Diane Marshall

I am a self-taught art jeweler incoporatingmixed metal fabrication, found objects, antique photos and text to create pieces that are philosophical explorations. By nature a scanvenger and recycler, I’m drawn to rusty bits of metal seen on a walk, jars of old buttons at a garage sale, antique keys, dice or photos at a flea market. The objects I find seem infused to me with meaning, through their own history, use and place in the culture of our recent past. In this resonance, I find a design vocabulary; lenses might suggest closer examination, ruler segments to discuss personal measurement or public evaluation, antique photos suggest our shared histories and humanity, keys and locks symbols of our defenses and locked away secret places. Joined together with stamped text, the oevert messages discuss the common themes of life and living. As I design and fabricate the pieces, they become the synthesis of my life experiences, thoughts and searching, meant to be shared meditations with others.

The value of my work is not in the objects or the brass, copper and silver which ties them together, but in the shared and recognized commonality of out lives.