Why Wings?

True-true.

I made my first pair of wings 12 years ago!

I was living in Brooklyn, New York at the time and my son was 2 years old.

As a jewelry artist, I wanted to speak in my designs about the heart and from the heart but I always struggled with the fact that the jewelry industry is flooded with meaningless countless heart representations with endless arrangements of gems pretending that bling is all that can be said about this magnificent part of our being!

I couldn't bring myself to add yet another heart to this list that would end up being only seen for its outer shell.

How to break through the surface of a well established classic that given its central place in the human condition hasn't pass deeper than the beautiful but superficial aspect of only romantic love?

What about the big love that connects all of us to each other and to our own core self?

Back in those days, I spent long hours taking my little young son to the many playgrounds around Prospect Park, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. He was a big fan of sandboxes and I watched him play for hours and hours as I sat at the edge of the box or on a nearby bench and pondered about art, gems, design and the purpose and mysteries of life.

Here sitting at the edge of one of these sandboxes I sketched my first wing while I was watching my son play carefree as only a toddler can. I saw him absolutely immersed in his state of undoubted joy, without resistance to who he was, and I felt so much happiness for him! Here I saw how wings open when the heart is allowed to run free and how real freedom comes not from the temporary suspension of rules and regulations or a cease of the external conditions that pull us astray in so many directions but comes only and only from knowing who we are in our hearts. Once we find it, that freedom that only comes from following our hearts can not be taken away from us... ever. We may get distracted for a little while but we will always come back to our hearts.

I had found my voice in this matter and I've never expected that it would become such a central aspect of my work as I grew personally and I walked my path as an artist.

It is my sincere desire to everyone that you find yourself and that you open your heart to the tip of your wings!

                                                        First sketch 2008