Carolyn Morris Bach
“I believe that jewelry risks losing its identity when it is perceived narrowly as only an image or a visual object (abandoning its long tradition for adorning wrists, necks, earlobes, fingers, ankles, etc.) to serve as photographic software in magazine reproduction or as cultural artifact in the museum display case.”
Considered one of the best jewelers in today’s wearable art world, Carolyn Morris Bach studied jewelry and blacksmithing at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her studio is surrounded by pastures and forests impacted directly by the cycles of seasons which connect her to the natural environment and its visual expression in figurative imagery.
Her work is developed along themes which are keyed to visual metaphors – often found in older iconographies – representing the powers of sun, moon, wind, rain, stones, plants, and a selection of animal’s residents that determine the rural, non-industrial landscape.
At her workbench, she maintains an intimate dialogue with her stones and metals, often using unique combinations of precious materials juxtaposed with found treasures that she collected during her walks, creating a balance between antiquity and modernity.
Bach’s work is widely collected both in America and abroad and recognized by several organizations with awards of merit from: Smithsonian Institute, American Craft Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Women’s Committee) and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.