Q from Sarah Turner: So I was wondering if you could address for a little bit, the power that you have in that role? And your ability to have that sort of power, to give feedback to artists and influence their work in that way.

Brigitte: I think for everybody that it’s important to show integrity, and that when you give feedback to really be totally honest with that person.  I don’t feel like you do anyone service if you sugarcoat things, not that you have to be rude, but to speak as though this person was a really really good friend of yours and you have the best intentions.  That’s how I would view it.  And yes, there’s some incredible power in it, but I’m not afraid to speak my mind and help in that way.

Lola: I had a few professors that I would say had some very strong agendas.  It’s kind of like after I graduated from school that I had to take some time to remasticate that and see where I really stood with all of it.  In the end what’s most important to me is that I am a facilitator and that I help that person to become the best artist they can become.

Sienna: I do try to take that responsibility seriously.  But I actually agree with Lola.  Part of what I do is to be a conduit between the artists and the rest of the world.  My job is to make it look good to everyone else, to sell it and to help facilitate an artist to continue in their work.  When you first started talking I was think ‘sometimes when I hate what I do and I just want to stop, I think about my responsibilities to my artists’.  Whatever it is, it’s not so much power, but responsibility between people and to be honest.

When I found out that people didn’t think I was nice and I was trying so hard, I thought ‘screw it!’.

Lola: I have a similar experience.  I’ve heard from my students that they think I’m a hard-ass.  And I don’t think I’m that way, but I do have really high standards.  My students largely seem to appreciate it.  I don’t care about their excuses.  The work has got to be on the table and if it’s not, we can’t have a conversation about it.  I scare the shit out of them, and then they perform.

Q from Sarah Turner: I wondered if the three of you could talk a bit about critical attention and financial success and how you view them?

Sienna: It’s easy for me, because my job is to sell it.  I’m successful if I do the thing I’m supposed to do, and that’s to sell the work.  It’s how I choose to sell it.  If I wanted to make a lot of money, I’d do something else.

Lola: It’s interesting for me because I’ve really diversified myself.  And that keeps me interested and engaged.  I don’t view my art and my life as a separate thing.  So basically money for me and the financial success I’ve achieved I view as a tool, as a way to make the work that I want to get critical success with. 

Q from Sarah Turner: Could you three give recommendations or instances in which you’ve worked with artists in living up to the expectations you have.  When you talk about high standards, what are those?

Brigitte: As a goldsmith, I like well-crafted work.  I like work that is well crafted and that’s really my goal.  I don’t honestly care if you went to this great school and have an MFA.  None of that matters to me.  The only thing that is critical is the work that is out there, and whether it is well made.

Lola: I think for me, especially with regards to my students, I want a continued engagement.  I want my students after they go out in the world to continue to be thirsty, to keep asking questions and to stay in contact with me.  Frankly, I can’t keep track of them all myself, so if they’re not maintaining their connection with me, I can’t really pass along information to them.  Being able to see them and have some visibility is, to me, really important.

Sienna: That’s a big question for me.  I know one of the things I want to see when I’m looking at work or talking to artists, I want to see that your idea goes through the whole group of work.  I assume it has to be well made.  I want to see that you’re a thinking body, that you’re looking at your work and that you’re thinking about it conceptually. 

Q from the audience: Having been involved in this field for a long time, the question that you asked about critical attention and success: I was wondering if I could ask the panelists to describe a bit more about that, as I don’t think that this field has been particularly interested in that critical dialog.  Where is it that you might look for that if you were trying to find it?

Sienna: Well the Art Jewelry forum will be publishing a book about that shortly.  I think it should be pretty interesting.  I’m hoping it’s not all agreeable, as I think having different opinions is really valuable.  You’d be amazed how we criticize within our own field, without having a real critical dialog.  I would like to take the work that’s happening in this field and compare it or bring it to other fields. 

Sarah: I think is not so much where I look, but an opportunity that I see in the realm of critical dialog.  … I feel like I’m in a position, in part because I  , I can start to see people that would be great voices in that area.  I do think that a lot of those players move in and out of that network.  Pay attention to who they’re bringing and how they might be engaged. 

Sienna: I have paid writers an arm and a leg to writers who have experience outside of the field .  It is really hard to find people to write about jewelry who aren’t in it.  Instead of inviting artists to come and talk about their work, invite scientists to talk about their work and where it’s headed.

Lola: Inevitably when you put together something like that (Exhibition in Print), you’re going to piss people off.  We can invite all of these people in to observe and to put this out there, but if no one in the field is willing to have this conversation amongst ourselves, how are we ever going to get it out there?

Q from the audience: I have a question about the idea of passivity… what’s your take on the idea of passivity and how you can fight it?  (being passive in the way that you approach your whole idea of being an artist)

Sienna:  You know, the hunger thing!  If you want it, go get it.  As my grandma says ‘shit or get off the pot’

Brigitte: There are certainly different artist personalities.  When you put your work out there, you are marketing yourself with everything you do and everything you say.  Just be true to yourself and if you are more of a quiet person and don’t want to be out there, then don’t.  But unfortunately, you do have to kind of market yourself.  And do it consistently.

Sienna: Not all artists I know are like Lola and as outspoken and assertive as she is.  At a certain point in maturity, you have to know that if you don’t ask for something, you’re not going to get it.  If your work is really good, it doesn’t matter.

Brigitte: If I see something I really like, I’m going to bring it to the forefront.