Opening Reception: First Thursday, May 5th 6-8pm
May brings fresh, fine new jewelry by micro-mosaicist and metal-smith Courtney Lipson (Non-Indigenous/Adopted Tlingit). Tidepools, denizens of the shore, and the little jeweled creatures that live in those safe cracks in the rocks are the artist’s inspiration for this year’s exhibit, and she’s rendering nudibranchs, sea stars, octopuses, and urchins in her signature micro-mosaic. Long-time collectors will remember the past series that Lipson has done with tidepools and sea creatures, but she revisiting the theme with new eyes and a more abstracted feel.
Nudibranchs are the focus of the collection, allowing us a glimpse into the unbelievable variety, colors and kinds that this species has to offer. Nudibranchs are soft-bodied molluscs, and they live at almost any depth of the water column, but the most eye-popping coloration occurs in warm, shallow reefs and tide-lines. Lipson’s creations are a mix of her own imagination, and those from reference photos. The wilder the colors, the more genuine it’s likely to be. Lipson has gone one step further, interviewing each little nudibranch as it takes form in her studio, and finding out their names and personalities.