Amelia Toelke

Flourish depicts improbable objects and joyful vignettes. The work merges the material world with natural phenomena while evoking ephemeral experience. Gold chains freeze time, twisting into patterns and stylized into stems and vines. Gemstones shine as leaves and petals while abstracted flowers blossom into extravagant pendants.

Jewelry is a profound part of being human. As our personal signage, jewelry slips between private and public space, performing complex social functions. It communicates who we are and who we want to be. By taking jewelry off of the body and onto the page, Flourish explores the unique relationship between identity, culture, and ornament. When rendered graphically in gold leaf and gouache, chain, stone, and charms are jewelry and symbol simultaneously. The compositions both substitute and transcend the form and function of language, leaving fleeting echoes of exuberance and sentimentality. The physicality of gold leaf, and the time-consuming process of gilding, imbues a tactility to the work. As these pieces catch the light at different angles they radiate with the history of adornment, the magnificence of imagination, and the impression of the artist’s hand.