Last weekend I spent the day with my fellow SCAD alumni and I was asked a lot about my trajectory since graduating. And, yesterday in meditation a thought popped up ( I know it was like a passing cloud I promise:) about my beginnings in Zagreb at the School for Applied Arts and Design. I had to dig through my photo stash to find 4 images of the pieces I finished.  Memory is an elusive thing, but I believe I completed these pieces in my last year in the high school. 

In Croatia once you finish middle school you can choose your path (if you have that much insight at 14 years old). I have always been immersed in some form of art. I started singing when I was 7or 8 and carried that on into my teens. Somewhere along the way, I picked up playing the flute but, unfortunately, my first teacher was nearing retirement and was not so enthused about teaching anymore. I remember walking into this small dark room in the corner of the building (I think he was sequestered there because he was a curmudgeon). He would have a box of Domacica cookies (which he never shared), opened newspaper on the desk and he would keep a beat with his feet. He could've cared less about my progress or what I played. I sometimes think If I connected with my next teacher earlier (a vibrant woman with incredible black hair and striking green eyes and enthusiasm for music and teaching) I would've been a musician. Alas...my music school did not align with my education, so I ended up choosing the School for applied arts at 14 and starting my journey there. 

First year is preparatory, and you touch on drawing, perspective and modeling in clay along standard curricula. I can't quite recall how I chose the metals department my second year, but I suspect because my father was a painter, and my step father also a fine artist, I felt like I wanted to do something that they were not experts in:) This random choice charted my path...

Images of the pieces I made are now faded photographs of enamel panel of my birth place of Mostar, pendant and a brooch with sweat soldering techniques and some super tight metal wrapping!!! And finally, the wire construction that is most indicative of me in the future. Every 5,6 years I remember this piece and think that must've been a seed of some sort. 

I find it fascinating how tenacious I've been over all these decades. There is a commitment to this work that is beyond my conscious thought. When people ask me about what inspires me and if I've been doing this for a long time I am surprised by my answer. I recently had a trunk show at Specific Gravity and Toni Greenbaum jewelry historian and writer said to me- " It's fascinating how you just keep coming up with new shapes and forms and your work keeps evolving." 

Yesterday while at my studio, professor Sondra Sherman came to visit, she's now a professor at San Diego State University, and is a prominent studio jewelry artist as well as an educator. She was my first jewelry professor at SCAD. We said hellos and she said, "I have been following what you are doing and I admire what you have accomplished". What a fantastic acknowledgment of all these years of tinkering and playing. 

My answer to people regarding my work is that I will continue to work in metal so long as I have something to say, and I trust life will continue to push me to evolve and find new avenues of expression. I am changing at all times, but there is a visible thread that is comforting and that keeps me going.