Page 24 - the NOISE October 2014

AN UNLIMITED HORIZON
the WoRK, eveR ReFineD yet neiGh fin...
By
SARAH GIANELLI
Metalsmith/jeweler Sarah Harms and painter/weaver Wanda Wood have teamed up to present a full range of new works in their individual media and surprising collabo- rations in a joint show at the Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery called “Skies the Limit.”
Most of the featured artist shows at the Jerome co-op are shared by two or three members, so when Ms. Wood contact- ed Ms. Harms to see if she would like to partner in her upcom- ing exhibit (giving no thought to how they would form a co- hesive show out of Mr. Harms’ jewelry; and Ms. Wood’s pastels and weavings), Ms. Harms jumped at the chance, because it always pushes her to create new work.
The “sky” theme presented itself effortlessly early on. “One night Sarah sent me photo of a beautiful sunset with the cap- tion ‘Good night from Camp Verde,’” says Ms. Wood. “The next day I said it would make a great painting for our show, and she said to go for it.”
Ms. Wood went about painting a muted sky scape in her primary medium of pastels on sanded paper, capturing the somnolence of dusk and the remnants of the clear light of day.
“When Wanda sent me the picture of the painting she had done based on my photograph, it really got my gears spin- ning,” says Ms. Harms, who has been a member of the Co-op for eight years. “As a cooperative gallery, I really feel it is in the spirit to try to do a few collaborative pieces. Our styles and mediums are very different, so I wanted to focus on that, and have the snapshots be the common denominator.”
Once the theme of the show was established, Ms. Harms was off and running. She got the idea to print the sky images on aluminum and incorporate them into her jewelry and felt- ed wall art pieces. Using many of the same traditional metal and blacksmithing techniques she employs to make her line of jewelry, she began calling her new pieces “wall jewelry.” For Sunrise Wall Piece, Ms. Harms segmented a single image of a sky ablaze with color into separate “windows” framed and connected by forged steel. The finished piece adorns the wall like an art-piece necklace would the neck, and gives the im- pression that the illuminated sky is gazing out of the window, rather than you into it.
“The monsoon skies are just so amazing,” she says. “The colors, the various textures in the clouds, the ability to see a storm from afar are all just such a thrill. Sunsets and sunrises in Arizona, with their spectacular colors and cloud formations will never cease to amaze me.”
Ms. Harms started making jewelry in high school when she saw an older friend working on a ring she had cast in jewelry design class. “The light bulb lit right then and there,” says the
artist. “And I knew making jewelry is what I needed to do.”
By senior year, she was taking an independent study jewelry class, and got a job as an artist jeweler’s apprentice, where she worked for 10 years before breaking out on her own, prior to which her focus was what would be considered
“fine” jewelry — working with high polished silver, semipre- cious stones, and niobium, which is a metal that can have very bright colors when anodized.
“That was back in the 80s,” says Ms. Harms. “I was in my 20s and following fashion trends. My work really evolved when I hit 30, and started expanding my spirituality. I began incor- porating beach rocks into my work and other earthy elements and symbols. I began to see personal adornment in a different light, and realized that wearing symbols can be very empow- ering. I stopped paying attention to trends in art and jewelry, and really just started creating from my heart and soul. I ab- solutely love working with metal and I absolutely love black- smithing. Something magical happens when steel is heated, then hammered into whatever one’s heart desires. I truly be- lieve the energy used to shape the red hot metal is transferred into the piece being forged, adding to its beauty and depth.”
Ms. Harms finds the possibilities endless, but likes to see what she can achieve within parameters, so sticks to basic fab- ricating and forging techniques, and a limited number of tools.
Her creative process is loose and intuitive. When incorpo- rating rocks into her work, she starts with the rock itself, and waits to see what it wants to become. When designing new work, she has many different elements and materials spread out around her, and starts putting them together on her workbench, rearranging, and adding or subtracting, until it comes together.
“I also call to my muse when new designs are required, but not coming to me,” she says. “I cannot force the creative pro- cess, it must happen in its own time. Once an idea comes, I am flooded with potential designs, and the creative surge takes over. I can’t put the ideas into metal fast enough!”
Ms. Harms will also be showing pieces from her longstand- ing line of jewelry Sarahzona Designs which blends rocks, stones, traditional blacksmithing and mixed metal work to- gether into eclectic pieces that are earthy and edgy, primitive and contemporary.
“The addition of snapshots printed on aluminum, which I will be unveiling at the show, has given me a whole new av- enue to travel,” says Ms. Harms, “with endless colors, themes and new challenges of how to incorporate them into a cohe- sive body of work that still looks like I made it. Having an iden- tity is important in the art and jewelry world. I want people to
see a new piece, and think, ‘Wow, that looks like a ‘Sarahzona.’” Another benefit of being the featured artist at the co-op is it is the only time other than the biannual membership show
that artists get to display work outside their juried medium. For Ms. Wood, who has been a member of the co-op for 14 years and is predominantly known for her pastels, that means getting the chance to display her weavings on gourds, Irish waxed linen thread baskets, and pine needle weaving ema- nating from glossy Geode rock-crystal centers.
“I do primarily work in pastels on sanded paper,” says Ms. Wood, who, after 25 years put her oils away when she discov- ered the medium. “I love pastels because of the wonderful range of colors their pure pigments have. Soft pastels are as smooth as butter and the dark colors are as bold as any oil I ever used. I like to paint with my fingers, which working with pastels allows me to do. I would say that 3/4 of all my pastel work is done with my fingers. The sanded paper I use has a lot of ‘tooth’ to it, which enables me to create many layers, which in turn creates a depth other papers do not allow. But the real reason I love the idea of this show is that I get to show off some of the other things I like to do.”
Mses. Harms & Wood are also collaborating on a few of the same pieces. Ms. Harms is making a base for one of Ms. Wood’s gourds; and Ms. Wood is stitching a “good words” piece on a panel of wood felted by Ms. Harms.
“Our collaborative pieces have not even gotten together yet,” says Ms. Harms. “Wanda gave me a few guidelines of what she wanted to incorporate into a couple of works, so I dropped off a couple pieces of felted wool for her to mount some woven paper on, and I am working on a copper base for a gourd she is carving. I have sent her snapshots that I am working from. I don’t know if she has come up with anything from them or not. We’ve communicated very little during this whole process,” she adds. “I like the fact that we will be setting up our show with almost no idea of what the other has cre- ated. That’s all part of the mystery. It keeps the work honest, and from our souls.”
Skies The Limit runs October 4-December 4 with an open- ing night reception during First Saturday ArtWalk from 6-8PM on October 4 at The Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery, 502 N. Main Street. The Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery is open daily from 10AM-6 PM. jeromecoop.com
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24 • OCTOBER 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us