Master Metalsmith-Lynda Watson - Memphis, USA - Until 29-1-2023

[dognose]

The Metal Museum
374 Metal Museum Drive
Memphis, TN 38106



MASTER METALSMITH - LYNDA WATSON - LOOKING BACK​

Until 29th January 2023

Lynda Watson, a native of Orange, California, knew she was destined to be an artist when she began making jewelry out of vacuum cleaner parts in a friend’s garage. Her official foray into the art world began with an AA in Commercial Art from Orange Coast College (Costa Mesa, CA) followed by a period of time spent working for the Buzza Cardozo greeting card company. Watson went on to attend California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach, CA), where she completed some undergraduate work in Drawing and Illustration before receiving a BA in General Crafts and Jewelry and MA and MFA in Jewelry/Metals. ​

Watson has lectured and run workshops at colleges, universities, and art schools throughout the country, as well as led tours to Mexico for metalsmiths. She was involved with Summervail Art Workshop (Vail, CO) and has served in various leadership roles for the Yuma Art Symposium (Yuma, AZ). Additionally, she has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowships and, in 1998, was selected as Santa Cruz County’s Artist of the Year.

Watson retired from teaching in 1995 but used retirement as an opportunity to travel and accelerate her production of work. She also became and continues to be highly active in the Santa Cruz art community.

Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Art and Design (New York, NY), as well as in many private collections. She has appeared in numerous publications, including Objects: USA (1969); Oppi Untracht’s Metal Techniques for Craftsmen (1968) and Jewelry Concepts and Technology (1982); American Craft; Ornament; Metalsmith magazine; Metalsmith Exhibition in Print; the Museum of Art and Design’s Crafting Modernism (2011); and In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture (2020).

Watson’s work, whether jewelry, drawing, or mixed media, is about her life. It remembers good times, bad times, extensive travel, adventures, friendships, family, and celebrations. Visual images from these times are attached to places in her memory, and characteristics of those places suggest the composition, determine the imagery, and dictate the surfaces that become the components of her work. Mental pictures, quick sketches, and occasional photographs provide saved images. From Burma and Turkey to her own back yard, life happens in places. ​

The composite of Watson’s work forms a visual diary. It tells a story in a rough chronological order with some “life happens” gaps along the way. It continues to recall, document, relive, explore, and savor memorable times from the many places where she has spent her time. She hopes that viewing these pieces prompts memories from observers as well. Everyone has visual memories that can evoke valued responses.

“The work I do, regardless of media, is mostly about places and what I find in them. Travel, adventures, encounters, celebrations, family gatherings, friendships, and relationships are all associated with places and provide and inform the visual information that drives my work.”
- Lynda Watson

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm -Closed Mondays.

Admission: $8

https://www.metalmuseum.org/master-meta ... nda-watson