June Schwarcz, Living Treasure of California

Last Sunday my wife and I had the unforgettable experience of being the lucky ones to pick enamelist and metalsmith June Schwarcz up from her home in the hills of Sausalito (just over the Golden Gate Bridge from SF) on the way to her lecture for MAG. She invited us in while she had a quick snack, and encouraged us to look around her amazing home filled with international art, where she has been living since 1954.


To be in the presence of someone who has been honored by the Smithsonian, the ACC, and myriad others, and to have them let you come on in and look around, is one thing. To have that person be still making work, and in my humble opinion, some of the best of their life, in their nineties, is incredibly inspiring.


She sometimes starts with paper mock-ups (hooray, paper mock-ups!!), and gives structure to her forms by sewing together copper wire mesh (100 threads/inch) or several different thicknesses of copper foil. She then works adding layers with electroforming (copper), and enamelling, and plating (iron, silver, gold, and others).


She spoke in her lecture of making pieces that someone wants to look at over and over again, and wondered if conceptual art today doesn't often lack this character. Here is a shot of a small part of her studio (I was too shy to take photos in her home, and luckily for all of us, there is a link below of some really yummy images of her home and art collection).



Here are some links to images of her incredibly loose and layered work, followed by links to interviews and a wonderful photo tour of her home.
work at Velvet da Vinci gallery
interview with the Smithsonian Archives of American Art (great images way down in text)
incredible photo tour of her home by Catherine Bailey of Heath Ceramics (another California craft institution)