Eastern repoussé brooch, commissioned by and based on a painting by Kevin Cole

Pushing Beyond “Bumps on a Background”

With repoussé, I always felt driven to take full advantage of the technique by making the relief appear intertwined and dimensional. However, like most artists practicing chasing and repoussé, I primarily created what I think of as “bumps on a background.” My intention is not to sound patronizing; some of the greatest repoussé work from antiquity is essentially shapes pushed out of a background! After learning the technique of Eastern repoussé, I was quickly frustrated that I wasn't doing anything wildly unusual with the process. I could sense the potential for more complex levels of dimension than what was typically present in the most familiar historical bas relief work. Even so, I couldn’t yet envision what the designs might look like, nor understand how to approach my big idea from a technical standpoint.

In 1994, I received a postcard invitation for an exhibition of artwork by Atlanta-based artist Kevin Cole. Kevin had been my drawing professor and my mentor at Georgia State University. He had repeatedly asked me to create a brooch based on one of his paintings to wear to his openings because he hated wearing neckties. Ironically, much of Kevin’s work relates to neckties.

Kevin’s artist statement notes that: “Since 1992, my art has been based on the relationship between sight, sound, and color which deals with music from the African American community such as jazz, rap, hip hop, gospel, and blues. Thus, my work is rooted in a place of targeted tragedy.”

After receiving it, I left the exhibition postcard propped up on my desk. I tried to imagine intertwining strips of sterling silver in miniature to accommodate his commission request, but struggled at the thought of the inevitable sanding and polishing. One day, weeks – perhaps months – later, I suddenly saw in the postcard how I could replicate the composition in Eastern repoussé. That moment was the literal spark where my brain shifted to envision different possibilities with the technique than had been used historically. Though I very rarely work from anyone else’s designs, I created three brooches for Kevin based on different paintings. Working on each enabled me to explore more deeply my newfound way of seeing.

While some compositions, such as the large scale Turtle Doors I created for a custom built superyacht (featured in the Evolution Collection), call for “bumps on a background,” being able to see and think in increasingly dimensional relief gave me a world of new options in my approach to hammered sheet metal. They allowed me to create artwork that would otherwise never have been possible, such as the portrait of my son that adorns the cover of Imagination Bodies Forth, as well as the mokume gane metalwork for the animated cover of Giving Voice.