Crazy. And your work mixes “high and low.” I’m thinking specifically of your bejeweled cockroach inspired by a fashion gala. It mixes that “high/low” and humor with elegance. Can you describe what you’re thinking when you mix those elements together?
I mean, I’m a natural hoarder. I love collecting objects. I’m constantly collecting objects as I’m in the street, even trash. There’s many times that I’ve found just a shiny can. So cool. It has a beautiful shine that I didn’t even polish. I have one that was sold to a craft museum in Los Angeles. It was auctioned. It was just a shiny can and I made it into a broach. I made the whole sterling silver backing. For me, everything could be jewelry. So my eyes are already looking for how objects can be converted into something or how I can give them a chance or give them another life.
I think of it more as an exercise. I feel like I’m so ADD, I need to be making things. Sometimes it’s not a specific project, but just a thought I have and I run to the studio, make it, and then you have it there. So for the cockroach thing, I saw it in photos from the gala, went to sleep, and then in the morning was like, Oh my God, I need to go get a fake cockroach that moves. And I went and bought one and just had it as an object. And then I was like, Oh, I’m going to make it into a T-shirt. So that same day, I sent them to print and made T-shirts. I don’t think about it too much. It’s very organic and spontaneous, putting stuff out there without thinking about who might buy it. I’ll just let it exist and you never know where it might end.
I’m also doing some teaching and I’m trying to apply this to the kids to try and practice and not to think too much and just go straight to it. So that’s me being playful. It’s like my playful time and I’m like, Oh, let me do this. I’m not like, Oh, it has to be so perfect. It just is what it is, but sometimes it ends up in a really interesting place.
There was another can that I found outside my studio. It was a tomato can and I converted it into a purse. And this Brazilian artist, I forgot her name, but she’s really big and she needed jewelry for a red carpet thing. I sent her the tomato can with dry tomato still inside it. I have that kind of humor. Once you have that power, it’s like, Why not push it?
The teaching part is interesting. Because creative people can get caught up in perfectionism, but it’s better to make something and not get hung up on making it perfect. Get it done and then you never know.
Right. For me it’s like, Let the work leave you. I have a saying. I always say, Work makes work. Like if I’m stuck. Or if you’re trying to find an explanation for your work, it’s still coming from your hand. At the end, it’s going to have whatever you’re trying to say. You just need to have your hands in it. Once you’re there, everything will just organically be. So when I’m stuck, I’m just going to get to it and I’m going to let the work lead the way.
Or when I get invited to universities to speak to students, I do challenges of 15 minutes. I give you what you have to make, like the idea, and you have 15 minutes to make it. And you’ll be surprised what things people make with 15 minutes. I also have to work under pressure a lot when it comes to fashion stuff. When it comes to custom work for editorials or music videos, the turnaround is two days or so. I have to think really quickly what I’m doing and what I’m presenting. So it’s almost an extension of that work into the teaching and it’s been really cool to see.
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