Maja Soric Artist Statement

My jewelry invites exploration.  As a jewelry sculptor, I design unique wearable art pieces that explore material, movement, texture, lines, and shapes. The jewelry interacts with the wearer’s body and can be worn in diverse ways to express emotions and events. My body of work is a rare exploration of this vital characteristic.

Jewelry design emerged after decades as a painter. Many years in Egypt and the Middle East became the catalyst for shifting from painting on flat surfaces to devising distinctive ways to create three-dimensional body art that honored nature and diverse materials. In the beginning, I was mesmerized by the Middle East’s long history of jewelry and the richness in which they constructed ways to adorn humans. Inspired first by crystal stones found in my environment, I moved towards playing with metals to find ways to create lightness and movement with a lavish touch – reflecting the ancient’s willingness to integrate adornment into the human form.

When I returned to Europe, I faced the necessity to adapt to its more modest aesthetics in dressing and jewelry. I had to find less expensive materials and focus on simplicity, composition, and movement.

Movement is a core essential in all life. When I surrender to movement and allow my fingers and hands to embody it as I create, I feel the blissful intensity of the current in this life force. I want my creations to resonate with human history. I want my designs to feel as timeless as the eloquent cave drawings of our ancient ancestors.

My designs fill a gap that few jewelry artists are addressing. I follow my extreme curiosity to explore materials and forms in refreshing and lyrical ways. I want my pieces to invite the wearer to celebrate and probe their personality traits while simultaneously feeling the universal connections of life itself. My collection is vast in size and form – it represents over 20 years of exploration and many decades of witnessing life in all its mysteries.

I design for humans – not just one gender or another. It is the diversity of human form that my pieces wish to celebrate. Jewelry can become a trademark of the wearer’s persona and inner life. Whether my jewelry is worn in designer fashion shows or on a city street, its essence is the lifeblood within all things.

All artists must honor those that came before them by pushing the limits of expectations. Alexander Calder’s work awoke our fascination with shape and movement, and Claire Falkenstein explored industrial materials by creating each jewelry piece uniquely with her own hands. The rings, brooches, bracelets, and necklaces Falkenstein fashioned were not sketches for her sculpture but small wearable works of art. Like Falkenstein, I do not believe jewelry is an accessory. Nor do I think it should be merely about the marketplace, fashion trends, or status. Instead, it is the evolving ideas of space, line, surface, materials, color, and movement. Jewelry must look to the future.

I also bow to my great painting teachers and friends who honored experimentation. I hope that my innovations will awaken the inner artist in each of us and find its time and place in the splendid history of adornment.

Maja Soric