REVIEW CAROLYN MORRIS BACH
Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, NM • August 13- September 12, 2004
"Come in," she said 'I'll give you shelter from the storm," runs the lyric of a Bob Dylan song. Something of that air of intimacy and generosity animates Carolyn Morris Bach's Jewelry. Partly it is the companionableness of her pieces. The tiny animals carved of ivory, fossil bone or ebony that abound on her brooches, necklaces, earrings and pendants look like friendly visitors. An ivory rabbit, a favorite figure, gambols above a brooch of rutilated quartz, suspended in an angular fram of handwrought gold wires resembling twined twigs. In several pieces, foxes, deer, fish and owls pose evocatively.
Bach's refined compositions have a certain extravagance, especially in her use of gleaming gemstones that she mixes with other materials. Her works in this show, titled "Peace of the Wild," exude the confidence of an artist in full command and willing to take a more exuberant tack with ideas and structures she has previously explored.
A signature motif, a moon-shaped or elongated face of ivory, is still present by wears an expression that is half-smiling, enigmatic. Often it is superimposed on a body, like a ritual mask. It takes on a druidical allusiveness in a lavish necklace composed of 14 carved ivory moon-faces connected by a structure of gold wires, edgy and tensile. Each face sorts janunty cat ears and has a moonstone droplet set beneath. The ivory, shot through with charcoal-like striations, imparts a subtle strength to the faces, as if, like silent sentinels, they stand guard encircling the wearer.
In an intricate brooch, a tiny ivory moon-face peers out, nestled in the inner curve of a silver-gray ammonite, whose near metallic sheen contrasts with the warm tones of the ivory. A similar face, with either cat or rabbit ears or reindeer horns of bone or stone, reappears in several long, doll-like brooches and pendants, each a segmented gold armauture with two leg-like ivory or ebony protrusions. An animal-a fox, a coyote, or an owl- keeps company with the "doll," perched inside the gold frame or on its head. The juxtaposition hints at a story. Such totem-like pieces seem to allude to the art of older cultures and to the power of ancient beliefs about nature.
These works testify to Carolyn Morris Bach's superlative skills as an artist and a metalsmith. Made of 18k and 22k gold, fine silver and copper, each piece is thoughtfully articulated and constructed, incorporating wrapped hinges to let it move with the wearer. The metal framework always stands aloof from the main body of a a piece, inserting an interval of open space. Bach achieves a spare, poetic beauty that offsets the richness of her materials and simultaneously bars any sentimentality from the narrative and metaphorical meanings. Once again, she invites us to share her delight at the wonders of the living world.
- LESLIE CLARK
