Simply Personal
I have been absolutely in love with Genevieve Williamson’s work since I first discovered it some 6 years back. It is so personal, the artist’s hand so apparent, and the design so expert. Perhaps it is more a connection that I have to these muted colors, the scratches and the imperfectly cut shapes, but the work has a high sense of emotion and vulnerability. So when Wendy Moore (of the Samunnat Nepal women’s project) sent me a link to this heartbreaking and inspiring post Genevieve wrote earlier in the year, I knew I had to reach out.
Genevieve graciously agreed to share her story and her work in more detail in the Fall issue’s Muse’s Corner section of The Polymer Arts magazine. Muse’s Corner is the section on the last content page of the magazine where we have a personal story illustrating how art and life intersect. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t read it yet but like many of the contributors that write for that section, personal challenges spill out into expressions in clay with beautiful results both in terms of the pieces and the therapeutic and cathartic process these brave people find in the creative experience.
This necklace here is a variation on the line of jewelry shown and discussed in the article. This “Longest Year” line came out of Genevieve’s first year of struggling with an autoimmune disease. As she says in her blog, this work has “come to fruition not in spite of but because of my autoimmune disease diagnosis.” Although the struggle is not apparent here, the beauty of the masterfully simple design is and it just sings with intention and a gracious presentation of the artist’s hand. Like a lot of her recent work, it is also reversible for those times when just the black and white is all one wants or needs for adornment.
The simplicity of design and beauty of intention is apparent in all Genevieve’s work as you can see on her website or in her Etsy shop as well as in the latest issue of The Polymer Arts magazine.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Make a simple piece that is all about you. Use the suggestions made on Monday’s challenge to make very intentional decisions, weighing every tiny choice, but instead of focusing on the design, focus on the expression. Choose colors, shapes and textures that are simple but at their essence represent you or a personal story of yours. Be careful not to judge what you do, just be sure every choice is true to who you are or what the story is about.
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