This body of work is a representation of my desire to fuse the decorative and destructive, the beautiful and sublime. I work with a set of strong contrasts, to make the grotesque attractive through use of precious materials of enamel and fine metals. My inspiration has been derived from historical Victorian mourning jewelry as well as modern advances in medical science. The studied mouse, regenerating salamander, and cycles of insect driven decomposition all are fair play in my attempts to find beauty and worth in creatures often associated with feelings of disgust.
My choice to work in jet, a black fossilized bogwood, stems from both its traditional use in jewelry history and allows something which has once been alive to live again in a piece of jewelry. All of my jet jewelry deals with Memento Mori, “Remember Death”, which are meant to engage the living; to be both sobering and life affirming. My use of enamel and the technique of cloisonné stem from my desire to make precious gem-like images of the often misunderstood creatures I choose to elevate into memorial platters.