Shape

Alexander Calder famously said that he “paints with shapes.”

 

The Museum of Modern Art describes his work as “an experiment in space and motion, upending centuries-old notions that sculpture should be static, grounded, and dense by making artworks that often move freely and interact with their surroundings.” He worked in wire, wood, and paper, as well as other mediums to create jewelry, mobiles in motion, and huge abstract sculptures. 

 

So, imagine a sculpture made of tiny shapes and colors and textures that moves as you move and interacts with your surroundings … art to wear. The shapes are defined and refined out of various metals and ceramics. It all sounds quite like serious art, doesn’t it?

 

Eastport Gallery member artist Kelle Bates-Erikson differs. She says that her wearable art is “for the woman who doesn’t take herself seriously.” Her beautiful earrings are wrought from hand-formed aluminum, brass, copper, tin, silver and clay with a variety of surface treatments. She says her process “tends to be experimental in many ways especially, in the area of patinas on metal. My jewelry has been called fun, quirky, whimsical, and sometimes profound. If that is so, I have been successful.”