Andrea Ortiz
she/her
Binghamton, NY, USA
Andrea has brought her innate passion for formal exploration, the use of alternative materials, and love for her roots into jewelry. She shares her philosophy through organic, whimsical pieces that convey her cultural perspective.
“Ortiz's definition of jewelry is influenced by her cultural background and legacy. She uses jewelry as a powerful cultural link to communicate and bond with the audience. For Ortiz, jewelry expresses our souls, our feelings, our thoughts. It encapsulates our intangible beings with our finite bodies.
Her experiential jewelry allows the senses to enter a realm beyond materiality and sparkle our days with awe. The dual tangible-intangible connection is conveyed through the jewelry craft. Ortiz's jewelry aims to connect body and spirit, an alignment essential to life.”
What does being queer mean to you in relation to your material choices? Is it something you consider?
“Material is deeply rooted in the concept I explore within my pieces. When exploring human connections I believe that hands are an impactful symbol due to the actions we perform with them. Touching, caressing, and holding, among others are actions that are common to human behavior, regardless of gender. For me, rings belong to hands, and rings absorb whatever our hands have touched or done. Rings collect a layer of visible and invisible traces of our actions. The rings we wear may receive scratches from the graze with sharp objects, or they may get impregnated with fragrances from whatever we cook. They have signs of our memories."
Is the work queer because the maker is queer, or is it queer because the subject matter is queer?
“The work is a collection of individuals. The work can be seen as a whole or through the lens of singular perspectives. Each ring belonged to someone, and their unique path and journey were added to the bowl as if they were a piece from a puzzle. The work is singular and unique because it is made from individual stories without labeling them. Human experiences come together and gather to nurture each other, to serve as support for each other, to create something beyond themselves but impossible to stand up if one is missing. We all have a story, it impacts and is impacted by other stories. The difference and peculiarity of each ring are what make the work relevant.”
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“The piece called Offering Community speaks to the intangible and many times underestimated role that each person plays in the bigger picture of our society. The work was possible to make thanks to the donation of the rings from the community I lived and interacted with during a specific moment in my life. Each ring has a story to tell, personal rings belong to hands from different people, and all of them are somehow tied to each other. I am thankful for their help, support, and for believing in me.”
"Offering Community", Copper, mixed metals, donated rings, 4.3" x 4.7" x 4.3", 2023