Meld / Suffuse: MFA Thesis - Metal

Abstract

My work started with a basic curiosity about non-ferrous metals. Why is silver whitish, why is copper pink-y, and why are there so many shades of gold? I was always drawn to gold for its range of colors. As an artist, trained as a painter for most of my life - in comparison to the five years I have been a practicing metalsmith, I always felt that the color palate of gold would lend itself to painting beautifully. I am not alone in this attitude. The ancient Egyptians experimented greatly with the color palette of gold. So great was their enchantment with the coloration possibilities that of, "The sixteen Akkadian terms for gold include nine refer[ed] to colour or shade" (Lindsay 214). Once I became a more invested metalsmith, I began to wonder - if gold could come in such varied shades, why wasn't that also true for silver and copper? This is the origin of my preoccupation with alloys.