On November 5th the Austin College Art department, in collaboration with the Art History department, opened a new art exhibit in the Ida Green Gallery featuring Austin College alumni: Martina Nobel and Amy Veatch. After their time here at AC, both women became jewelers, who collaborated and created this new exhibit, Subliminal Surprises. Open through the end of the semester, this exhibit features stories and snapshots told through repurposed objects.
Each piece features a piece of jewelry made by Nobel and Veatch and displayed surrounded by various other objects. In the background of each of the pieces is wallpaper that was taken from a house in Denison that Nobel bought and was remodeling. Although this was a collaboration project between Nobel and Veatch, each artist had her own way of creating her art and developed each piece on their own. The only time they would consult each other was when they needed advice on the building process. Until they came to put the exhibit together they did not know how their art would fit together.
When I asked Martina Nobel about her creative process, she said she talked about making the jewelry first. When making the jewelry, she found various objects that she thought would look neat as a piece of jewelry. She then did the same thing for her art pieces, she would find different things that she thought would go in her art and they would then join the jewelry pieces. Her favorite piece is called “She Walked Away”. Nobel described it as an “autobiographical piece.” It was the last piece she made for this exhibit and the most difficult for her to create.
Amy Veatch’s process was similar in some ways but different in others. For her, she named most of her pieces after song titles that came to her as she was creating the piece. She said that a lot of her inspiration came from friends who would give her an object to turn into jewelry. Veatch described her pieces as a snapshot in time. Her favorite piece is titled “You Don’t Own Me.” She said that most of the objects in that piece were from her or Nobel’s life.
Subliminal Surprises is a wonderful, creative exhibit that provides a unique glimpse into the artists’ lives. This exhibit will be open through the end of the semester and I encourage you to check it out!
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