I’ve talked before about the benefits of blogging for artisans and Jewellery maker Jenny Vorwaller who runs the excellent blog True Nature has agreed to do a small interview with me. Jenny’s blog is a very entertaining read. She’s a very fluent writer and describes with great eloquence and enthusiasm her daily experiences in Montevideo in Uruguay. She moved there last year from the U.S. with her family, basically out of impulse and has some wonderful photo impressions and anecdotes of her experiences there to date. I asked her a number of questions:
You are quite a creative person and able to work confidently in a number of mediums. What do you attribute this to?
Well first of all, thank you for that very big compliment! I suppose that the ability to work in various mediums is something that occurs naturally because once you have a creative mindset, then one medium reciprocates another, even outside ofthe applied arts. I find this happens with many other artistic people Iknow. They find decorating comes easy to them after working out acomposition in a painting, because the same rules of design and color apply, it just fits in a different realm. That’s truly one of the most intoxicating things about being an artist, that ability to problem solve in any event. And since life presents opportunities to take one idea and move into another level constantly, (what most people call problems) there’s always room to practice innovative living.
Your art is very much based on memories and heritage in general. You also say that you moved from the East coast of the America to Montevideo a ‘city with faded elegance’. This begs the question,perhaps, “are you unsettled by modernity”? What motivates you to focus so much on the past.
Well there is no place that I would rather be than the present! I feel very blessed to live in a time where we have so much freedom and ability to express ourselves and I feel that I owe those conveniences to many people who made great sacrifices,who maybe aren’t remembered as much as we could credit them.
That being said, my last collection was based on heritage, but I go through different phases of influences, where ever my research takes me. Reading and travel help me to find groundwork for expression and at the moment, I’m feeling particularly drawn to a the era of the past.
You describe your spontaneous move to South America with great elequence. It seems very romantic and adventurous? How does your reality compare with what you had hoped for?
I suppose I am living in a very romantic reality! Looking back to before I took such a leap of faith to move here, I’ll admit that my vision of life here was only based on what I had read and seen of the place. A vast surround of beaches,architecture that reflected the economic history of the city, a new culture and language, a different life altogether. The remarkable realization is that five months into this experience, that vision is still accurate! It’s very thrilling to say, “life is what you makeit.”
I am very much interested in blogging as a medium for promoting artisans and would like to know how much blogging has helped you in your work? Do you feel it has broadened your audience significantly? Are there other benefits to it?
Well, I began blogging for more personal reasons, those first weekly installments provided a way to sort myself out and immensely helped me to gauge my artistic motivation. Of course, this didn’t last long since blogging is such a unique form of communication, it’s a medium in and of itself that begs interaction. Someone once said that bogging without the the option to comment isn’t really blogging. I would agree with that! As I continued to share my life online, I soon found that people were reading what I was saying and it worked the other way too. I have found wonderful relationships that act as a huge part of inspiration, friendship and community. I’ve been blogging for almost four years now, and I can’t really see my creative process without such a immediate form of communication.
Do you have any stories to tell about connections made as a result of your blog?
Yes! I’ve been able to meet other bloggers in person, meeting up to share paintings and face to face interaction, shoot photographs and get to know each other. One development that springs to mind right away is a jewelry collaboration I’m in the midst of with one of my favorite designers, Abigail Percy. We both go weak in the knees for nature and architecture, so it’s been a seamless process of swapping ideas and coming up with a piece that speaks to both of us is something to cherish. There are others in the works with artists that I will eventually reveal on my blog soon. Most of the time, I have a preference to work solo, but blending two styles and finding that your work can collide with another’s is so symbiotic, like playing music together.
If you were an artist with limited funding and thinking about investing in a website or a blog, which would you go for first?
Well, I love it when friends or family start up their own blogs, I’m crazy about reading them and I feel there is a more personal touch to them than a website since you have the option to update whenever you fancy. So I would say, go there first. The most inspirational bloggers out there have had whole books and exhibits come to reality from the summation of their archives. Social writing has helped me to focus my strengths, reflect on what works, see what people most respond to, and understand what I enjoy expressing the most.
Many thanks to Jenny for her thoughtful replies. Make sure to check out her excellent new collection of jewellery at Queenthings
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