Susan and Jeff Wise: An Exhibition of Modern Jewelry

Art Jewelry Forum (http://www.artjewelryforum.org)
Susan and Jeff Wise: An Exhibition of
Modern Jewelry
Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2014-11-29
Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA Olivia Shih
Susan and Jeff Wise collaborate not only as man
and wife, but to make jewelry together. The
couple is known for cutting their own sculptural
gemstones and integrating them into bold
designs—their work has been collected by the
Smithsonian American Art Museum and the
Museum of Art and Design in New York. On the
occasion of their show, An Exhibition of Modern
Jewelry, at Patina Gallery, I had the chance to
ask them a few questions.
Olivia Shih: This is your first gallery exhibition in
two years. Did you take a hiatus from gallery
exhibitions, or does it take this long to prepare
for a show? Why exhibit now?
Susan and Jeff Wise: We show in galleries on a regular basis, but this is an unusually
large collection for us, and it’s especially exciting to have it featured in a gallery as
beautifully curated as Patina. We have a very long history with Santa Fe—in Jeff’s
case, going back to his teens in the 60s, when the family would take road trips
from their home in Denver in a 1948 Chrysler Town & Country Woodie. In those
days, there were lots of highly skilled Navajo and Pueblo silversmiths selling their
work under the portico of the governor’s palace, where Jeff bought turquoise
heishi beads.
We currently are able to produce around 60 pieces a year, and we’ll have around
80 pieces at Patina, so this show represents a significant amount of bench time.
Many of the pieces had been put aside as our own retrospective collection, and
we don’t normally show them or offer them for sale—but together, Allison and Ivan
(Patina’s owners) can be most persuasive. Anything for art. The idea for this show
started when Allison came up to Durango and stayed with us while she judged
awards for a show at the Durango Art Center, which Susan and I had done the
initial jurying for.
Why have you chosen jewelry
as your form of expression?
Susan and Jeff Wise: Jeff
started making jewelry in junior
high school. Loved beads and
roach clips, actually, which he
sold through the Denver
Folklore Center gift shop. There
was also an excellent
college-level jewelry program
at his high school taught by
Carolyn Roth. He was also
greatly influenced by Thomas
Gentille’s book, Step by Step
Jewelry. After we’d been
married about five years,
Susan was itching to get in the
studio and start making some
bijoux.
Susan, you’ve learned many metalsmithing techniques from your husband—could
you elaborate on your experience as both student and collaborator?
Susan Wise: Jeff is an excellent teacher, but it was definitely challenging to be his
student and spouse at the same time. Our jewelry work is quite technical, and the
learning curve was pretty steep, so patience from both of us was very important.
Our aesthetics are similar, so we work through the design process as a team, but I
really hate it when I melt something or can’t work out an engineering problem.
Thank God Jeff makes plenty of mistakes too. We’re both always learning from
each other. I tend to have a simpler aesthetic so I often function as the idea
editor, and Jeff is a whiz at solving technical issues.
Jeff, please tell us about your education
as a stonecutter. What is it about stone
cutting that has kept you interested for
so many years?
Jeff Wise: I started the stone cutting
early on because very nice quality
rough turquoise was plentiful,
affordable, and easy to cut and polish
with basic equipment. As my
confidence and aesthetics developed
away from Native American style
jewelry, I developed a real fascination
with agates and other minerals. The
fact that very few metalsmiths cut their
own stones allowed us to create our
own unique style, and we’re able to
make the stones an important and integral part of our art.
Your work often couples well-orchestrated compositions with bold graphic
elements—do you consider yourselves to be designers, or artists?
Susan and Jeff Wise: In our understanding of “designer” and “artist,” we would say
that we’re both. Some of our work embraces the concept of fashion with
interesting colors and forms, but we wouldn’t call it art. The marketplace (making
a living) is certainly a consideration for this kind of work. With other pieces, we
intend to create art. These pieces pose questions about relationships amid
disparate materials, historical timelines, and forms that create visual metaphors.
We don’t even think about the “saleability" of these pieces, but we’ve certainly
developed a following for our artwork.
Have you seen, heard, or read anything of interest lately that you could
recommend?
Susan and Jeff Wise: Susan, who considers herself to be an introvert, is currently
reading Quiet, by Susan Cain, which is subtitled The Power of Introverts in a World
That Can’t Stop Talking. Jeff just finished The Emerald Mile, an amazing book by
Kevin Fedarko. It’s an account of a speed run through the flooding Grand Canyon
in a wooden dory. We’ve done a lot of boating in both dories and rafts through
the Grand Canyon and many other western rivers.
We both really enjoyed The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, in which magic
becomes reality.
Thank you.
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Source: http://www.artjewelryforum.org/ajf-blog/olivia-shih/susan-and-jeffwise-an-exhibition-of-modern-jewelry