CAROLYN MORRIS BACH lives on a remote seventy acres in the woodlands of Southern Rhode Island. Her studio is surrounded by pastures and forests and impacted directly by the cycles of seasons which connect her to the natural environment and its visual expression in figurative imagery.

For 25 years, her work has developed along themes which are keyed to visual metaphors – often found in older iconographies – representing the powers of sun, moon, wind, rain, stones, plants and a selection of animals residents that determine the rural, non-industrial landscape.

“I feel strongly that jewelry depends on function and intimacy, and succeeds when it serves to adorn the human body. I believe that jewelry risks losing its identity when it is perceived narrowly as only an image or a visual object (abandoning its long tradition for adorning wrists, necks, earlobes, fingers, ankles, etc.) to serve as photographic software in magazine reproduction or as cultural artifact in the museum display case.”

At her workbench, she maintains an intimate dialogue with her stones and metals. In the journey from her inspirations, through their transformations at the forge, her work is not really complete until it reaches the wearer.