I always have admired the minds of artists—the way they can see things that us non-artists can’t. After speaking with Dana Douglas, Bill Wiard and Annie Schilling, I admire artists all the more.
I admire the way Dana, with her highly technical and analytical mind, can break down those jewelry boxes and, just like an engineer, solve problems (fix this, adjust that), add an artistic flair and put them all back together again.
Bill has an utter passion for the patterns, colors and history of the stones in which he so lovingly turns into those stunning nuggets of joy that remind us all of where we have been.
And Annie has an innate ability to see past the wear, past the singular focus of an object, and see it as something else entirely.
It’s brilliant.
I am enamored with the process in which these artists create; the way ideas come into their minds as the tiniest synapse and then, by whatever magical force that is, begin to grow and take on a life of their own.
I love to think about how their personalities, their back-stories and their experiences have shaped those ideas into their art because, as it has been stated by those much more eloquent than I, art does not happen in a vacuum.
It is an amalgam of those above-mentioned elements, added with a touch of luck, a bit of gravitas, hard work and, yes, depending on what you believe, faith or magic.
So, brava to the wonderful minds of artists!
Read our profiles on these three artists in our May issue starting May 1 at edinamag.com. Until then...
See their work and do some shopping on Etsy:
