Land Art
Artist statement:
Almost a year ago the inspiration for this show was born on the dirt in and around and under the Lightning Field installation in western New Mexico. The installation, as many land art projects tend to be, was located in a vast open expanse of desert, similar to a large open white-walled gallery- a “nothing” upon which an artist can realize their enormous vision. I tromped around that large nothing, between tall shining metal poles, beneath the desert sun, and I found a rhythm. I investigated ant hills and gopher holes, scrubby bushes and tough, sharp grasses. The low places where snow had fallen, melted, and dried out were filled with these wonderful random galaxies of cracked mud. Cupped, puckered, domed, embedded with rocks, crumbled, trampled by cows: every square inch of land told a story of what had happened there. I found myself stomping out: LAND, ART, LAND, ART! LAND! ART!... until the words lost their meaning and the sun started to set. And the words inverted their meaning and the realization that the LAND IS THE ART set in. I came home with pockets filled with rocks and started to form a plan.
Every hike I've taken since then I sought out, and often would find, once-wet surfaces covered in webs of cracks. My documentation became an obsession, and then I began my imitation in paint and print and metal. I wanted to be able to hold those textures, and so I carved beds in wax for the rocks I brought home with me. These wax carvings were transmuted into metal and the metal I hammered down to hold the rocks and they were made precious by the act of being captured and worn. Adornment transforms the person as well as the materials it is made of. A rock is just a rock until it is jewelry, and then it is a story. What makes something precious or valuable? If I imitate the pattern does that elevate or denigrate the beauty I perceive?
All together I want this collection to express my reverence for and delight at the gorgeously ever-changing face of the land, particularly this desert land I have been adopted into and call home. This collection is just getting started. I see a world of possible ways to explore this inspiration, and much more time spent tromping the desert in search of cool rocks and interesting patterns in my future.
Biography:
Emily Spykman is a jeweler, gallerist and multi-passionate artist living in Santa Fe, NM now, originally from New Englad, via Texas- all places have shaped the person and the art. Watercolor painting was the first artform that Emily pursued, though it was set aside for metalsmithing following an intensive workshop at Penland School of Crafts in NC .Emily has made jewelry professionally since 2010 Under the business name Clementine & Co. she has shown and sold her work all over the country and at many galleries and stores before opening SUN & DUST in 2022. The inspiration for most of Spykman's work comes from minute observation and reverence for the forms and textures from the natural world. Abstraction and extrapolation of those inspirational seeds are the basis for the work throughout Spykman's carreer. As a multi-passionate creative with a lot of ideas and curiosity, it is rewarding and joyful to show this cohesive body of work across multiple disciplines and media.
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