The concept of creating a series of jewels or sculpture as a single art installation is a defining feature of the work of Daniel Brush, seen to perfection in "Thinking About Monet". As an artist, Brush had always been intrigued by the color used by French Impressionist painters, and particularly by Monet’s palette of light-infused hues of muted pinks, cerulean blues and cadmium yellows. As ever Brush needed to investigate and research this in depth, and he and Olivia traveled to Europe, taking several trips focused primarily on understanding this very specific use of color.
[Video] Daniel Brush, Thinking About Monet
Inspired by the scientific principle of the diffraction grating, Brush began to hand-engrave a series of miniature jewel-sculptures with a multitude of lines, so fine and engraved at such minutely specific angles that they too broke the light, so that what is refracted back to the viewer’s eye are colors.
"Much like a ceramicist opening a raku kiln after hours of baking, and then seeing the colors and glazes for the first time. I know how to engrave and understand that angles will affect the result, but at the start I cannot tell if the sculpture I’m working on will emit a blue or red or purple light. It is always a surprise."
This conversation between Silla, Olivia Brush and Vivienne Becker will reveal Daniel Brush's fascination with Japan and the part it played in inspiring and shaping his homage to Monet’s art.
With Vivienne Becker, Jewelry Historian, Journalist and Author of 29 books on the history of jewelry design and contemporary jewelry
& Olivia Brush, Artist and Daniel Brush’s partner in life and in work
& Silla Brush, son of the artist,
& Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Decorative Arts and Jewelry Specialist, Lecturer at L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts