"Desert Necklace" by Zia Gipson

Cactus skeleton, rubber cord, ceramic bead, wire, etc. 36" x 0.5", 2 oz. 2021. Who doesn't love the carapace shell left from dessicated cacti? I certainly do. In the Covid years I began traveling between my home on an island in Puget Sound to Tucson and Phoenix where I make a vigil into the desert to meet up with Saguaro and other species of cactus. The specimen in the necklace didn't come from the desert but from an antique store. Someone else must have appreciated the natural Y shape. The necklace is 36 long and the cactus ornament falls mid chest on a typical woman. It doesn't have a clasp but is meant to be put on over the head.

Free Range Art

I enjoy making a variety of aesthetic objects, from wall pieces to jewelry to multi-part installations. I use art to tell stories about threats to nature, to freedom, to culture, or to loved ones. Sometimes I work abstractly just playing with color, pattern, and texture.

I enjoy the challenge of new, divergent methods, materials and subject matter. I work intuitively following each new idea to its logical, or not, conclusion. I’m not overly wedded to consistency except in quality and craftmanship. My first love is fine paper, usually handmade in small batches from Japan or Korea. Other materials might include anything from previously made drawings or screen prints cut into small pieces, yarns and threads of all variety, or pages from a Japanese vintage book. Currently on my desk are hundreds of colored papers of every variety, multiple colors of waxed linen thread, and many, many mark making tools: brushes, pens, pencils, knitting needles, sewing needles, and the like.

I love the challenge of changing scales from an inch and a half to six feet. I relish the frisson of learning a new technique where I can be just a bit off balance finding the freshness of becoming a beginner, again. I am an artist/explorer/adventurer/experimenter/inventor/and creator. I listen to my muse and if she says draw, paint, fold, sculpt, sew, wax, extrude, attach, adhere, reuse, or rip it up, I do what she says. She’s almost always right.

See more of the artist’s work at ziagipson.com.