On View at Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery: Eleanor Moty, Featured Artist in Signs of Life 2013

Eleanor Moty, Counter Point, 2013, Brooch, sterling silver, 22k gold, 18k gold, quartz negative crystal, stem pearl; Quartz by Tom Munsteiner, Idar Oberstein, Germany, 3 ¼” x 1 ¼” x 3/8”, photo: Artist. Used with permission. For the past nine years, Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery has presented Signs of Life, an exhibition of contemporary jewelry art combined with a bound journal celebrating their featured artists and the literary works of contemporary writers. This year's exhibition celebrates nine jewelry artists, including several outstanding brooches created by Eleanor Moty.

One Component at a Time

Eleanor Moty has developed her unique jewelry art style in much the same way she creates her one-of-a-kind pieces, one component at a time. Growing up in the rural outpost of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Ms. Moty developed a keen eye for the subtle interplay between light, color, and texture. The limited color palette and infinite horizon afforded her the opportunity to find inspiration in the details rather than the grandeur of the whole. Her life on the farm, with its unrelenting seasonal duties, continues to inform "her repetitive, rhythmic approach to design" {1}. In high school, Ms. Moty practiced the art of stained glass, creating and selling her pieces locally. Her interests took a turn toward jewelry when her art teacher drove her to Northern Illinois University (NIU) for a tour of the art department. Her exposure to the jewelry studios inspired her to pursue the art of jewelry, despite naysayers who tried to dissuade her from making a career out of it.

Mastering the Basics

Mentored by Robert von Neumann at NIU, Ms. Moty spent her undergraduate years mastering the basics of metalsmithing and exploring new techniques in electroplating and electroforming. Her experiments established her as a pioneer in the use of photo-etching in a studio setting and caught the attention of leading metalsmith Stanley Lechtzin, a professor at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Mr. Lechtzin invited her to join the graduate program at Tyler, where she worked double-time to catch up with her peers and classmates in the advanced metals program. At Tyler, students were encouraged to go beyond the foundation of tradition and technique in metalsmithing and jewelry to fully allow their own styles to emerge. Ms. Moty would spend the next fifteen years, some of those years at school and some on the lecture circuit, transferring photographic images onto metal as focal points for her elaborate and narrative accessories. By 1976, Ms. Moty's  unique purses, mirrors, and jewelry were "widely admired, exhibited, and published" {2}. She and Fred Fenster were well underway with their transformation of the metalsmithing department at University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), and her focus had shifted from accessories to brooches.

A Shift in Style

A well-placed word the year prior and an opportunity to view in person the work of inspirational contemporary artist, Margeret de Patta, prompted a shift in Ms. Moty's style. Captivated by Ms. de Patta's use of spare geometric settings to harness the transparent beauty of crystals, Ms. Moty turned her sights onto the reflection, refraction, and distortion of light and the interplay between crystals and precious metals. With continued commitment to "the primacy of solid, basic technique" {3}, Ms. Moty engaged in a dialogue, an ongoing conversation between carefully cut crystal and the metals and accent materials she so lovingly brings to the table when beginning a project. The first of these magical brooches took over three years to create, and as she evolved her practice, she dropped the "somewhat fussy surrounds" in favor of "broad, frame-like settings" which transformed her pieces into "monumental presences, with weighty frames that the stones' expressive power" {4}.

Six Different Shades of White

Following a visit in 1997 to Steven Holl's Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University, which she described as "like being inside one of my brooches" {5}, she began to apply decidedly architectural principles to her designs. Furthermore, the longer she worked with crystals, the more she realized the importance of harnessing the light playing against the facets and surfaces. "That pushed me into treating the surfaces so that silver became six different shades of white by the way that the metal was bent and constructed....It's not so much about light passing through the windows. No, I think of it as light striking the surfaces of architecture" {6}. She begins every one of these important "conversations" with her choice of stone, usually either fantasy-cut rutilated crystal or tourmalinated quartz. "When I look for the stones, I'm already designing in my mind, so there are many that I reject" {7}. Once the focal stone is chosen, she begins her process of integrating the stone, the silver, the gold, and other materials into a harmony of texture and light. The magnificent result is evident in the understated elegance of Counter Point, whose focal crystal draws the eye with several "ghost images" {8}, unique inclusions which give the appearance of 3-D holograms within the stone. Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery welcomes visitors between now and October 22 for an up close and personal look at Eleanor Moty's work. For more information, we invite you to visit their website.

Notes

1. Clowes, Jody. Metalsmiths and Mentors: Fred Fenster and Eleanor Moty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, WI: Chazen Museum of Art, 2006, p. 56.
2. Ibid., p. 56.
3. Ibid., p. 17.
4. Clowes, p. 56.
5. Brown, Glenn R. "Eleanor Moty: A Master Metalsmith," Ornament Magazine, Issue 36.3. http://www.ornamentmagazine.com/features_36_3_eleanor_moty.php.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Shaykett, Jessica. "Eleanor Moty: Essential Elements," American Craft Magazine, January 31, 2011. http://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/eleanor-moty-essential-elements.