10-18-09 Artist Post

I do believe I have stumbled upon this artist several semesters ago, but I have found her website once again. It interests me in several new ways particularly that a lot of her work is jewelry. I am currently taking a beginner jewelry class this semester and I'm planning on taking surface design next semester. Her name is Julia DeVille.

http://www.discemori.com/

Also a taxidermist, much of her jewelry incorporates animal parts. I would describe her work as steampunk taxidermy/Victorian goth jewelry. Quite interesting.


Fascinated by death at an early age, she enrolled in an Advanced Diploma in Gold and Silversmithing at NMIT in 2003 where she knew jewelry was the perfect medium to express her mortal concerns and views of death. Jewelry has always played in important roll in the adornment of the dead. They have been found in tombs and resurfaced graves throughout the world! Certain cultures and peoples (pirates for instance) wore jewelry so that after they died the jewelry could provide gold for an acceptable burial.

Julia's quote concerning death is absolutely what concerns me and my art.

"Death is a taboo subject. We're so obsessed with looking young [and] finding ways to prolong life. We need to remember that every day is important. Life is important. I want to inspire people to contemplate their own mortality in a positive way. I'm not a morbid person, but I'm not afraid of acknowledging that I'm mortal."

She says her jewelry is inspired by "the Memento Morie jewelry of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries of Victorian Mourning jewelry." She is interested in the acceptance of death of these periods.

It is strange to think death was more readily accepted those days than today. Today medicine and technology prolong life. Everything is ANTIDEATH. People live longer than they used to and science is constantly pushing the limit. Our culture is so concerned with the future and is literally run by time. Our connection and interaction with the natural world and its order is fading. This transition has increased rapidly with more recent inventions of cameras, advancements in TV and movies, the internet, medicine, and instant communication. Communion with nature is far and few in between though I think one natural question lingers in the back of everyone's mind. Death?

WOW... I think I may have just written part of my artist statement in that last paragraph. It's so relieving I almost feel like crying! Take a look at Julia's other work: