I finished 2020 by participating in an exhibition at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. It was curated by Brie Flora and is part of a larger exhibition project she organises, Guidelines. The project asked artists to take a piece they made when they were a student and remake it. Both pieces, the old and the new, are exhibited side by side. The underlying idea is that becoming an independent maker after completing your studies is it’s own kind of education. You learn and grow in new ways as your community and environment changes and that is often reflected in the work you make. I often feel like I’m making the same works over and over again, as my skills and thinking change or improve, so I loved the idea of this exhibition. I remade a piece from very early in my undergraduate studies and the result fascinates me as a marker of time and change in my practice and as a person. I’ve copied the exhibition text here:

Guidelines Volume 2 explores how learning, inspiration, and aesthetic growth takes place outside of a traditional academic environment & is an ongoing process.  The Guidelines Project was started in 2019 by artist and curator Brie Flora. As a semi-recent graduate, Brie was interested in exploring how artists find and maintain inspiration. When you are out of college, whether it be an undergraduate or masters program, you are no longer driven by given guidelines. How do you create work? What do you create? In this exhibition artists were asked to look at an older piece of work and remake it, exaggerating and expanding on things that they might want to change. This exhibition features the work of Mando Bee, Arielle Brackett, Emma Olivia Chandler, Liz Clark, Margo Csipo, Amanda Deveney, Beth Devitry, Mary Fissell, Brie Flora, Shelby Goldsmith, Susanne Henry, Alison Jefferies, Hannah Tomoko Joris, Navah Langmeyer, Andy Lowrie, Dan Lynch, Katie O’Keefe, Susan Richter-O’Connell, Jason Stein, Ho Oi Ying Valerie, Sarah Wolfenden, and April Wood.

Exhibition dates: December 4, 2020 - February 13, 2021 with an opening reception Friday, December 4, 6 - 9 pm

I’ll be giving as artist talk via Zoom from 6pm (EST) on Thursday, January 28. To attend Email the BJC at info@baltimorejewelrycenter.org for the link (be sure to mention Guidelines Artist Talk in the subject).