Lecture3, Mary Curtis

Mary Curtis is a jeweler and also a collector. She fascinates in collecting things such as Christmas decorations, things that have holes in it and the small objects that we overlook or not see. Curtis spent lots of time in collecting things. For example, she used all most 5 to 6 years to collect the things have holes. She likes to look at a large group of the same objects (such as her collections) and find the difference between those objects because she thinks the collection itself tells a story. Mary often look at earlier period work like the Victorian and Elizabethan era’s in England when she wants to develop new concepts and forms to explore in her jewelry making and she also responds to the things she saw. Mary is much a visual person. She puts the imagery into her visual diary to help her develop the ideas and she will take a photo of her working table at the end of a day.

I think looking at the earlier period as a source of visual information is a useful strategy. The artists in the past years made their work by looking at the past art works and incorporating them into their ideas or concepts to become their new work. That is one of the ways to develop ideas.

This approach of developing ideas reminds me of my work in high school. Every time I start my new project, I will look at some past art works from some artists or other people’s work. I will search from books or in internet or magazines. I also will look at the things around me. I think this approach is really useful for me as a student. It helps me to explore the ideas and develop concepts.