I personally consider that there is nothing that compares to finding new challenges that makes one feel alive; a new source of inspiration, a benchmark that may be so far away of what you think you are capable of, something that will make you dream, and the challenge is to make this dream become a reality.
Late 2017 was the year I discovered an artist exhibition that blew my mind from concept to execution. “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable” by Damien Hirst, a collection that took him almost 10 years in the making with hundreds of objects all supposedly lost in a legendary shipwreck two thousand years ago and now raised from the Indian Ocean.

In essence, he made a concept that allowed him to create the most incredible art objects and treasures inspired in different cultures and times with total freedom. The piece that captivated me was the Severed Head of Medusa hand carved in malachite. Being a gemstone carving artist it was something that I never thought could exist viewing it in person- from the complexity involved to even create and carve such an idea.

Thus began a starting point of a new project for me, something that became a 2 year obsession (my own version of Medusa) and that was just accomplished in February 2020.

I am particularly fascinated by things and events that fill us with either dread or desire; the Medusa is the perfect representation of a character that incorporates the ambivalent forces of attraction and repulsion that are at the heart of the dangerously seductive and petrifying lure referred to as ‘fascination’. Connection between beauty and horror, archetypal femme fatale: a conflation of femininity, erotic desire, violence, and death. Beauty, like monstrosity, enthralls, a female beauty considered to be both enchanting and dangerous, or even fatal; a reminder that death is an inescapable aspect of life.
From a technical point of view in gem carving, this is probably the most complex project I worked in my life, even though it’s carved from only BC Jade, the greatest challenge was to envision a new and different modern version of Medusa, a dangerous beauty that will make you feel an adrenaline rush when you see it.

BC Jade, Gold Vermeil and Agate Base

Dimensions: 60 x 50 x 55 cm