It's OK if you don't know what you're doing: Erica Bello
In the 19th episode of Perceived Value host Sarah Rachel Brown sits down with the queen of small-scale fabrication, Erica Bello. This past April, Erica welcomed Sarah into her work/live space in Baltimore, MD. The two women discussed Erica's honest approach to sharing her successes and failures on social media, what it's like not being able to afford your own work, and how scary it can be when you overwork your body.
Influenced by icons of value and strength, my work communicates an interest in the reduction of powerful imagery. Forms rise from reoccurring motifs in architecture and jewelry and recede to minimal vacant structures. Through the use of traditional fabrication techniques, minimal forms are crafted as intersecting planes or with exposed interiors. The hollowness and skeletal nature of these objects are amplified through the use of monochromatic industrial finishes.
My collection of revival pieces began in 2017. With a focus on roman intaglios and the illusion jewelry of the early 1900's with the hope of creating a new space for these antiquated forms. Pursuing traditional metalsmithing techniques as well as contemporary practices has allowed my work to evolve into an amalgamation of the familiar and unknown.
Erica Bello studied metals/jewelry design at the Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Crafts where she received her BFA. In 2014 Bello won the Halstead Grant for emerging artists and in 2017 she was chosen to speak at the 46th annual Society of North American Goldsmiths conference as an Early Career Artist. In addition to working as a studio jeweler Erica Bello holds a position as studio manager at the Baltimore Jewelry Center and teaches classes on metalsmithing and jewelry design. Erica currently resides in Baltimore, MD and works out of her studio located in the Station North arts district.
Instagram: @ericabellojewelry
http://penland.org/workshops/metals/ " Hollow Forms and Fabricated Vessels"
http://www.arrowmont.org/workshops-classes/workshops/ "From 2D to 3D - Hollow Forms and Fabricated Vessels"
