“As far as how I would describe my style, I would say colorful, eclectic. I like to up-cycle things.
The medium that people in the Goshen community know me for is jewelry. I’m a jewelry maker. I do, though, dabble in a bunch of other mediums; I like acrylic and watercolor. Jewelry was something I found a little bit later in life. It wasn’t something I was doing a whole lot. I took a jewelry course with Kristi Glick when I was at Goshen College, which was so much fun and kind of introduced me to that medium. It was how I sort of fell in love with that form of functional art. But then I kind of put that to the side and I was doing more painting and stuff again.
I got really sick, post-college. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and I needed something to kind of keep me sane or to be using my hands. I kind of fell back into that jewelry-making zone.
I’m really proud of just continuing to create. I think as an artist you can kind of get in those spaces where you’re just not really connecting with what you’re creating, or feeling as creative. I think pushing through those periods can really enhance yourself as an artist, even if you’re not seeing it at the time. When I was battling cancer, I was just pushing through and leaning on creativity and leaning on art to be a piece of that story. What came from that was this jewelry business.
My business is Daze of Purple. My cancer ribbon was purple, so I kind of named it after that. So many different connections have formed from that. I’ve become more connected to the arts community here in Goshen. Now these girls and I with the Goshen Jewelry Collective…so much fun! I’m loving being able to bounce ideas off these women and to connect with these women whom I didn’t really otherwise know, and just make some friendships and grow in that way. I’m maybe most proud of continuing to create and forming a little business here with my jewelry.
It’s not like I even found Goshen – Goshen found me. There are just so many opportunities. You’ve got Arts on the Millrace and just different little pop-up sales downtown. These women reached out to me – ‘Oh, there’s another jewelry artist! Let’s touch base with her.’ Goshen does such a great job of supporting local art and encouraging local art, showing up for local artists. I just kind of fell into that community. That’s definitely a piece that made me stick around. I was like, ‘Where am I going to find anything else like this where people are so involved in this small, tight-knit community, and they love art?’”
