves my hands. In this exchange, the earrings are no longer my story to tell. The person has already imbued it with their own nostalgic joy, grief, and love. It becomes a talisman that they can carry with them. It holds the hand of their memories and walks alongside them. The earrings have now fulfilled their purpose and therefore so have I. I live for these moments.
For the following limited edition collection, I have chosen to create a group of pieces to inspire and ignite the deeper levels of connection that my customers have with my work. I invite you all to explore the meaning of the colloquial saying “the eye of the beholder” when you view these pieces.
