I'm struggling to figure out how to approach this next collection. It’s all about The Aeneid which is a book that not many people are familiar with, nor have they read so I’m trying to find a way of presenting something that is relatively unknown. How do you attract people to a story that they haven’t even heard about? What imagery can I use from the book that can still appeal to the people who won’t know or who might never ever read it?
The deeper I get into the research, I can’t tell if I’m about to overcomplicate my designs or if I’ll get so deep in the research that it’ll become harder for me to approach this simply. My intention is to give people a basic knowledge of the story and then to use quotes from the book that inspired the design and in a sense pass on the story to the wearer. I had this idea of playing with the concept of turning the wearers into narrators and they’d be a part of this greater whole. They’d carry, or wear, bits and pieces of the story and be a part of a collective of narrators who could tell ‘their’ story, or the design that was inspired by the stories from The Aeneid.
I also can’t tell if The Aeneid would actually interest people. I get an unbelievable amount of joy nerding out on history and digging into those little details that make a good piece of literature so special in my eyes. But like, am I the only one?
There’s an aspect of my jewelry where I’m aware that it’s what makes it unique, my research and interpretation of what I read, but this is definitely a collection where I have to ask myself a lot of questions. I’m confused as to where to draw boundaries and how to make this readable and visually appealing and how to communicate the ideas floating in my head into wearable earrings. It’s hard to simplify a concept sometimes and bring it to life. Sometimes it’s easier to create work inspired by other artworks, but to do something inspired by a piece of literature takes more careful planning and execution. You don’t want to bore people to tears with your silly little history details, but then you have to find those specific details that will make it a special piece of jewelry.
Does this happen to anyone else?
Stay well,
Caitlin
P.S. Happy New Year!