art nouveau
I LOVE Art Nouveau, I love the shapes, the craftsmanship, the romanticism. One of my favorite artists is Gustav Klimt, I am sure you recognize his very famous painting, The Kiss.
I love this painting, I love the feeling it portrays and all the texture and color and how even though there is sort of a lot going on with the patterns these two people are still in their own little world and that is what you see past all the craziness- just the kiss.
Louis Comfort Tiffany was also a super famous Art Nouveau artist, he worked mainly in stained glass and the decorative arts and of course jewelry. Louis was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, who started Tiffany & Co.
The Tree of Life designed by Tiffany Studios- often replicated as are the Tiffany lamps...
In case you are not sure what Art Nouveau really is it directly translated to "new art" and is a style of art, architecture and applied art that was popular from about 1890-1905. Art Nouveau is characterized by organic shapes, very highly stylized, flowing forms, you will see lots of plants and floral themes as well as patterning and curvilinear shapes. This was one of the last art movements where craftsmanship was paramount, industrialization soon overtook the world and craftsmanship was set aside. I think that is part of why I love Art Nouveau I relate to the the importance of craftsmanship and the time it takes to insure it (Craftsmanship is such an important part of jewelry making). I am also highly emotional and I think Art Nouveau does a beautiful job of conveying emotion.
Anyway, I got on this whole subject of Art Nouveau because I ordered this book from Amazon, got it in the mail yesterday and am totaly disappointed. I thought this would be a great source of inspiration for my designs, um no. It is just not a great representation of the really beautifull designs. I am sure I will find something I like that is inspirational but I was expecting to be overwhelmed with inspiration. Not so much.:( So long story short, don't order this book, you can just have mine.