Raining at Rosehill

“Raining at Rosehill” Series Artist Statement

The melancholy of old cemeteries, with their graceful timeworn statuary, their ponds, weeping willows and vines slowly overtaking grief cannot be compared with the grim efficiency of those of our age. I imagined Ivy, a lovely young girl of 1915, long amber hair and a flowing skirt, at the confluence of youthful idealism and the certain knowledge that humans will always wage wars.

My parents’ photo albums contained many intriguing photos of young girls I would never know. One day, as I visited Chicago photographer David Schachman ‘s exhibit, I saw one such face, a statue of a young girl with her arms extended, both hopeful and hobbled by stillness. She looked like my father’s sister, who died young in a Russian forest. She looked like all the children we love, and for her, and the others, I started sketching jewelry to reflect their grace and the light in their eyes.

Just like photos in an album, many pieces in this series are held within oval frames. I love to use moonstones for the light they shed, a sheen that needs a particular angle to be seen, and I love opals for the scenes they contain. Blue is very much a color of my series, sapphires, kyanite and tanzanites, contrasting with the tang of a soft bronze green, chrysoberyl and peridot and the ripeness of burnt orange garnets. Each of the pieces in “Raining at Rosehill” asks the viewer to consider its many elements carefully before basking in its revelation.

– Eve J. Alfillé